Caleo

Caleo is a modern reinterpretation of the traditional night candle with a candle snuffer. The project was my Bachelor thesis at the Hochschule Rhein-Waal. The idea is to preserve the traditional interaction of man with light by sparing the product of any buttons. Every traditional and sensual function of a night candle got reworked into modern features. Additionally, the lamp serves as a portable aroma diffuser.

The visualization concept of this project expresses itself in a duality between old and new. This concept of duality also expresses itself as on and off, black and white, uppercase and lowercase.

Originally designed in 2017, I redesigned the project in 2025. Clarendon and Radio Grotesk are the two typefaces I’ve chosen. The bold Clarendon (with roots in the mid-1800s) was used for the wordmark. Radio Grotesk was used for the basic lamp component and every other typographical layout. Both typefaces carry tradition and originality and the concept of old and new. The naming of the wordmark and the subproducts uses the Latin language. Since I am referencing abandoned traditions, I thought to also use an old and abandoned language for the naming of the producer. Caleo is the latin word for glow and lumina is the Latin word for lights. In the project presentation, Signerica is used to emulate handwritten notes.

See the full case study on nicoschroeder.com.