A family of lamps to elevate the coffee-drinking experience.
Lume family includes two lamps.
Lume Outdoor is mainly designed for outdoor usage within the coffee store.
Lume Home is a collectible sold online for people to bring that coffee experience home.
They both share the same lighting unit, meaning that they are unified and interchangeable.
Inspired by coffee sharing pitcher, Lume Outdoor has a large open space below, showing only the tip of the Lume Unit. It has a natural curve on the silhouette, and the significant radius on the cutout makes it looks soft and gentle.
The material it uses is PLA bioplastic, which fits the idea of sustainability from Blue Bottle Coffee. This type of material makes it suitable for commercial use such as coffee stores and public spaces.
When Lume Outdoor turns on near sunset, it shows a beautiful contrast between the illuminated inner surface and dimmed outer surface. Because of the PLA material, it acts perfectly as a light diffuser that creates a soft gradient light fall.
Lume Outdoor is super lightweight that people can easily grab it wherever they want within the Blue Bottle Coffee Store: whether is in-store upper floor or outdoor patio area.
When people enjoy the Blue Bottle Store experience, they might also want to bring this feeling with them: home, office, or even a gift.
Lume Home uses light-frosted glass as the diffuser and a polished bronze base to create a premium lamp product.
Lume Home is sold online at Blue Bottle Coffee website for people to purchase. Lume Home is collectible to bring the coffee experience home.
Lume Home creates an even softer light quality. The lamp is bright enough to act as a light source when making your own Blue Bottle Coffee at home. It is also dim enough to build a harmonious space for people to enjoy that cup of coffee.
The dripping effect of the light unit has been maximized on Lume Home which people can see the complete silhouette, helping them calm and relax.
As mentioned before, Lume Outdoor and Lume Home share the same lighting unit,
so let's take it off.
Inspired by the pour-over coffee dripper, Lume Unit adopts the same shape, reminding people of the fantastic coffee moment. It has wavy patterns on the surface to create interesting light and shadow.
Lume Unit can be used on both Lume Outdoor and Lume Home, which serves as the light source.
It uses magnetic induction charging technology, and a fully-charged unit can support up to 16 hours of illumination.
With a simple touch on top, Lume Unit will turn on and off.
Too bright or too dark? Just long press the top to adjust the brightness without effort.
Installing Lume Unit onto two lamps is also simple: put the unit on top and simply turn the unit a little bit, the three small locking feet will go into the channels on the lamps. Relax, it won't come off by itself.
Design
Considering most customers will have fewer Lume Units than stores do, the home charging pad can power Lume Unit and your phone at the same time. It also maintains a premium style with a polished bronze base.
Design
Baristas at Blue Bottle Coffee stores can charge multiple Lume Units on a single induction charging pad. The magnetic ring inside will align the Lume Unit to the correct charging spot.
Brief
How might lighting for sensory immersion transform people’s experience - by touching their emotions, memories, and mindset; or by helping around, focusing, and energizing them?
How might lighting integrate with the rituals of coffee, from waking up in the morning; to heading on the go; to indoor/outdoor illumination in coffee shops that connect to local culture + place?
Opportunity
Blue Bottle Coffee focus on not only the freshness of the beans but also the quality of their products.
After sunset: Most Blue Bottle Coffee stores have rare or no outdoor lighting for customers to use, so it is nice to have serving lamps along with cups of coffee.
Collectibles: People want to bring that lovely in-store experience home, so having a collectible lamp that incorporates coffee-drinking experience is a great opportunity.
Sketch
Trying out different types of forms to fit both the coffee store environment and home brewing experience.
Mock-ups
Transferring sketches to hand-held objects and exploring the light quality and also new materials: coffee ground.
Mock-ups
The lighting unit has wall patterns on it, just like a pour over dripper, guiding both the water flow and the light flow.
Hardware
Induction charging ring, magnets for docking, spring switch, and COB LEDs on board.
Prototypes
Final presentation day at ArtCenter. Blue Bottle products on the left, and Lume family on the right. I also made packages for the Lume family, and they fit the brand perfectly.
I made three functional prototypes in total, using both FDM and SLA prints as the lamp bodies. I also made two induction chargers that work great to charge these three lamps.
