Lift: The Reveal

Hello readers, welcome back to our design process blog. As you may know, we’ve been working hard on designing and refining a wall hook that can hold anything you can imagine, from your bike to your Swiffer. So far, we’ve identified the needs of our product and gone through several iterations of the design. Last week, we gave you the material reveal: the hook will be made out of wood, metal and leather. But how do these materials meet our design goal? Today we’ll lift the veil on our flagship design, beginning with the name: Lift. Lift is a versatile minimal wall hook that helps you organize your busy life. It is meant to compliment your space, by adding a touch of elegance and simplicity. It is made of a maple wood hangar, a powder-coated steel arm, and a CNC birch plywood plate that secures to the wall. After a long development process, with a tight focus on the details, we’re excited to finally walk you through how Lift can change your space.

The Hanger

A place to hang things: it’s a simple need. To accomplish this need in the most elegant way, we chose a simple piece to get the job done: a wooden dowel. We like this best because it’s a modular component that can be changed out and customized if needed. We tried several versions of the dowel before settling on this one: a single groove cut into the dowel where you can hang your everyday items — coats, scarfs, a bike helmet — you name it! But what about the other feature that was important to us – how do we hold a bike?

The Arm

For heavier duty needs, like a bike, you need a sturdy arm. This piece is the workhorse that you can rely on to get the job done, which is why we went with a strong, bent sheet of steel that extends out from the wall. This steel arm connects to a metal tube that helps secure the wooden dowel while allowing it to slide in and out, keeping it easy to clean and easy to customize! Since your heavy object will be coming in contact with this arm steel first, it has to be secured properly to something strong and reliable. It needs a body.

The Body

The body brings these components together into one functional whole. For our main body, we’ve selected a high quality layered baltic birch plywood. This wooden plate acts as a connector, – it keeps Lift on the wall, serves as a base for a bike wheel, and holds our hook components together. With the steel arm slotted into a delicate groove on its back, the plate is then secured to the wall with screws. In our last blog post, we mentioned that we wanted to provide some cushioning between the wood and the wheel. This is where the leather piece comes in handy — like the other parts of the design, it does more than one thing at once: it hides the screws while also acting as a buffer between the bike and the body. Dual purpose was very important to us when we were designing, and we think that’s what makes good design: thoughtfully bringing materials and components together to make the sum greater than the parts. Be a part of Lift by following our pre-launch product page. Until next week !

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