Level Brand Guidelines: The Invisible Smart Lock

Level is the ex-Apple team’s “invisible” smart lock that hides its electronics inside the deadbolt, now owned by ASSA ABLOY.

Level brings the smart-lock round its invisible-design node — the lock whose whole idea is that you cannot tell it is a smart lock. It is Level Home, a Redwood City company founded in 2016 by two former Apple engineers, and it makes and sells smart locks. Its answer to a round about who owns these devices is the mirror of Yale’s: while ASSA ABLOY sold its North American Yale and August, it bought Level.

Its identity is the invisible smart lock. The hidden-electronics design, the ex-Apple pedigree and the ASSA ABLOY ownership are the story here. A lock, invisible. The invisible smart lock.

(Honest notes, so the founders, the design and the ownership are framed accurately. Level sells the locks as its heroes — the retrofit Level Bolt, the full Level Lock, and the Level Lock+ with Apple Home Key — and we report its language as the brand’s own. On the founders: it was founded in 2016 by John Martin and Ken Goto, both formerly of Apple, and its first product reached market in 2019. On the signature, which is the whole identity: Level hides all the electronics — motor, battery and radios — inside the deadbolt cylinder, so the lock looks completely ordinary from outside, which it markets as the “invisible” smart lock and which we treat as trade dress. On ownership: ASSA ABLOY acquired Level in September 2024, so it is the smart lock the Swedish giant bought, in the same period it sold its North American Yale and August; the founders moved to ASSA ABLOY, and a 2025 restructuring later cut much of the team, so it is an independent brand on paper more than in staffing. On where it is made: not publicly disclosed, so we do not assert a country, and we avoid a same-named Chinese lockmaker that is unrelated. Its designs, the Level name and its minimalist livery are IP we describe but do not reproduce; there is no official brand hex; these tones are an unofficial interpretation.)

Level lives in a concealed navy. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Level’s identity is invisible, minimal and premium — a concealed navy, an ink, a pale sky, a deep marine, and a paper. The palette leans concealed navy and pale sky: a deep, quiet register that nods to hidden technology and restraint rather than a loud logo colour. It signals the invisible smart lock — concealed, minimal and premium. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these values are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party colours.

The lesson is a concealed navy signals an invisible, premium identity. Level’s world is a smart lock that looks like an ordinary deadbolt. For designers, it is a reminder that a deep concealed navy and a soft pale sky can carry a maker brand — a quiet tone held as colour, not a product shot. Because these tones can fail as small text, keep type dark and let the colour live in the accents, palette and band. The takeaways: name John Martin and Ken Goto; lead with the invisible design; note the ASSA ABLOY 2024 acquisition; leave the manufacturing undisclosed; and avoid the same-named Chinese lockmaker.

The register is an invisible serif — concealed, minimal, premium.

Level’s identity carries a concealed, minimal, premium spirit — a lock defined by what you cannot see. An invisible serif captures the mood: refined, quiet and confident, the register of technology that hides itself. Set in a concealed-navy palette, the invisible serif feels concealed and premium — exactly the personality Level carries. It behaves like a designed object rather than a loud logo, mirroring a deadbolt-cylinder ring and a hidden circuit. (Level’s real locks, the hidden-electronics form and the name are things we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not ours to use.) Because it is not ours to use, the honest description is “an invisible-serif brand,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: concealed, minimal and premium.

Level stands for the invisible smart lock.

Level brings the round its invisible-design node. A concealed-navy palette, an invisible serif and a 2016 founding make one thing — the invisible smart lock — the whole identity: invisible, minimal and premium. The hidden-electronics design is the pitch, and the ex-Apple pedigree is the proof. The point is the lock you cannot tell is smart, in a round about who owns these devices.

Put to work, the identity is the brand told straight, the founders named and the ownership placed in the reshuffle. A maker in this spirit would name John Martin and Ken Goto, lead with the invisible design, and note the ASSA ABLOY 2024 acquisition. A reader in this spirit would keep the facts right: Level sells the Level Bolt, Level Lock and Lock+ as its heroes; it was founded in 2016 by two ex-Apple engineers; it hides its electronics inside the deadbolt; it was acquired by ASSA ABLOY in 2024; and its manufacturing is not disclosed. Level sits third in the round, after August. The honest editorial moves are to name the founders, to lead with the invisible design, to place the ASSA ABLOY acquisition in the reshuffle, to leave manufacturing undisclosed, and to avoid the same-named lockmaker.

For designers and brand-builders, Level continues the smart lock: make invisibility the identity — and place the ownership in the wider reshuffle honestly. The lessons: build a product around hiding the technology; recruit a pedigree, here ex-Apple, and let it show in the design; place an acquisition in its market context; leave a manufacturing location undisclosed rather than guess; and never reproduce a logo or a product form. It is also a reminder to stay precise: Level is the ex-Apple team’s “invisible” smart lock that hides its electronics inside the deadbolt, now owned by ASSA ABLOY — with the palette here an unofficial interpretation. The hook is that symmetry: in the same stretch that ASSA ABLOY was forced to sell its North American Yale and August, it bought Level — so the Swedish giant’s smart-lock future in the US rests on the one lock designed to look like it is not there, built by ex-Apple engineers who then largely left. Read that way, Level is less a lock than a disappearing act: concealed, minimal, premium. The lesson for a brand is that a hidden-technology idea and honest ownership context reinforce each other, and placing the acquisition in the reshuffle keeps the story earned. Level made the-invisible-smart-lock the identity — proof that invisibility carries a round.

Keep Level’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.