lingo: the communication companion
scenario: a child on a playground wants to communicate with another child who speaks a different language. they speak into one ear and the translation comes out of the mouth. if the other child wants to respond, they speak into the opposite ear and it translates back.
early ideas started as a personal companion project, beginning with a simple voice recorder. as i explored the form, i started to see faces in early recording devices, leading into anthropomorphism and breaking the face down into functional parts. i wanted to lean into those roles, something personal and intimate, built around the act of whispering into an ear, tied to ideas of secrecy, trust, and quiet communication.
then i wanted to push the concept further. i wasn’t stoked on making something purely personal, so i started asking how a product could be shared with someone else. then even more, how could it break barriers and create communication between people who wouldn’t normally approach each other.
the idea came from early memories of being in school with many students who spoke english as a second language. i always wished i could understand them better, but i’d see them using these translation devices that looked like calculators, confusing to others and sometimes even a target for teasing. that same type of product still exists today, lacking any real integration with kids.
that pushed me to design something desirable, something that sparks interest at first glance and invites interaction, followed by the surprise of its true purpose: enhancing communication across cultures within the youth of america.
this was my first chance to explore basic packaging iterations, which opened up a whole new layer of creativity from a branding standpoint. i started thinking about how to stand out on shelves while still communicating a more sophisticated, higher price point product, but also making something that feels exciting and desirable to kids over the more boring competitors.
extra color renders
