Eureka Moment: Flyte

The Light Bulb that Hovers by Magnetic Levitation and is Powered Through the Air

‘The idea of levitation goes back to our dreams,’ explained Swedish designer Simon Morris. ‘One of the most common dreams we have is of flying. And it’s basically a desire to break free from the constraints of gravity.’

Combining magnetic technology with Nikola Tesla’s wireless power technology, Simon and his team have created FLYTE, the floating light bulb that has been turning heads around the Internet and the world. The ‘screwless’ light bulb can remain floating and rotating in the air endlessly.

This is not Simon’s first time playing with magic; he has previously made several things levitate, such as shoes, headphones and speakers, for brands like Nike and Urban Ears. Simon is currently raising funds for Flyte through a Kickstarter campaign, but it doesn’t take Einstein with a light bulb above his head to work out this product is going to be a sell out success!

We caught up with Simon Morris to find out more:

The Plus: How long did it take you to develop Flyte, from when you initially had the idea, and what was that process like?
Simon Morris: It wasn’t like all of a sudden I had this eureka moment. I had been working a lot with conduction, which is wireless power, and working a lot with levitation. I started experimenting with different kinds of light. I thought it would be really fun to play with this symbol of an idea, a floating light bulb. There was a lot of testing, a lot of prototyping, and a lot of failing. I would say I started building on the initial idea about two years ago.

TP: At $442,385 (time of writing), you have massively surpassed your initial Kickstarter funding goal of $80,000. Why do you think people have taken to this product so strongly?
SM: We had no idea what to expect when we first sat down with the Flyte team. We went over all the possible scenarios and one of the biggest ones was what if this project fails? We have to consider that as an option. Within the first 48 hours when we got funded, we really had no idea that we’d get funded that fast, so it’s still a shock to us. We’re really excited. It appeals to people because it’s a simple idea, and we try to really strip it down to the essential idea.

TP: Would you say sustainability is something quite important to you?
SM: Yes absolutely. We wanted to avoid a ‘gadgety’ product. We wanted to focus on the craft and design, using sustainable materials. It’s a really important aspect for a lot of designers today.
We went for sustainable wood. We also went for an energy efficient LED, instead of a filament bulb. It doesn’t consume much power and we’re excited about that.

TP: What are your future plans for Flyte?
SM: We want to continue to do more projects like this, not just a light bulb. With the funding we are going to have more products and make it more appealing to people.

Support the Kickstarter campaign here.