Fascinated by the beauty of caustic reflections in nature, we set about finding a way to master both the reflection and refraction of light to create spectacular and unexpected memories, encoded in special objects.
Using technology to unleash our creativity, we are able to create customizable caustic reflections on many products to reveal a poetic reflection and light.
Some light patterns don’t behave the way we expect. Caustics—those shapes you see at the bottom of a pool, or on a wall reflected from a glass—look random. But they follow rules. At Gentle Systems, we got curious: could we understand those rules well enough to design with them?
We started in 2012 without much of a plan, just a question. Over time, we built a process. By 2016, we had Mira—a system that lets us shape reflected light into words, images or signs. Not with projection. Just by designing the surface the light bounces off.
We focused on reflection instead of refraction. It gave us more material options and more control. From there, we worked through the physics, built our own software, and developed a way to manufacture the surfaces we needed.
Light is not simple. It behaves as both wave and particle, depending on how it’s measured. It reflects, scatters, bends—always shaped by surface, angle, and material. We wrote code to deal with those variables. Then we built tools to simulate designs and turn them into real objects.
Our early prototypes were rough—laser-cut mirrors, 3D-printed parts. Now we mill aluminium to sub-millimetre precision. We’ve cast in metal, polished by hand, and scaled up for production. The process is still improving, but the system works.
Mira lets us shape light. That’s it. A surface, a reflection, an image made of nothing but light. Not magic. Just a method that took time to get right.
