Retro Reel Timer — Minimal Cartoon UI A playful reinterpretation of a classic reel-to-reel timer, redesigned with a softer colour palette, simplified shapes and a clean cartoon-inspired visual style. The interface keeps the nostalgic character of analogue recording equipment while presenting the controls in a modern, friendly and easy-to-understand layout.

The design focuses on strong visual hierarchy, balanced spacing and clear interaction states. Bold timer typography, rounded controls and subtle depth help the interface feel approachable without becoming visually cluttered, creating a distinctive concept suitable for a mobile timer, audio recorder or productivity application.

The reel spools doubling as eyes is a smart way to add character without adding extra elements, keeps the layout clean while still being playful. Nice fit for a productivity tool that doesn't want to feel sterile.

Architect of Chaos: Branding Cobalt Analytics for the Envato Challenge AI has completely changed the creative landscape, but it hasn’t changed what makes a digital product functional. For the Envato Challenge, I set out to design the brand identity and UI concept for a B2B SaaS platform, Cobalt Analytics. The goal was to show the crucial difference between machine generation and human curation. The Insight: The Azulejo Metaphor  Data analytics is often visually represented by clichéd glowing nodes and neon webs. I wanted a metaphor with history. I turned to Azulejo — traditional Portuguese ceramic tiles. Historically, the art of Azulejo was about taking thousands of fragmented, independent tiles and assembling them into one grand, coherent narrative. This is exactly what a predictive data platform does: it turns chaotic metrics into a clear system. The Process: AI as the Miner, Human as the Filter  I started by feeding AI historical references of Azulejo tiles. The result? Absolutely stunning, yet completely unusable visual noise. AI generated beautiful chaos, but as a designer, I know that algorithms don't understand scalability, negative space, or modular grids.

The Extraction: I rejected 95% of the AI generations, extracting just one perfect geometric silhouette hidden in the noise.

The Clean-Up: I moved to Envato Elements to source mathematically perfect vector shapes and rebuilt the AI's concept into a clean, scalable brand mark.

The System (Figma): I established a strict modular Bento-grid, paired the complex geometry with a brutalist sans-serif typography, and built out the core UI dashboard widgets in Figma.

The Execution (Zero Photoshop): To bring the brand into the real world, I utilized Envato’s native mockup generator. I applied my designs directly to premium physical and digital mockups right inside Envato's browser tool—no Photoshop required. A completely streamlined, modern workflow.

The Result: Cobalt Analytics.  A brand identity that is mathematically precise, highly scalable, and ready for development. AI generated the noise, but human judgment built the system. And for the brave souls, here is the link to the full Figma file. Fair warning: it’s a typical creative mess inside, you know how it is 😅 https://www.figma.com/design/5Du5Sjr7jCCZYNgH5Y9QtB/Envato-Challenge?node-id=17-2181&t=vap8tOu6fACNieNW-1

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