Our process starts with strategic anchoring, grasping clients’ goals, user needs, and evaluating current products and usage data.

Through our dedication to design, we focus on scalable systems, testing, prototyping, and building to make visions a reality.

At our studio, branding is a journey that builds lasting relationships and unleashes the full potential of our clients' products.

Embracing the latest innovations, we integrate emerging tech and leverage cutting-edge tools to enhance possibilities.

We collaborate with industry leaders in robotics, telecoms, AI, and electric vehicles to achieve impactful results.

We’re grateful that our work has been recognised through many international design awards over the years.

We gather requirements to establish the team structure, and collaborate with the client's design team or work independently.

We study the product, research data, market trends and user behaviour before exploring options with the client to set goals.

We develop a roadmap, define milestones, design, prototype and test before build, with our clients involved at every stage.

We adjust the product based on feedback and usage data to enhance functionality, ensuring continuous improvements.

More Air

Cobot, defining the future of robot interaction

Cobot was founded in 2022 by former Amazon VP of Robotics Brad Porter, with a team of robotics and AI experts from Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, NASA, and more. Prior to raising a $30M Series A, we were tasked with designing their brand system, visual identity, and launch website. They’ve since gone on to raise a further $100M Series B, and are well on their way to unicorn status.

A system that embodies Cobot’s core values

Cobot needed a brand system that embodies their core tenets: Trustworthy, Adaptable, and Useful. Our objective was to create a cohesive visual identity that aligns with these principles and their core values which are Listen, Trust, Contribute, Empower, and Reflect. We developed a modern logo that symbolises the synergy and trust between humans and robots, alongside vibrant, dynamic colours balanced with neutral tones, that convey adaptability and trustworthiness.

We wanted to strike a balance between a professional and friendly style, to reflect both the human-robot collaboration and the professional environments in which the cobots operate, such as healthcare, warehouses, and offices. Within the brand system we included high-quality images showcasing real-world applications, emphasising utility and interaction, and introduced clean, sans-serif fonts for readability and a contemporary feel. We explored using expressions based on the Cobot logo to create a friendly and more approachable feel.

With a combination of precise and minimal design, we wanted to capture the essence of advanced technology and forward-thinking, while implementing a unified visual language that will work flexibly across all platforms. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of the robotics industry and market trends, and closely collaborated with Cobot with multiple rounds of refinement to incorporate feedback and ensure alignment with their core values.

Successful launch yields positive outcomes

The new brand system was rolled out across Cobots' marketing materials, and product packaging while the website we built went live in time for their Series A funding announcement that had to accurately coincide with media coverage. We helped to increase brand recognition and enhance visibility within the industry, while helping to create a modern, professional image reinforcing their leadership in robotics innovation. Stakeholders and audiences responded positively, noting the alignment with the company’s vision and core values.

Brad Porter

Cobot Brand System

Cobot Brand
System

Transforming Nokia's digital presence with Pure

Nokia Pure is a design system we built for Nokia to help create consistent, flexible and future proof-digital products. The system is made up of foundational elements, components, templates and guidelines, all of which facilitate in producing a fresh, clean and minimal new style for Nokia digital products inline with their updated brand look-and-feel.

Nokia Pure was created from the ground up, in line with Nokia's core design principles: Radically simple, Human, and Dynamic. It balances form and function, applied without distraction and with a sense of quality. Simple to use, develop, and experience, it caters to a global community, enabling rapid personalisation, multi-language automation, diversity, and inclusion. Nokia Pure's design fosters a genuine relationship between product and user, harmoniously aligning design with observable behaviour and purpose.

Icon and illustration libraries were crafted from scratch specifically for Nokia, adhering to the brand principles. The style is intentionally clean, minimal, yet human and approachable. This bespoke system creates a unique, ownable style for Nokia. Nokia Pure can adapt to future trends while always maintaining the core brand principles that make products distinctly Nokia.

