Converting cultural currency into... currency

Beats, having been recently acquired by Apple, was existing at an interesting cross-roads. It was a brand with immense cultural credibility at a time where they had multiple deals with prominent musicians and athletes, and yet was an extension of Apple.. a brand who had attained a very different version of cultural relevance. Trying to find a balance of the two was the crux of the ask– is there a way to parlay cultural relevance in pop culture into tech sales? I think the answer is yes, but the how given these ingredients is the tough part.

My involvement in this was primarily exploration, via several sprints that looked at solving design, content strategy, and UI/UX all at once. While I tried to push the edges of what was possible for a brand like this from an interaction standard, it quickly fell inline with most conservative platforms by developing tool kits to tell more narrow merchandising stories. The foundation of my directions was then carried on, expanded upon, and brought to life by the rest of the team at BASIC.