Brand and product design for a real-time chord detection app

Challenge

Musicians often struggle to identify chords while learning songs or jamming. Existing tools were clunky desktop applications or required manual input. The opportunity was to create an always-available tool that could listen and identify chords in real-time, right from your wrist.

Approach

Designed ChordDetect end to end around a hard technical constraint: real-time chord recognition from live audio, running on a wearable. The watch listens through its microphone and resolves what it hears into a chord as it is played. Created a bold, music-forward brand identity with a distinctive yellow "d" mark on deep blue, and an interface that prioritizes glanceability, showing the detected chord prominently with a piano keyboard visualization for context.

Impact

The app brings chord detection to musicians' wrists, eliminating the friction of pulling out a phone or laptop mid-session. The visual design stands out in the music app category while remaining functional and easy to read at a glance during practice or performance.

Product Design Brand Identity watchOS

Next project

SlateRoom Product, Brand, Data Design