Evie
Evie is an award winning, rechargeable electronic tealight created for glassybaby to illuminate their unique handmade votives with the color, behavior, and brightness of a real candle so they can be enjoyed anywhere.
Glassybaby inspires hope
Glassybaby was founded in 2001 in Seattle by Lee Rhodes, a lung cancer survivor and philanthropist. Since the beginning, Lee has been focused on giving back, building community and spreading hope so that people like her can survive through their darkest times.
Their mission is simple; create hand-made objects of beauty and strive to inspire hope and nurture community along the way. Glassybaby needed a solution to bring healing light to places where people need it most but where open flames are unsafe such as hospitals, nursing homes and special care facilities.
We can do better
Dissatisfied with how low quality, electronic tealights both discolor and detract from the beauty of the votives, glassybaby approached Product Creation Studio with a task to design and engineer an ultrarealistic electronic tealight in both color and behavior that elevates the beauty of their handmade votives and fits seamlessly with their brand.
Discovery
Positioning and Creative Direction
In this phase we dive deep into the existing market, establish creative direction and learn as much as we can through experimentation and observation. The end result gives us a foundation from which to inform our design direction and a clear understanding of the engineering feasibility.
Before we attempt to design a product, we establish a common understanding with the client by developing a creative brief that acts as our North Star throughout the project. We deep dive into the company’s mission and brand identity to find words and images that set the stage for where we think their future product will live.
Surveying over 70 of glassybaby’s top customers, what we discovered is the glassybaby votive is a versatile product that can be tailor fit to almost any environment due to its timeless shape and vast array of colors and textures. Bohemian boutiques and mid century modern living spaces alike, glassybaby’s handmade yet precise formation seamlessly finds a home wherever it lands. The images help us convey this story to the client, and informs them that the product we will be designing needs to have a similar ubiquitous presence.
Blue sky concepts
After auditing the competitive landscape, we knew that in order to stand out, we needed to invent a new way to create motion with light. My team and I sketched out a many novel approaches to bringing life to a static light, many of which were the foundation of our following experiments with refraction and custom LED arrays.
Anatomy of a flame
To learn how to mimic a flame, we collectively spent hours filming and observing candle light in various states and began to separate out key elements that are essential for realism. We created a common language around the parts of the candle light when coupled with a glassybaby votive which helped immensely with communicating our findings and further exploration with the client.
Our common language to help us describe findings and intent
experimenting with refraction and shaping the light
Our first attempt at manipulating light
Mapping common behaviors of candle like
Concept Development
Mood boards
With our method of delivering realistic flame characteristics developed, it’s time to package the technology with a design fitting of glassybaby’s aesthetic and brand language. To start defining our direction, we dive into mood boards that we believe embody their existing brand language and get buy off from the client.
Sketching and quick modeling
While the nuances of the form were still to be determined, we established with the client the top down profile would be circular as a baseline requirement to visually nest in the glassybaby and be radially symmetric so it’s always facing the right way no matter how it’s placed. With this constraint, we begin to paint broad strokes of the overall form.
Proof of concept
We drove to three variations for a mid project proof of concept check in, all of which have complementing curvature to the glassybaby profile and a friendly exterior similar to a smooth river stone. We were testing for handling the overall volume, obscuring the light with fogged, machined acrylic and testing multiple filaments prior to assembly and delivery to the client. The prototypes were tethered to a power supply box with the ability to control brightness and behavior.
Path to Production
Refinement
After a successful unveiling the the working prototype, we marched forwards to production and began fine tuning the form, CMF and most importantly, the lifelike flame behavior. Complimenting the curvature of the the glassybaby votives, we ensured the forms were both compatible and appropriately sized to reach our power, brightness and usability goals.
Eleven LED's create the magic of evie. One LED will always be the brightest and when it moves around and across the circle its refraction through the filament is amplified. The result is a "flame" that appears to naturally pulse, waver and bounce.
The breadboard allowed us to adjust eight separate variables to lock in custom code for specific behaviors. The variables include things like speed, distance variability, weighting and brightness.
To assist in encoding these behaviors our engineers rigged the LED array up to a joystick which enabled the design team to physically manipulate the illuminated LEDs. This helped turn abstract coding into an interactive medium that could be used to physically demonstrate a desired light behavior and digitally capture the data in real-time.
Wireframe to map out the functionality of using a single button
Crucial accessories
With the pieces in place, I designed a complementing charging station and remote that leveraged the design language of the tealights. Our primary focus was ensuring charging would never be a burden on the user. The result was an omnidirectional magnetic base that doubles as a display platform.
Buttoning up the product
With the design and engineering complete, we helped our client choose a contract manufacturer and worked with them to complete tooling and assembly. I meticulously inspected all the first article parts and dialed in the CMF in preparation for production.
Final Results
Evie’s patented LED array and unique optical lenses combine to produce the authentic character, color temperature, and brilliance of a candle while maintaining an elegant compact form and near twenty-hour battery life. Whether in a votive or as a standalone ambient light, Evie brings its users the unmistakable glow and comfort of a candle anywhere, both safely and conveniently.
Epilogue
Upon release, evie tealights were instantly popular among glassybaby enthusiasts and have since sold over 15,000 units. Evie has been honored with mentions in DeZeen, an IDA Silver and as a featured finalist in IDEA 2020.
