Ome Smart Doorbell, Branding
In 2015 myself and my partner John Nussey, started our own smart home company, as a side project to our consultancy business ONN Studio. We set out to create smart home products that were simple and intuitive to use, worked with the interior and exterior of your home and weren’t overly technical to use or look at. Our first product was our smart doorbell, initially branded ‘Ding’. We chose the name because it was intuitive to the product’s use and simplicity. By collaborating with Common Works, we created an approachable and familiar brand, taking inspiration from companies like Lapka and Vifa, who similarly take a soft approach to tech.
We built a relatable brand using simply styled photography, using texture, props and hands to indicate use and where the products should live.
Later our strategy changed. We rebranded to cater for a more commercial market and to broaden the scope of the company to launch future smart home products. This time we collaborated with Bibliotheque to create the new identity ‘Ome’. We chose the word Ome as it pulled together three key values of the company: the importance of creating products for the home that involved tech; ohm, a unit of measurement to measure electrical resistance; and ohme, a yoga and meditation reference, that represented the creation of convenience and calm in users’ lives. This strong brand was designed to stand out from competitive mass market products.
The new branding needed to be implemented throughout all elements of the product, including the packaging design. In collaboration with Burgopak, I designed packaging constructed from 100% recyclable materials. The packaging played an important role in how users installed and understood the product. By intuitive placement of products at different staggered heights within the packaging, the design guides users through installation, alongside the step by step app setup.
We also wanted the packaging to stand out from our competition. A current trend within smart home products is to display the product on the packaging sleeve clearly against a white background. We chose to be bold with colour and stand out, whilst maintaining a clean aesthetic to guide the purchaser through what the product does.