Case Studies
Wavelength
Wavelength is a mobile pen-palling app that focuses on connecting people through music. The app allows users to send each other songs that are accompanied by a letter that details how the song is perceived and why it is significant to the writer. Users can search for a pen pal based on their favourite music genres and how often they would like to correspond.
Before opening a letter, recipients first listen to the song and reflect on its meaning and how it makes them feel. After their first listen, users can open the letter to read about how their pen pal views the song, and compare the different perspectives. Timestamps allow writers to link their chosen clips of a song with specific parts of their letter to easily point out which section of the song they want to refer to.
TCAF Rebrand
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival aspires to bring the literary and artistic merit of comic books and graphic novels to the general public. This rebrand aimed to produce a clearer brand voice and a more cohesive look across all of the brand’s platforms that still allows space for featured artists to express themselves as well. In addition, the brand needs to emphasize the event’s values of diversity and inclusivity to counter the recent negative press. View the full brand guide here: http://bit.ly/tcafrebrand
The logo uses interlocking shapes and letters to represent the different groups of fans and creators who originally came together to combine their separate events into one large comic event: TCAF. The smiling face formed by the curved “T” and “F” provide a friendly and welcoming feel without appearing childish. The speech bubble and the exclamation mark evoke elements that are commonly found in comic books, but do not point any specific genre of comics.
Globowl
Immigrants and their descendants are heavily encouraged to adapt to American/Canadian culture and assimilate, becoming disconnected from their original cultures as a result. Many seek to better understand their own cultural identities, but don’t know where to start. Globowl is an educational app that seeks to help these individuals reconnect with their roots using short video lessons to teach its users about different cultures through the lens of food and cuisine.
When they complete video lessons, users earn Ingredient Cards from the Pantry which feature additional information on staple ingredients, images and cooking tips. Users can also test their knowledge by completing quizzes based on the lessons. Successfully completed quizzes can unlock recipes in the Cookbook of different types and difficulty levels so that even novice cooks can attempt them at home.
Nix
An increasing amount of young adults are turning to e-cigarettes and vape products, due to their flavours, affordability, and peer pressure. While e-nicotine products do not contain as many toxic chemicals as traditional cigarettes, they are not without their own health risks. With the difficulty of commiting to nicotine cessation, Nix is able to ease the experience into ending nicotine reliance. Nix is a smart IoT enabled, nicotine cessation wearable that acts as transdermal nicotine patch replacement. It improves over the traditional nicotine patch experience through technology and user-centered design. The Nix band comes with a companion app to monitor and incentivize progress towards ending nicotine reliance.