Seamless component updates across all projects

Components were designed with flexibility in mind and are easy to update across various projects when linked to the design system. When a component is updated, it automatically changes for all teams, ensuring everyone stays up to date with the latest changes and new components as needed.

Designing to be future-proof and flexible

Nokia Pure is a constantly evolving system, flexible enough to meet the needs of various teams and stay future-proof. It avoids stagnation and legacy issues, allowing the design language to adapt as needed. When new features and best practices emerge, Nokia can react and adapt, ensuring the best design system for both now and the future.

Unified design excellence across all platforms

Nokia Pure was created for multiple touch-points and platforms, not just for a single product team. This holistic approach ensures a consistent feel across all Nokia products and tools. Assets are interchangeable between mobile, web, and print, working across different devices and platforms. By providing a single source for teams, it paves the way for future development as new devices, tools, and processes emerge.

Federico Guillén

Nokia Pure Design System

Nokia Pure
Design System

A modern app for effortless, elegant illumination

Nokia Design appointed us to collaborate with their ID and XD teams on the design of the Nokia Smart Lighting app. We created an app with a clean, modern aesthetic to match the product's sleek engineering, making smart lighting super easy to install, and use. Our role encompassed UX, UI, branding and also some of the overall strategy work.

Our process for simplifying smart home lighting

Our approach centred on reducing the perceived complexity of the home smart lighting setup. We meticulously questioned and validated every feature, component and UI element during the design process to ensure an elegant, streamlined, and user-friendly end product.

A minimalist approach for every home style

We intentionally designed a very minimal app that complements any home style, considering that every home is unique. Simultaneously, we emphasised the warmth of lighting by maintaining a colour palette that allows users to quickly identify different lighting states at a glance.

Perfecting dark mode for maximum usability

The entire interface had to perform equally well in dark mode. We developed a complete set of dark mode UI components, making careful adjustments to the intensity of coloured elements to minimise eye strain while ensuring high usability.

Nokia Smart Lighting

Nokia Smart
Lighting

Our Role in designing Ford's IDSA Gold-winning AVS

We were appointed by Native to lead the interface design of Ford's AVS (Autonomous Vehicle Simulator). Our role was to develop the visual language, transparent contextual display UI and help define the overall user experience. The project won the IDSA Gold Award for Digital Interaction 2018.

Transforming driving with passenger-centric design

The Autonomous Vehicle Simulator (AVS) is the future car experience. It was created in response to intensive global research, it is a place that knows its passengers, what they like, what they want and what they need. It is a time machine that gives back all those wasted hours driving a car.

James Hilton

Elevating the experience with cutting-edge technology

Innovations included connected applications, projected image HMI, transparent contextual displays, mechanical engineering invention, and highly tailored touch and voice control that reaffirms the brand presence and enables a premium end-to-end experience.

Ford's visionary autonomous car experience

The Definitive Autonomous Car Experience studied the future city and the urban landscape, demographic shifts, technology roadmaps and evolving user behaviours. It synthesised a unique set of high-value opportunities that generated hundreds of new patents for Ford.

Smart Car Experience

Smart Car
Experience

Designing an app for challenging environments

We were commissioned to design Nokia Team Comms, a communications app designed for group chat and video calls within challenging working environments such as warehouses or cell tower construction sites. The app enables teams to set up comms quickly at the push of a button and intuitively switch between different forms of communication with ease.

Creating a unique interface with Nokia Pure

We explored a varied of different waveform visualisation graphics and animation styles before developing a consistent the UI design language using the Nokia Pure Design System. We also created a bespoke app icon to give it a unique and recognisable visual identity from the other Nokia digital products.

Testing and iterating for better performance

Solid UX and user testing was critical when designing solutions for challenging working environments with poor weather conditions and that required ruggedized user equipment and workwear such as gloves and goggles when using the interface. We mapped out the flows and created key prototypes for testing, using the results to inform design updates that improved the overall design and performance fo the app moving forward.

