UI Design · Native Instruments
Vocal Colors
Overview
Vocal Colors is a virtual instrument by Native Instruments that blends organic vocal samples with synthesis-style modulation, letting producers shape and layer human voices into evolving pads, textures, and rhythmic pulses. The instrument UI is the primary interface musicians interact with to sculpt sound: layering voices, dialing modulation, building effects chains. The visual design needed to reflect the instrument's core identity, the fluid, breathing quality of the human voice.
Challenge
The art direction called for an abstract visual language: a bloom-and-breathing motif to evoke vocal movement, with plant forms arranged into subtle face shapes in the background. Translating that concept into a functional, shippable UI required both design judgment and system-level thinking. Vocal Colors was also the first product to use Native UI, NI's new internal design system, meaning the system's existing components didn't yet cover everything the instrument needed.
Approach
Working closely with Galaxy Instruments' audio engineer and developer, I took their mockups and developed the final UI design, refining the art direction while staying true to the conceptual brief. Where Native UI fell short, I designed custom components and patterns that extended the system without breaking from it, ensuring future consistency across the product line.
Result
Vocal Colors shipped as the first product built on Native UI, establishing real-world validated patterns that expanded the design system. The instrument's visual identity, the bloom motif, the layered organic forms, translates its character into something immediately felt before a note is played.
My Role
UI design lead on the instrument interface, in close collaboration with audio engineering and development. Responsible for final design, art direction refinement, and custom component creation within the Native UI system.
UI Design
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