Danish product designer Marie Hesseldahl has created a lamp with a built-in clamp that allows it to be attached to other furniture pieces.

The Snap light features a circular shade that rests on a two-pronged hinge. When squeezed together, the clamp opens and allows the light to be clipped to bookshelves or other objects.

"The installation of lighting is often the last thing you do when you set up your interior," said Hesseldahl, who created the light while studying industrial design at Design School Kolding in Denmark.

"I intended to create a lamp which, like furniture and other interior elements, can easily be moved around to change the setting, the mood or the environment if wanted."

The lamp is made from a wood fibre and plastic composite, with steel. This allowed the clamp section of the light to be moulded as a single piece.

Hesseldahl was also able to incorporate the wiring into the form of the light so it extends unobtrusively out of the back of the clamp.

According to the designer, the Snap lamp can fit onto any surface that's eight to 40 millimetres thick. It includes a rotating shade that can be used to direct the light wherever needed most. A dimmer function also allows its intensity to be adjusted.

"Since many other clamp lamps have an industrial, technical and in some sense more 'cold' appearance, I aimed to create a character that was more human friendly, and thereby hopefully a shape that could be found intuitively attractive and appealing," said Hesseldahl.

"As a result of various form experiments, Snap got some (in my opinion) almost human references like the shoulders, the head, neck as well as two hind legs."

The design is currently still at prototype stage, although Hesseldahl said she is hoping to put it into production in the future.

Swedish studio Andreas Martin-Löf Architects also designed a lamp that included a clamp base composed of a single piece of bent brass, and French designer Inga Sempé created a small clip light for Wästberg that could stand unassisted or be fixed to a wall.

Clamps also feature as adjustable legs in bookcases created by German designer Reinhard Dienes.