A 2-week solo app, designed and built with AI
Brand identity, Creative Direction, Marketing
2024
Role
Social Media
Branding
Strategy
Team
Azil Zaneen
Sachin
Ashaan
Ibnu Kopz
Nihal
Tools
Figma
Illustrator
Davinci resolve
Photoshop
Procreate
Timeline
6 months
- present
+
Final Design
Challenge
A couples app where two partners exchange daily 30-second drawings — locked until both have sent. Designed in Figma, built solo with React Native, Skia, and Supabase using Claude as a pair-programmer. From idea to a live Android beta in 2 weeks. My second solo AI-built app.
Role
Social Media
Branding
Strategy
Team
Azil Zaneen
Sachin
Ashaan
Ibnu Kopz
Nihal
Tools
Figma
Illustrator
Davinci resolve
Photoshop
Procreate
Timeline
6 months
- present
Challenge
Challenge: Lack of Cohesive Branding
Arivushala, a group of five friends united by their love for poetry, hip-hop, and their cultural roots, needed a strong creative direction. They wanted to visually capture their journey, artistic expression, and community-building spirit through cohesive design, branding, and content strategy.
Need for a Strong Visual Identity
The group sought a unified visual identity, starting with a logo that truly represented their essence. They needed a design that would resonate with their audience and connect on a deeper, more meaningful level.
Building a Digital Presence and Engaging Audience
With plans to launch an album and grow their community, Arivushala required an engaging digital platform and a compelling content strategy. Their goal was to showcase their work, strengthen their connection with fans, and boost their visibility in the hip-hop scene.
+
Old Logo Analysis:
The previous logo was a basic font with a handwriting style, lacking clear curation or design that effectively conveyed the brand's essence.
It failed to represent the group's creative energy or cultural roots, making it difficult for the audience to connect with the brand visually.
Initiative-1
1. Creative Direction and Branding
Logo Development:
We started with the logo, capturing Arivushala’s deep connection to nature, community, and cultural roots. From sketches that featured birds and natural elements, we integrated symbols that truly reflected the group’s unique identity.
Moodboard Creation:
A moodboard was crafted to set the tone, encapsulating the essence of Arivushala. This visual guide became the backbone for all branding and content, ensuring everything felt cohesive and true to their story.
Moodbaord
The crew needed a bold, expressive wordmark that resonated with their love for writing and storytelling. The challenge was to create a design that felt both strong and creative, reflecting their roots in poetry and hip-hop while standing out visually.
The sketches were inspired by various Gothic and graffiti-style fonts.
These fonts were chosen to represent the street culture central to the crew's identity.
Each sketch aimed to capture the raw, expressive energy of the group's artistic roots.
Final Design
Initiative-2
2. Album Art and Launch Event
Photoshoot:
We organized a photoshoot that captured the essence of Arivushala’s journey, bringing their stories to life through visuals that resonated with their audience.
Album Art and Cover Design:
Designed a captivating album cover that told Arivushala’s story through photography and unique design elements, incorporating the logo to reflect their artistic journey.
Storytelling-Driven Social Media Campaign:
We built anticipation for the album through strategic social media campaigns that highlighted Arivushala’s narrative. The result? Strong engagement and placements in popular playlists like Spotify V9 and Latest Hiphop Malayalam.
Lyric and Music Videos:
We created visually compelling videos for tracks like "Dhooram" and "Baalan," adding layers to the music and connecting deeply with viewers.
Album cover
Launch Event (Poster)
" The challenge here was to choose from all these styles which existed among the hiphop - graffiti culture was intial step we took and drove into fun explorations."
Content Strategy
" The challenge here was to choose from all these styles which existed among the hiphop - graffiti culture was intial step we took and drove into fun explorations."
+
Change
Significant Recognition in the Regional Hip-Hop Scene
The successful album launch positioned Arivushala as a notable name in the regional hip-hop landscape, boosting our visibility and reputation.
Amplified Presence Through Curated Content and Launch Events
Our storytelling-driven content and curated launch event didn't just promote the album—they amplified our presence, attracting new collaborators and strengthening our reputation within the community.
Key Achievements:
10,000 Streams in the First 30 Days
The album resonated with listeners, achieving approximately 10,000 streams between July 26 and August 22, marking a strong entry for Arivushala in the hip-hop scene.60,000 Impressions in One Month
The buzz generated from our social media campaigns and launch events led to around 60,000 impressions in the last 30 days, enhancing our digital footprint.
Instagram stats
The OTW album
Role
Social Media
Branding
Strategy
Team
Azil Zaneen
Sachin
Ashaan
Ibnu Kopz
Nihal
Tools
Figma
Illustrator
Davinci resolve
Photoshop
Procreate
Timeline
6 months
- present
Initiative
As the creative director, I provided the vision for Arivushala, we did mock photoshoots to portray the group's connection to nature, writing, traveling, and making music together as friends.
