The quality of a diamond is determined based on its ability to refract light. Brillliant Cut combines two ideas: the diamond as an icon of nonfunctional decoration, and the most utilitarian lighting object, the lamp guard. The lamp guard, a simple metal cage meant to protect a light bulb in hazardous environments while not obstructing any light, and other similar objects of uber-utility, continually get neglected and unconsidered from an aesthetic standpoint. This lamp finds a heightened sense of luxury through referential form alone; the same materials and processes that are used in traditional lamp guards are the same in this revision. Each half of the lamp comprise one bent metal rod, about four feet long. Each half is identical and connected by two screws.

In nearly all mass produced objects, the final outcome is divorced from its origin, from the process of production. Brilliant Cut's functional reference to the lamp guard and visual reference to the diamond also go to connect the final refined form of an elegantly cut diamond with its own process of production: diamonds are mined, lamp guards are used in mines.