The IRL ‘screen blocking’ sunglasses were designed by IRL Labs in San Francisco, California (US) in 2018. The IRL (‘In Real Life’) Glasses were created by IRL Labs as a response to the proliferation of digital screens that we come into contact with in everyday life, from TVs in bars to advertising billboards. In 2016, CNN reported that the average American spends 10 hours+ looking at screens (including, but not limited to the smartphone), and that the average person looks at around 5000+ ads a day (both digital and analogue).

IRL glasses were invented by Scott Blew (IRL Head of Product) and brought to market by IRL Labs, led by Founder Ivan Cash. Using Kickstarter as their only source of funding, the campaign to raise funds for the glasses was announced on October 1st 2018. Their target was successfully reached by October 31st 2018, with $140,920 pledged by 2,030 backers. IRL glasses were sent to backers (supporters of a campaign) in April 2019.

The glasses use a horizontal polarized optics filter that blocks out LED and LCD screens, rendering their content unreadable, the screens and content going ‘blank’ as they are viewed. By flattening and rotating the polarized lens 90 degrees, light emitted by LCD/LED screens is blocked. This simple, lightweight, design allows wearers to choose and limit their exposure to most digital content. However, the glasses do not block 4k Video, OLED (organic light-emitting diode) or smartphone screens. The lenses are standard TAC 1.1, Cat 3, UV 400; with the UV block also function independently as sunglasses. IRL Labs have presented the IRL glasses to serve as a provocation and critique, and as a proof-of-concept for the future development of glasses that are able to block all digital media.

The IRL glasses are made from solid black plastic with plastic lenses. The glasses were manufactured in Wenzhou, China, with manufacturer So-Pal Optics. They were designed to closely replicate the design of the glasses in John Carpenter’s 198 film ‘They Live’, which serves as the main inspiration for the glasses themselves.

The packaging, designed by Brad Kayal and manufactured by GPA Global (California, US), is a 3-piece box including an internal glasses mount with silver printing, a lenticular box with four animated frames of TV static, and a clear acrylic slipcase with white printing. The outside of the box was designed to be a representation of a chaotic digital environment, with a simple black interior to emphasise the effect of the glasses.

From their company mission statement, IRL labs is ‘a creative incubator empowering humanity to free itself from the unhealthy constraints of technology’. At the time of the IRL glasses' creation, the IRL lab core staff were founder Ivan Cash, Scott Blew (Head of Product & Inventor), Emily Lin, Dominic Gallelli and James Simonetta. Ivan Cash is also founder of Cash Studios, where his looks at the relationship that society has with technology. Projects include ‘No Tech Zone’ in San Francisco which designates technology-free areas to provoke non-digital communication, and Snail Mail my Email, which sends emails physically by post.

The IRL glasses join the Snap Spectacles and Google Glass as examples of technological eyewear, and underlines the impact that digital culture and media has had on eyewear design.