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2024
Kyral – The Missing Hub for Creator Collaboration
A full end-to-end project spanning user research, brand identity, motion design, UI/UX, and marketing — designing a social platform where creators discover each other, align on scope, work together in one place, and publish with proper credit.
Pre-Launch Trailer
Before launch we released this teaser to build anticipation and curiosity in the creator community — letting the world know something was coming, without revealing exactly what.
Full App Walkthrough
Animated Logo Reveal
Tools
Figma · AE · Miro
My Role
Lead Designer
Team
4 members
Duration
8 weeks
User Research
In 2020, the creator economy was exploding — TikTok passed 850 M users, Twitch saw record watch hours, and Patreon & Substack empowered creators to earn directly. But while creators thrived individually, collaborations were messy, fragmented, and often failed.
We didn't just read articles — we listened. I led 12 in-depth interviews with creators across motion design, streaming, writing, and music. Their words shaped Kyral's DNA.
850M+
TikTok users in 2020
70%
Creators who lost work due to version chaos
60%
Had a negative collab due to unclear credits
"I find collaborators through Instagram DMs, but keeping track is a nightmare. Half the time I lose files."
— Motion Creator, 23
"Collabs are fun, but setting them up is messy. Fiverr feels too transactional. I just want people I vibe with."
— Twitch Streamer, 27, US
"I run workshops on Substack but need designers for visuals. It's hard to judge quality from a random DM."
— Writer, 30, US
"I once released a track and forgot to credit the vocalist. They were upset. I wish credits were automatic."
— Music Producer, 21, US
Age Range
Gen Z & Millennials (16–35)
Team Size
Solo creators & small teams (2–5 people)
Geographies
US, UK, India, Southeast Asia
Pain Points → Design Challenges
Too many fragmented tools
→
One Project Room
Cold DMs and random matches
→
Taste-based Collab Match
Unclear rights and scope
→
Brief Builder + rev-share templates
Version chaos
→
Inline comments & approvals
Missed credits
→
Auto-credit export
"Tools existed — Discord, Fiverr, Patreon, Notion — but none answered the heart of the problem: creators needed a home for collaboration, not just another publishing or gig tool."
Discord
Conversations
Fiverr
Gig marketplace
Patreon
Monetisation
Notion
Task organisation
Brand Design
Kyral needed to feel like it belonged to creators — bold, dark, purposeful, and a little unexpected. I built the brand identity from scratch: wordmark, logomark, colour palette, typography system, and a full brand guidelines document.
Brand Values Encoded in the Logo
Collaboration
Two paths, one outcome
Trust
Symmetry and balance — each creator equal
Creativity
Dynamic intersecting forms — always in motion
Type
Inter for UI clarity; custom bold display weights for headlines that feel creator-confident, not corporate.
Colour
Deep dark backgrounds (#16141D) with electric violet (#7C5BF1) and gradient pinks — energy without noise.
Logo
The ✕ mark distilled into two mirrored arrows — symbolising two creators crossing paths to create something bigger.
Animated logo reveal crafted in After Effects
Motion Design
Motion was core to Kyral's story — not decoration. Every animated asset was purposeful: the logo reveal built brand recognition; the trailer created anticipation; the walkthrough made the product legible without a single line of copy.
Logo Animation
After Effects rig — the ✕ mark assembles from two arrows crossing, then settles into the wordmark with an ease-out that feels confident, not rushed.
Pre-Launch Trailer
A 30-second teaser built to spark curiosity. No product shown — just the problem, the tension, and the promise. Cut to a dark soundtrack.
Product Walkthrough
A narrated end-to-end journey through the app — from splash screen to creator match to content feed — doubling as investor material.
Pre-Launch Trailer — building anticipation before launch
UI Design
The app needed to feel premium but approachable — like a creative studio tool, not a corporate dashboard. The dark canvas gives creator content room to breathe, while violet accents direct attention without shouting.
The onboarding flow was designed to be generative: the more a creator links, the more value they immediately see (watch the follower count climb as they connect each platform). This creates an instant "aha" moment before they even enter the main app.
Dark-first canvas
Creator content — photos, videos, artwork — looks richer on dark. It also signals: this is a space built for visual people.
Swipe-based discovery
Like dating for creators. Inspired by Tinder's interaction model but filtered by skill, taste, and collab intent — not geography or vanity metrics.
Generative onboarding
The follower counter increments live as you link accounts, turning setup into a satisfying ritual rather than a chore.
Content-forward profiles
Instagram grid + YouTube thumbnails embedded directly in the Creator Card — so you judge someone by their work, not their bio.
Onboarding Flow
From splash screen to fully set-up creator profile in 5 steps.
Creator Discovery
Swipe through creator cards, see their full reach, drill into their content.
Full prototype — all 10 screens
Marketing & Launch Strategy
The marketing strategy was built into the design — the trailer, logo reveal, and walkthrough weren't afterthoughts, they were launch assets planned from day one. The goal: make the creator community feel like something they discovered, not something pushed at them.
🔥
Teaser Phase
Released the pre-launch trailer with no product reveal — just the tension. Seeded it across creator Discord servers and Twitter. Goal: curiosity.
📱
Product Reveal
Full walkthrough video released alongside the prototype. Influencer creators walked through it on streams — authentic, unscripted reactions.
✕
Identity Drop
Dropped the animated logo reveal simultaneously on all channels. The ✕ mark started appearing in creator bios as a signal of early community membership.
📋
Waitlist
Landing page collected waitlist signups gated by "what kind of creator are you" — segmenting the audience for targeted onboarding emails.
The Principle
Design is marketing. Every motion asset, every interaction micro-moment, and every piece of brand language was engineered to make creators feel that Kyral understood them — before they'd used a single feature.
Product Roadmap
"We couldn't do everything at once, so we built a roadmap grounded in creators' realities."
Creator Cards
Collab Match
Brief Builder
Project Rooms
Auto-credit
Talent pools
Cross-promo bundles
Moodboards
Publishing checklists
Rev-share templates
Payments & escrow (too complex for launch)
Results & Impact
10+ screens
Fully designed hi-fi prototype
3 videos
Trailer, walkthrough, logo reveal
End-to-end
Research → Brand → UI → Marketing
Kyral delivered a complete product story — from first insight to polished interface to launch-ready marketing assets. By owning research, brand, motion, UI, and marketing simultaneously, the result was a product that felt cohesive from every angle: every animation matched the brand, every screen reflected the research, and every marketing asset was grounded in the UI.
Every creator deserves a collaborator they can trust.
Kyral emerged from listening deeply to creators' real frustrations. The resulting design — spanning research, brand, motion, UI, and marketing — wasn't just a product. It was a statement about how the creator economy could work.
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