project overview
project type
year
2025
my role
Brand Designer & Project Manager
client
Conceptual
timeline
Fall 2025 · GD 301 · 3 weeks
skills
Speculative design concept, brand strategy, cinematic product storytelling, video composition
tools
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, Figma
design challenge
When families move across countries, the language, rituals and memories that tie generations together start to fade. Our speculative brief: design a product and brand for a future where culture can pass directly from one relative’s mind to another’s.
secondary research & benchmarking
NeuroKin’s abilities
assumption 01
The device becomes more active when it detects a place that matters to the user’s culture.
Sofia’s proficiency
assumption 02
Sofia already speaks Japanese well, so NeuroKin builds on knowledge she has instead of starting from zero.
Isamu’s aid
assumption 03
The giver can help from a distance, lending what he knows to the receiver in chance cultural moments.
user research · persona
A software engineer in Berlin with Japanese, Korean, German and Australian roots. Her grandfather Isamu, 86, has just moved in from Japan and feels like a stranger in his new home.
hopes
Help Grandpa feel more at home
Rediscover the Japanese culture she missed
Reaffirm her family’s identity
Build a strong bond with Grandpa for the future
pain points
Learning a culture takes more time than she has
A busy schedule leaves little time for Grandpa
Isamu is overwhelmed by invasive technology
user journey
Exploring the market
Sofia wanders the stalls. NeuroKin senses Isamu’s connection to the place and becomes more active.
Language transfer
She reads the Japanese signs using language offloaded from Isamu, and spots a fish he’d love.
Lived memory
Bargaining overwhelms her, so NeuroKin pulls Isamu’s own memory of haggling at Japanese markets.
End of journey
With his confidence and know-how, she gets a fair price and heads home to thank him.
design solution
NeuroKin is a dockable, wireless ear device worn by two relatives: a giver and a receiver. Over a year, it transfers language, actions and lived memories, so the receiver gains the giver’s knowledge, emotions and confidence in the moments that matter.
brand video
process
scenes 1–2: the hollow present and the encounter
scenes 3–4: language and action transfer
scenes 5–6: emotion transfer and the closing frame
identity system
#6F4CA0
#A794D0
#19B5AA
#24A5B8
#FF9F30
#012F4C
#000000
#FFFFFF
NeuroKin speaks like a trusted companion: reassuring, curious and celebratory. Its values are connection, identity and restoration, and its language leans on words like rediscover, preserve and pass on.
key features
Set up the pair
The app walks a family through choosing modes and linking a giver and a receiver.
Choose what to share
Once connected, the pair picks language, action or lived-memory transfer.
DuoMode
Culture markers like city signs, food and cherry blossoms flow from giver to receiver.
personal reflection
As brand designer and project manager on a team of three, I shaped the speculative concept and directed how the product’s story was told on film, all in three weeks.
future considerations
Next I’d explore the ethics: consent from the giver, what happens to painful memories, and who owns a family’s history once it becomes data.
