Flightlight
2019
CMF design
3D modelling
Rendering
Prototyping
Design for manufacture
Photography
Client communication
While their parents are away, children count down the days and hours until their return. The Westjet FlightLight is a night light that keeps them connected in real time, turning the magic of a projection onto the bedroom ceiling into a live window on a travelling parent’s journey home.
The FlightLight had to do a lot (project, track, light, connect). The challenge was making all of it disappear into a single object that felt effortless to use and charming to look at.
A toy, a lamp and a connected projector
The base, designed to resemble aircraft wings, glows peacefully next to the child while they sleep, projecting a starry sky onto the child’s bedroom ceiling. It uses live flight data to track travelling parents as they journey home to their children.
Keeping children and travelling parents connected
A removable torch, designed to look like the fuselage of the plane, enables active play by projecting the outline of a plane onto a series of playful scenarios. Through a mobile app, parents can send messages directly to the light, to be projected onto their child’s ceiling at the push of a button.
Technology that feels like magic
With so many layers of interaction, the execution had to be simple and restrained. The FlightLight is rooted in the material warmth of a high-end toy: gender-neutral in colour, soft in form, and quietly poetic in character. An object that feels at home in any child’s bedroom.
Crafting a full experience
Functional test units were produced for a pilot batch, assembled by hand, part by part, to validate the full stack of interactions before committing to mass production. Mass production was planned but never realised; what remains is a fully resolved concept, proven at the prototype stage.
Developed at Frolic studio
Client: WestJet
Collaborator: Rethink Canada