Loftie Clock
2019
byloftie.com

Loftie is an NYC startup focused on sleep health. Loftie approached me to create a concept for their debut product and reimagine the wake-up experience. 

This 3 month project spanned design research, design strategy, industrial design, engineering architecture and interaction design. I led in-home design research conversations to understand how people think about sleep and waking up. Synthesis of this research shaped my design strategy, which included principles to guide the industrial design and to guide the incorporation of sound, light, and information design. A primary element of the design strategy was to create an end-to-end wake up experience that felt fundamentally soft. This was achieved by softening everything from the form, to materials and finish, to the way in which data and time is displayed. 

My early prototyping in the studio and in the bedroom focused on the use of sound and information design. This prototyping led to the concept of keeping both information and sound soft, then sharpening when needed. In the final production design, portions of this exploration appeared as a two stage alarm, first gently transitioning you from deep sleep, then notifying you that it really is time to get going.

The nightlight element of the final design was a result of early prototypes using e-paper as a display. The primary challenge of a concept like this was how to softly illuminate the e-paper in the very early morning. With a small form factor, it was nearly impossible to incorporate a large diffuser to produce the soft light I desired. I found through prototyping that bouncing light from the nightstand itself would produce the soft light I was after. Although this e-paper concept was not pursued, the light bouncing technique remained, making its way into the final design. 

Loftie successfully launched in 2020.

Design Development