Scaling Brand and Product Design Systems for a Smart Tech Mattress Innovator
Eight Sleep was scaling a category — smart sleep technology — that didn't exist five years earlier. We built the brand strategy, the enterprise design system, and the product UX that took the Pod from a venture-backed bet into the #1 sleep app in the App Store and the most-recognized name in the wellness-tech category.
Live since 2020
How do you differentiate a sleep brand in a category that’s about to be defined?
When Eight Sleep came to Commence, the company had a working product — an active-climate smart mattress with biometric tracking — and a thesis the rest of the industry hadn’t caught up to yet: that sleep was the next category of personal health technology, sitting alongside Whoop, Oura, and Apple Watch rather than next to Tempur-Pedic and Sleep Number.
The proof was in early reviews. The brand wasn’t. The visual identity, marketing system, in-app experience, and DTC storefront had each been built by different teams at different stages of the company’s growth — and none of them carried the technical credibility the product itself was earning. New buyers landed on a mattress site and missed the wellness-tech category they were actually buying into. App users opened a delightful piece of hardware and met an interface that felt like a v1 software project.
The brief was scaling. Build a brand strategy that positioned Eight Sleep as the wellness-tech leader instead of the premium mattress. Ship an enterprise design system that traveled across hardware, app, e-commerce, and physical retail — the kind that survives a Series C and a five-product lineup. Redesign the Pod’s software interface and the Eight Sleep app with the same care the engineering team put into the temperature regulation. And rebuild the Shopify storefront to convert venture-backed ad spend into actual sleepers.
Position the category, not just the company.
Positioning rooted in the wellness-tech category fight.
Started with category-level research — not just sleep, but the broader personal-health-data space Eight Sleep was actually competing in. Surfaced the strategic positioning: not "premium mattress with sensors" but "the operating system for your sleep." Innovation, wellness, and user-centric design as the trifecta.
An enterprise design system that survives Series C.
Typography, color tokens, iconography, photography direction, motion grammar — built as a token-based system, not a Photoshop deck. The same primitives drove hardware product UI, the iOS/Android app, the marketing site, paid ad creative, and the in-store retail experience. Scaled from a single product to a five-SKU lineup without breaking visual coherence.
Smart mattress UX that makes high-tech feel human.
Designed the Pod's software interface end-to-end: voice recognition flows for "set my side to 62 degrees," in-app temperature management with autopilot routines, sleep stage visualization, and the daily wellness insights surface. The brief was always the same — make the smart mattress feel less like a gadget and more like a wellness partner.
Product identities for every launch.
Each new Pod generation, accessory, and subscription tier got its own product identity that nested cleanly under the master brand. Launch playbooks for go-to-market campaigns, packaging design with unboxing in mind, retail merchandising, and PR-ready creative. Marketing shipped launches without rebuilding the system every time.
A Shopify storefront tuned for venture-scale traffic.
Rebuilt the e-commerce experience for high-AOV D2C tech. Editorial-led PDPs that explained the technology before asking for the credit card, financing integration for a $3K+ purchase, subscription upsell for the membership tier, and a checkout optimized for paid-traffic CPA. CRO became a continuous program post-launch.
A long-term partnership, not a project.
Multi-year engagement spanning hardware launches, three Pod generations, an app rebuild, two storefront refreshes, and the visual identity that carried Eight Sleep through Series B and Series C. Embedded with the in-house brand team, shipping in two-week cycles, owning the design system documentation that the internal team now extends.
Their expertise in brand strategy and design has been instrumental in our growth. Their comprehensive approach helped us create a cohesive and scalable identity that truly reflects our innovative spirit.
Alexandra Zatarain · Co-Founder, Eight Sleep
Numbers that matter for a category leader.
Brand, app, product, and storefront — in production.
Commence Studio's expertise in brand strategy and design has been instrumental in our growth. Their comprehensive approach helped us create a cohesive and scalable identity that truly reflects our innovative spirit. We're thrilled with the results and excited about our future.
Like what you see? Let's talk about your commerce stack.
A 14-day strategic diagnostic — we audit your current stack, identify the friction worth fixing first, and ship a phased plan with sized investments. Fully credited toward an engagement if we move forward together.
What you walk away with
- ✓A measured map of every friction point in your current commerce flow
- ✓Three phased options — minimum, considered, comprehensive
- ✓Sized investments and timelines, no aspirational ranges
- ✓A clear "don't hire us if…" section. We mean it.
