2026 Q3 recap: Live skin, sound for hearing aids, creator AI & more

Transitioning to post-MAYHEM era, what the f is Yung Studio doing now?

Tbh, we didn't know at first. We had been all hands on deck for the tour while simultaneously keeping up with the studio and still being ICs in the trenches. I hadn't looked up in months, let alone thought about what's next.

Turns out our curiosity did the work for us. The past few months brought a wild mix of client work and in-studio projects that pushed us into territory we'd never touched.

Our marketing site refresh is finally live! The repositioning, new business strategy, design and interaction, development, case studies' write-ups, photography, and motion visuals... it was all hands on deck.

Somewhere in there someone said "how about we make a few short films, like a trailer, for our website launch??" and we just... did it. A little series of teasers, each one dropping you into a different part of the site. We wanted people to feel the motion and the sound before they even land on the homepage. See additional "trailers" here (opens in new tab) and here (opens in new tab) on our IG!

After working in the music and entertainment industry for the past two years, we were asked to get into a completely different headspace: skin science. The first assignment our client tasked us with was to figure out how to artfully showcase real skin tissue placed on lab trays. It was an unusual undertaking! The goal was to add human dimension to a technology-driven brand built on something genuinely groundbreaking. On top of that, how could we create a brand system that captures the rigor of scientific processes and advanced lab setups?

Outer Bio is a platform for discovering next-gen skincare ingredients. It pairs machine learning with real human skin tissue stays viable for about four weeks, enabling faster, more accurate discovery of new compounds at scale.

We helped the founding team translate their vision and ambition into a brand concept we called Signal Within — the hidden patterns, rhythms, and data beneath the skin's surface. Across identity, imagery, and animation, we built a visual language that makes complex science feel intuitive, emotional, and alive.

Visit website (opens in new tab) to see it all come together! Full case study is here (opens in new tab)!

For most products, sonic branding is a nice-to-have layer of polish. But for Fortell (opens in new tab), one of the most advanced AI-enabled hearing aid products with the most recent $150M funding this year, sound is held to a brutal standard. It is part of the interface. Every chime, tone, and moment of audio has to carry the full weight of the product experience.

The stakes are emotional as much as technical. Hearing aids carry stigma for a lot of users — there's often anxiety, insecurity, and grief tied to hearing loss. So we built two systems to meet that moment. We created a logo motion and sonic identity design that can pair with the existing visual mark. And an ambient sound layer, designed to enhance the optimism alongside the everyday texture of a user's case study to convey what it actually feels like to hear the world again. Together, they make the daily adoption of Fortell's hearing aids feel less like a medical device and more like something premium, considered, and human.

Sound was just the first system. We're now building out Fortell's motion, graphic system and product imagery too — more on that soon.

Make sure you turn the sound on for these!

This year, we continued to be challenged by the different visions our clients brought to us. Nara was a speedy one. We had only a few weeks to bring it to life, so we defined what set them apart and conceptualized their products for marketing before the product was even fully built. How do we help creators picture themselves making products beyond brand deals? How do we make AI a companion or a peer, instead of something that takes over their creative control?

We came up with a brand idea called Power Duo. The Nara platform is about the partnership between two distinct forces: human instinct from creators and intelligent support from Nara, working together to make creativity more powerful.

We created an enhanced human avatar, "Lil Guy." Arms set, chest forward, charged with the same confidence Nara brings to creators. Even the icon system carries the same energetic spirit as the brand mark.

We're beyond excited to continue our marketing and product design work with the Nara team. Check out the new Nara's marketing site (opens in new tab) in the meantime. More to come!

One of the projects I am the most excited about is our first merch collection, and it’s something we wanted to create for some time now. We knew that we didn’t want to do traditional merch items, so we went a little wild.

What if we embraced our designer nerdiness and created a family of characters based on the emotional states you move through while making the actual design work? The ones you feel alone at 11pm between autosaves becoming something you can hold? Haha more to come! Can't wait to share a not-so-merch-like collection to the world for all the design nerds out there.

We have been thinking about what we want to work on next. Which brands can we help enhance experience or community? What if we create seasonal merch for a sports team or build an immersive and interactive space for a movie premise, or explore new mediums for brand expression?

We are looking for the right teams and the right projects. If you’re the one, let’s connect!

💜 Big thank you to the YUNG team: John, Stephanie, Boning, Keikei, Yula, Nick, Alex, and Caleb, plus our daily dev partners, Commerce-UI and Viso Haus.