A tea maker that turns blue when it keeps your tea warm — and becomes a kettle when you need it to.
Shaye was designed for Fakir's product range as a premium glass-bodied tea maker — both the water reservoir and the teapot in full glass, paired with an LED lighting system built into the handle. The brief called for a product that brought health-conscious glass design and modern technology together in a single object, and made it visible.
The design was adapted to Fakir's product language and became one of the most important products in their lineup — selling successfully until it was eventually retired from the range.
Glass has a dual value proposition in the kitchen: it's health-conscious — no plastic in contact with hot water — and it's inherently beautiful. The design brief was to make both of those qualities impossible to ignore.
The LED system in the handle was the answer: in keep-warm mode, it bathes the glass body in a soft blue light, turning a functional state into an ambient experience. A tea maker that's working quietly in the background becomes a light source in the kitchen.
The second insight came from the teapot lid: designed to fit the water reservoir as well, it converts the entire unit into a glass kettle — one product, two identities, no additional parts.
Glass shows you what's happening. Light tells you how it feels.
Idea
Most tea makers hide their function behind opaque plastic bodies. Shaye makes the function visible — the glass shows the water level, the tea color, the brewing process — while the LED turns the keep-warm state from an invisible setting into a visible, ambient one.
The glass body also carries a health message that opaque materials simply can't: no plastic touching the hot water, ever.
Form
Both the water reservoir and the teapot are full glass — a material choice that defines the product's identity as much as the design itself. The form is clean and modern, available in different color combinations that allow the product to adapt to different kitchen aesthetics without losing its character.
The LED system is integrated into the handle — unobtrusive when off, transformative when active. The soft blue glow in keep-warm mode turns the product into a piece of kitchen ambiance rather than just an appliance waiting to be used.
Function
With a 2.5-liter water reservoir, Shaye can brew up to 40 cups of tea in a single session — capacity that serves both household and light hospitality use. The 0.9-liter teapot brews on top while the water reservoir heats below, in the classic Turkish tea maker format.
The teapot lid is designed to fit the water reservoir as well — a small but deliberate decision that converts the entire unit into a glass kettle without any additional parts. Remove the teapot, place the lid on the reservoir, and Shaye becomes a kettle. One product, two complete functions.
Differentiation
Glass tea makers existed before Shaye. But most limited the glass to the teapot alone, kept the water reservoir opaque, and offered no visual feedback beyond a basic indicator light. Shaye made the entire body transparent, made the keep-warm state ambient rather than utilitarian, and added a full kettle function through a single shared lid.
It met Fakir's design language while giving the product a personality distinctly its own within the range — the one that glows blue in a dark kitchen.
Impact
Shaye became one of the most important products in Fakir's lineup during its time in production — a premium glass offering that differentiated the brand in a category dominated by stainless steel and opaque plastic.
The LED integration was the most delicate decision in this project — not technically, but tonally. A light that's too bright reads as a warning. A light that's too subtle doesn't communicate anything. Getting the keep-warm glow to feel like ambiance rather than a status indicator required working through the handle geometry and light diffusion until the output felt warm and intentional, not functional and clinical.
The kettle conversion through the shared lid is the detail I'm most proud of: it required no extra parts, added no complexity to the product's appearance, and gave Shaye a second complete identity that competitors in the same price range simply didn't offer.
Shaye sold successfully as one of Fakir's flagship products before being retired from the range — a premium glass tea maker that brought LED ambiance, full glass health credentials, and a dual tea maker-kettle function into a single, clean design.