Lume is a family of lamps designed for Blue Bottle Coffee to elevate the coffee-drinking experience. Lume gives people a relaxing mood, sitting quietly beside that cup of coffee. It includes both indoor and outdoor lamps, and they share the exact same lighting unit.
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.
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?
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.
Inspired by the coffee drippers, Lume contains the iconic upside-down cone shape to represent the form of coffee brewing tools
Lume was seperated into two using scenarios: in store and home, and I want to elevate the coffee-drinking experience through both the form and the experience.
How does Lume charge when the power is used up? Magnet induction charging is a smart method.
I used the main lighting unit from an existing lamp and soldered the induction charging coil. I rearranged them on FDM 3D printed parts to build fully functional lamps.
To even make them more real, I dissected the existing packages from Blue Bottle Coffee and designed the packages for both Lume Outdoor and Lume Home.
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.
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.
In order to illustrate the using experience of Lume family even better, I designed a brand new Blue Bottle Coffee shop located at the Platform in Culver City, California.
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Design a space within the Platform in Culver City, California for people to experience the collision between culture and food.
The target goals are engaging people's sensory in both flavor and culture, connecting diverse surrounding community, and amplifying the brand's core value.
Blue Bottle Coffee was founded by W. James Freeman in early 2000s in Oakland, CA.
There was no coffee shop selling a bag of coffee beans with roasted date at the back, so James want to sell his version of the perfect cup of coffee to like-minded coffee lovers.
Blue Bottle Coffee is considered one of the major player in third wave coffee movement, which people focus on the high quality of the beans. It is often associated with the concept of “specialty coffee”.
They are the engineers who go to work everyday from 9am to 5pm in Culver City, California. Most of their ages are around 25 to 35, and their annual income is around $130,000 for either software or hardware engineer.
There are several reasons why young engineers in Culver City love coffee:
Coffee helps them stay awake: young people who work at Culver City usually get up early and transport to their office sites around 9am. It is important for them to take in some caffeine in order to keep alert. Caffeine can be absorbed quickly by our bodies and block sleep-promoting receptors in our brain, lasting for almost 6 hours.
Coffee stores as an oasis: software and hardware engineers often have high pressure work and suffer from every day lives. Going to coffee stores seems to be a better way of relaxing among this industrialized city. Young people can feel safe and comfort.
Coffee helps in socializing: usually people go to coffee shop for relaxing, but they can also meet some new friends and explore something new.
There are two kinds of meaning behind the term “Oasis”.
Using green plants to create a space within the industrial city.
Using the concept of coffee shop to isolate an island from intense work.
The main element in the Blue Bottle Coffee store is the several giant plant walls with frosted glass/acrylic to create a feeling.
There are several places where people can touch the plants, helping them feel the real nature and get rid of any stress.
The brand-new Blue Bottle Coffee Store in the Platform, Culver City, California plays an important role: the oasis.
Whether is the oasis within the industrialized city, or the oasis from intense work, people can always find their relaxtion when visiting the store.
Lume family provides both in store and home experience for Blue Bottle Coffee, not only helping customers to enjoy the coffee experience in the store, but also provide solutions to bring that feeling home.
The brand new blue bottle coffee store provides a refreshing coffee experience for people in Culver City. It serves as both the oasis within the city and the oasis besides intense work.