I spearheaded the content design and branding efforts, ensuring that the essence of the crew was captured in all visual and content elements from live shows, Music rollout strategy. We crafted a storytelling-driven social media campaign that not only promoted the album but also built anticipation before releasing, leading to the tracks being featured in Spotify and Apple Music playlists.
Our first major step was launching an album with seven tracks that introduced Arivushala’s versatality and the individual records which represent individuality inside Shala.
Additionally, we organized a launch party, curated and invited our artists friends, this was powered by our distributor Alt Plus, which garnered significant attention from both the market and fellow artists.
+
Change
The successful album launch established Arivushala as a notable name in the regional hip-hop scene, significantly increasing our visibility and recognition.
The content and curated launch event further amplified our presence, attracting new collaborators and solidifying our reputation.
Achieved approximately 10,000 streams within the first 30 days of release (July 26 - August 22).
Generated around 60,000 impressions over the last 30 days (July 26 - August 22).
More details coming soon …
Challenge
Arivushala, a collective of five friends with a shared passion for poetry, hip-hop, and their cultural roots, needed a cohesive creative direction. The goal was to represent their journey, artistic expression, and community-building efforts through design, branding, and content strategy.
Challenge: Lack of Cohesive Branding
Arivushala, a group of five friends united by their love for poetry, hip-hop, and their cultural roots, needed a strong creative direction. They wanted to visually capture their journey, artistic expression, and community-building spirit through cohesive design, branding, and content strategy.
Need for a Strong Visual Identity
The group sought a unified visual identity, starting with a logo that truly represented their essence. They needed a design that would resonate with their audience and connect on a deeper, more meaningful level.
Building a Digital Presence and Engaging Audience
With plans to launch an album and grow their community, Arivushala required an engaging digital platform and a compelling content strategy. Their goal was to showcase their work, strengthen their connection with fans, and boost their visibility in the hip-hop scene.
Live website
A 2-week solo app, designed and built with AI
Brand identity, Creative Direction, Marketing
2024
Role
Solo Designer-Builder ·
AI-Native Workflow
Team
Solo
Tools
Figma,
Claude,
React Native, Skia, Supabase, Expo
Timeline
2 weeks
+
Problem
Couples lose the small daily moments — the napkin drawings, the "thinking of you" pings. Once you live together those rituals fade; once you're long-distance they disappear entirely.
Most couples apps add features. LoveLoop subtracts them. One mechanic, one rule: 01 Both partners draw for 30 seconds. Every day. 02 Neither sees the other's drawing until both have sent. 03 The lock forces mutual investment. The reveal is the ritual.
THE BUILD — Three mechanics, three decisions
Onboarding & Pairing — both partners in, in under a minute Magic-link auth, 6-char invite codes, pre-pairing canvas preview. Couples pair in under 60 seconds from install. Friction lives in the product, not the setup.
The Drawing Loop. 30 seconds, locked reveal
he Drawing Loop — 30 seconds, locked reveal Skia canvas (native, no lag). 30-second timer with haptic checkpoints. Locked state until both submit. Animated paired reveal. The reveal is what makes people send the APK to friends.
The Daily Ritual. What brings them back
The Daily Ritual — what brings them back Daily prompts ("draw your morning"), synced push for both partners, gentle streak tracking. Beta testers report drawing every day for a week+. The ritual sticks because it's small, mutual, quick.
Solo Build with AI. How it shipped in 2 weeks
A real mobile app needs auth, real-time sync, native canvas, push, build pipeline, packaging. Traditionally a 3-person team for 3 months. Designed every screen in Figma. Built with Claude as pair-programmer — translated Figma screens into React Native, debugged Skia, set up Supabase real-time, managed Expo build. Designer and engineer were the same person, so design decisions shipped as designed. 2 weeks, concept to live Android beta.
01 Constraints are the product. 30 seconds. Locked until both send. Once a day. Every constraint is a feature; the product would be worse with any of them removed.
02 Designer-builder + AI = no translation loss. The biggest tax on solo development is the gap between "what I designed" and "what got built." When the same person designs and builds with Claude handling the typing, that gap disappears.
03 Solo builds force ruthless scope. No team to staff against, no roadmap to fill — only the one mechanic that has to feel right. That's why LoveLoop ships in 2 weeks, not 6 months.
WHAT I LEARNED
Challenge
LOVELOOP A couples app. Two partners exchange daily 30-second drawings — locked until both have sent. Built solo with React Native, Skia, Supabase, and Claude as a pair-programmer. Idea to live Android beta in 2 weeks.
Onboarding & Pairing. Both partners in, in under a minute
