Brief No. 00296715 Jan 2024
A mobile app for a sleep startup, live in 12 weeks.
Rough budget€45k to €85k
First callWithin one day
Pulled by Nadia, Sona★
sona
sona
A sleep ring and the calmest app on your phone. We built the identity, designed the app around one breathing exercise and shot the launch film entirely after midnight. The average Sona user now sleeps 52 minutes more a week.
Client
Sona Health, Copenhagen
Scope
Identity, Product, Film
Timeline
12 weeks, winter 2024
The bedside, an hour after lights out
01
The brief
It started with a pull
The challenge
Sleep apps are loud. Scores, streaks and red warnings at seven in the morning telling you that you slept badly, which you already knew. Sona's ring was accurate and its app made people anxious. Nadia wanted an app you could open at 3am without waking up.
What we made
A name you can whisper, a night palette with no pure white anywhere, and an app built around one screen: a slow ring that breathes in for four, holds for two and out for six. No scores before noon. The film was shot in real bedrooms between midnight and four.
52 min
More sleep a week, on average
4.9★
App Store rating
71%
Open the app every night
0
Notifications before noon
71%
Open the app every night
0
Notifications before noon
02
The work
Identity, Product, Film
sona
sona
sona
sona
Breathe in for four.
Breathe in for four.
Breathe in for four.
Midnight
#14163A
Lilac
#DCD6FF
Ember
#FF9E7A
Aa
Aa
Geist, 300
Light and open, so it never shouts at night
03
Twelve weeks
Most of it after dark
Weeks 1 and 2
Sleep diaries
Thirty people kept a diary for two weeks. The word that came up most was guilty.
Weeks 3 to 5
Name and night palette
A palette tested on phones at 1% brightness in a dark room. Pure white was the first thing to go.
Weeks 6 to 10
The breathing ring
One screen, built and rebuilt until people fell asleep testing it. We took that as a pass.
Weeks 11 and 12
The midnight film
Shot in real bedrooms between midnight and four, with one camera and no light we could not dim.
“
“
“
Our users say the app feels like someone turned the lights down for them. That was the whole brief.
NH
Nadia Holm
Co-founder, Sona
04
Credits
Five people, twelve weeks
Creative direction
Mateo Alves
Product design
Lin Zhao
Engineering
Jonas Weber
Strategy
Sofie Laan
Motion and film
Kwame Mensah
Next case study
05
/
Hospitality
·
2025
Halden
Halden
→
→
→
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brief?
hello@leverage.studio
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hello@leverage.studio
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sona
sona
A sleep ring and the calmest app on your phone. We built the identity, designed the app around one breathing exercise and shot the launch film entirely after midnight. The average Sona user now sleeps 52 minutes more a week.
Client
Sona Health, Copenhagen
Scope
Identity, Product, Film
Timeline
12 weeks, winter 2024
The bedside, an hour after lights out
01
The brief
It started with a pull
Brief No. 00296715 Jan 2024
A mobile app for a sleep startup, live in 12 weeks.
Rough budget€45k to €85k
First callWithin one day
Pulled by Nadia, Sona★
The challenge
Sleep apps are loud. Scores, streaks and red warnings at seven in the morning telling you that you slept badly, which you already knew. Sona's ring was accurate and its app made people anxious. Nadia wanted an app you could open at 3am without waking up.
What we made
A name you can whisper, a night palette with no pure white anywhere, and an app built around one screen: a slow ring that breathes in for four, holds for two and out for six. No scores before noon. The film was shot in real bedrooms between midnight and four.
52 min
More sleep a week, on average
4.9★
App Store rating
71%
Open the app every night
0
Notifications before noon
02
The work
Identity, Product, Film
sona
sona
Breathe in for four.
Midnight
#14163A
Lilac
#DCD6FF
Ember
#FF9E7A
Aa
Aa
Geist, 300
Light and open, so it never shouts at night
03
Twelve weeks
Most of it after dark
Weeks 1 and 2
Sleep diaries
Thirty people kept a diary for two weeks. The word that came up most was guilty.
Weeks 3 to 5
Name and night palette
A palette tested on phones at 1% brightness in a dark room. Pure white was the first thing to go.
Weeks 6 to 10
The breathing ring
One screen, built and rebuilt until people fell asleep testing it. We took that as a pass.
Weeks 11 and 12
The midnight film
Shot in real bedrooms between midnight and four, with one camera and no light we could not dim.
“
Our users say the app feels like someone turned the lights down for them. That was the whole brief.
NH
Nadia Holm
Co-founder, Sona
04
Credits
Five people, twelve weeks
Creative direction
Mateo Alves
Product design
Lin Zhao
Engineering
Jonas Weber
Strategy
Sofie Laan
Motion and film
Kwame Mensah
Next case study
05
/
Hospitality
·
2025
Halden
Halden
→
Got a
brief?
hello@leverage.studio
Leverage
PRO
Buy me
↗