Refining for an optimal user-friendly experience

We then refined and developed the UI further, paying attention to every detail and making sure that the interface felt balanced and clean as well as user friendly in both light and dark themes.

An admin dashboard was also created to help to manage the more complicated user flows and group and user management aspect of the app. this followed the same visual language and UX patterns as the app but for larger desktop and tablet devices.

Nokia Team Comms

Nokia Team
Comms

Withings commissioned us to redesign the Steel HR Smartwatch on-demand display. We streamlined the UX with clearer interactions, updated fonts and iconography to better compliment the minimal aesthetic, contributing towards RedDot and Good Design awards.

Vlad Savov

Following an earlier icon project we were tasked with redesigning a number of icons specifically for the watch's OLED screen, redrawing with square pixels to focus on the most important visual elements. We also redesigned the typography for improved legibility and closer alignment to the Nokia typefaces.

Following the redesign of the Steel HR Smartwatch UI, Nokia commissioned us to the design the Pulse HR tracker UI, shortly after releasing under the Withings brand. The design needed to be consistent with that of the watch display, but with bespoke layout considerations given the unique form factor.

Tech Radar

Withings Smart Watches

Withings
Smart Watches

Z Launcher learns how you use your Android promoting favourite apps through the day. With scribble you can launch anything in a second. Z Launcher had 2M+ installs and a 4.3 star rating. We were appointed by Nokia to help conceive the app and lead the visual design, as well as design the N1 tablet website.

The Z Launcher was initially designed to be a single contextual list with a scribble layer on top. After user testing of early prototypes which revealed issues with the thumb reach and a list's strong association with the scrolling paradigm, we added a contextual area at the top and ran through several iterations.

Zach Epstein

Following the success of the Z Launcher on Android mobile, Nokia wanted a bespoke version to be preinstalled on their Nokia N1 tablet. We ran through multiple iterations before settling on a grid-style design maintaining the contextual area at the top and a dedicated scribble area underneath.

Embedded within Nokia's UX design team, we closely collaborated with engineering to provide red-line design specifications (thankfully we use Zeplin now!) and to ensure the final layout closely represented the original design. Assets like buttons and logo-type were also delivered for this and associated products.

After designing the Z Launcher for Android we shifted our focus to redesigning it to fit the N1 tablet so that it could be pre-installed for users. This was then followed by the design of the N1 promotional website from initial concept to final production and collaborating with front-end development.

SlashGear

Z-launcher App

Z-launcher
App

We were commissioned by Nokia to design a unified network management system integrating existing Nokia tools. First, we learned about these complex tools and their users, then developed a strategy to unify them into a consistent, flexible, and user-friendly interface.

We split our approach into two streams: immediate design improvements for current tools and developing a next-generation dashboard. The dashboard offers quick access to key functions, data insights, and workflow automations in a customizable, scalable interface.

Throughout the design process, we built out quick clickable prototypes to validate our ideas through rapid usability testing and to establish technical feasibility with the engineering team. This helped us to always focus in on the most optimal solutions to take forward into the engineering phase.

To unify the network tools, we were tasked with exploring the overall visual identity. We developed branded assets such as app icons and colour schemes, updated product naming, and created a cohesive visual identity to connect the entire product suite.

As part of this project, we also explored, developed and implemented a series of well-crafted and visually balanced infographic charts and graphs. By focusing on the colour, style, typography, iconography and information hierarchy, the aim was to create a set of flexible components that would form the core of data communications within the Nokia tools.

We focused on enhancing consistency in visuals, user experience, and implementation. The solution needed visual uniformity to create a connected experience and ensure Nokia customers recognise the products. We aimed for a consistent user experience across all products and promoted technical consistency across devices to ensure smooth, bug-free functionality and easy updates.

