The in-house designers and engineers at Speck never settle. They work tirelessly toward essentialism, a guiding principle that Bryan Hynecek has instilled as the VP of Design, which means every last detail on the product serves a specific purpose and any superfluous additions are stripped away. When it came time to develop the brand’s first completely clear smartphone, the team at Speck was up against its greatest challenge in essentialism yet.

There is a special challenge in designing the perfect clear case, as every element must be made invisible, from the points of injection that occur during the molding process to the country of origin and tooling codes. Speck also set out to address and resolve the major issues in most clear cases on the market: they offer little to no drop protection, if they are protective they aren’t fully clear, and most turn yellow over time. Speck started with their secret ingredient, CandyShell.