Nokia All-in-One

Nokia
All-in-One

Working closely with Nokia’s Human Interface Design team, we were appointed to execute a 300+ icon suite and icon guidelines system for Nokia Health. We developed an icon style that reflects Nokia's ‘Pure’ brand value, contributing towards a RedDot Award and Good Design Awards in 2018.

To maintain a unified look and feel throughout the whole set we knew it was important to set out some basic rules, not necessarily to always follow, but act as a guide to encourage consistency. We went with rounded corners inline with Nokia's physical product design, and gaps to indicate the overlapping of elements within the icons

One of the main challenges we found when designing iconography was to maintain a visual balance, both in terms of sizing and complexity, across the full set. Referencing a grid system, we also made a number of alterations once we could see the full set together. We continually removed unnecessary elements wherever possible.

When designing the activity icons we found one of our initial rules for maintaining a single stroke width was difficult to stick to without the icons looking stickman-like and the equipment looking too chunky. We settled on a variable stroke width which allowed greater flexibility while still feeling consistent with the set.

Our next step was to adapt the icons to work on a super low-resolution screen included in the Nokia watch. The icons needed to be no taller than 26px which mean't that they all had to be redrawn with square pixels focusing on the most important elements of the icon to maintain consistency with the original set.

The final icons were used throughout the promotional materials for Nokia's digital health products, as well as within the Healthmate app. This is where the relevance of designing a scalable set of icons really came into play as the icons needed to be used at many different sizes while maintaining legibility.

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Nokia Icon Library

Nokia Icon
Library

This smart watch concept explores the possibilities of a bespoke UI designed specifically for a round watch face. For an understated style and energy efficiency, the visual design language is very minimal. We were appointed by an undisclosed client to execute concepts, participate in UX and design UI.

After initial competitor and user research to establish what mattered most in terms of features and experience, we referenced personas and stories created by the client before sketching out user journeys, wireframes and the basic navigation structure for the watch. This was continually refined throughout the design process.

Once it was established what features would be included on the watch, we could start to look at the overall interaction model and determine how best to navigate the watch using just the screen and a single button on the side. This was then further refined based on the initial user testing of basic prototypes.

Considering future scalability the main menu works as vertically paginated 3-icon slides that animate in and out around the radius of the watchface which pushes out to the left of the screen. Consistent with the main menu the quick menu also uses paginated 3-icon slides. Buttons were scaled to an optimum size for tapping.

We designed a collection of watchfaces ranging from restrained, minimal and elegant styles to more experimental and expressive layouts. They were all limited to the use of a maximum of two colours and a simple key-line style for visual consistency. The watchfaces were an opportunity to introduce some creativity.

In keeping with the ultra minimal visual language for the world time feature the user swipes along a dot-style world map to select their time zone. Tapping on the selected time zone then takes the user to a scrollable list to select their country. This had to be very simple given the limited screen space.

Designed to be highly glanceable the schedule shows the event, duration, time-until-event and the current time highlighted around the outer digits (marked with a dot within the hour). Tapping on any event from the Schedule screen takes you to the details view to read the full content of the event.

We also explored the use of a restricted colour palette for the icons and for colour-coding text and visual elements, just enough to add a little personality without detracting from the overall minimal design language. This worked quite nicely for icons like the bike where elements could be distinguished by colour.

All screen elements and typography align to a 6dp square grid. To work in harmony with the 6dp grid, we have 8 type sizes that scale by either 3, 6 or 12 so there is always a rythm in the layout. To create an elegant look and feel the button states are very subtle with just enough differentiation to indicate interaction.

MOA Smart Watch

MOA Smart
Watch

Animaru is an app concept designed to encourage better care of your personal wellbeing. The app links to your health data and presents a digital representation of you in the form of a dynamic animated animal of your choice. Animaru is a fresh, fun and creative alternative to current health apps on the market.

After researching the digital health app landscape we saw an opportunity to design something very different. Similar to a previous app concept we developed around dynamic illustrations, we explored the idea of associating the user to an animal of choice which changes 'state' according to their wellbeing.

On the top layer you have a very glanceable layout which just includes your character state (created dynamically based on your health data) and a simple sentence. If you wish to drill deeper into your data you can just swipe up to reveal detailed progress graphs, comparisons and tips.

The illustration style was kept purposely minimal to match the overall user interface. Based on user testing, we focused on illustrating animals that were quickly identifiable. Then we got to work on developing the idea of gamification. The user can select an animal and a particular goal and then see their progress.

As a motion guide, we put together a series of high-fidelity prototypes demonstrating some of the micro interactions within the app, particularly highlighting where an attention to detail would really bring the experience to life. These prototypes were created in Principle and used as a reference for implementation.

As a quick reference for future visual iterations of the app we put together a very basic style sheet covering colour usage, typography and illustration style. We used a light pastel colour palette, just enough to visually separate the app areas while enabling us to use full colour in the character illustrations.

Animaru Mobile App

Animaru
Mobile App

Working with Sky Creative, we were appointed to lead the visual design of the Sky Movies iPad app as part of their relaunch. We developed a number of concepts before settling on this full-bleed movie cover route. On release the app received 50,000 downloads per day and went to #1 on Apple’s iPad App Charts.

This project was part of a wider redesign of the Sky Movies platform and involved a 3-way collaboration between Sky Creative, Method and onsite contractors. We collaborated on the design from concept to delivery, working closely with key stake-holders, design partners and the engineering team.

Anthony Davies

Sky Movies iPad App

Sky Movies
iPad App

We were commissioned by W+K TokyoLab to design and build a full-screen video animated website to promote the release of Chinza Dopeness’ debut album '100% Rap’. Visitors could make their own raps splicing together video segments of Chinza, and reach content as if Chinza was directly presenting to you.

Chinza Dopeness

Chinza
Dopeness

Monolise, currently under development, will be an online store offering a curated collection of hard-to-find products from Japanese craftspeople. Each product will share the core values of exceptional design, quality and longevity. We executed a visual identity that celebrates the uniqueness of Japanese design.

Concerned by the throwaway culture of today we decided to build an online store that focused only on products that would be cherished for life. We chose to start with products from Japan where there still exists a strong desire amongst craftspeople to create beautiful long-lasting products.

After testing many store names with family and friends we settled on Monolise. It is a combination of "Mono" which means product in Japanese, and "Globalise" as our aim is to connect local craftspeople with a global audience. The adaptive logo celebrates the simplicity and diversity of Japanese product design.

The website design is purposely minimal to concentrate the user's focus on the product design. The store will be hosted on Shopify which offers us the most relevant features and cuts down dramatically on our setup time and costs. We can then concentrate on the design, product curation and customer relations.

We kept colour usage to a minimum, again to focus the attention on the products rather than the website. The Butler serif typeface was chosen for the logo and headers to give an elegant, premium and traditional feel which is then balanced alongside the more contemporary Basic Commercial typeface.

Monolise Online Store

Monolise
Online Store

Fujitsu, gold partners of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, approached us to research the many design successes of the London 2012 Olympics. We compiled a design report in Japanese with our top 30 recommendations across categories ranging from architecture, transport and disabled facilities to apps and games. All work remains confidential.

Fujitsu Tokyo Olympics

Fujitsu Tokyo
Olympics

Working closely with Sky’s design & product team, we were appointed at an early stage to lead the visual design of their Sky Q TV platform. Our role was to generate ideas and explore the possibilities for enriching the TV experience through a series of experimental prototypes. All work remains confidential.

Designing the future today

We move brands to their
next chapter.

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Recent work

Cobot Brand System

A new kind of robotics

Nokia Pure Design System

Flexible future-proof design

Nokia Smart Lighting

Smart home minimalism

Smart Car Experience

The future of transportation

How we work

We scale

We explore

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We iterate

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Tom Vining

Co-Founder

Rieko Maeda

Co-Founder

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