Little Labs
ABOUT
See It LiveOverview
Little Labs was a small creative studio out of Venice, California doing something genuinely ahead of its time. The work spanned two emerging platforms that most designers hadn't yet figured out: the iMessage App Store, where we designed branded sticker packs and experiences for major entertainment properties including The Martian and The Walking Dead, and the smartwatch ecosystem, where the canvas was a 40mm circle on someone's wrist.
Facer Creator
One of the most exciting projects at Little Labs was the Facer Creator, a web first watch face editor that let anyone design their own watch face from scratch, right in the browser. Before this it was a complicated process. We were the first to simplify this and ship to all major brands.
Facer marketplace
The flagship product was Facer, which became one of the leading watch face marketplaces in the world. Designing for Facer meant designing across every major smartwatch platform simultaneously, like the Apple Watch, Wear OS, and Samsung's Tizen-based Galaxy watches. Each platform had its own constraints, resolution, and interaction model.
The challenge wasn't just aesthetic. It was learning how to communicate clearly and expressively in an interface where the entire screen is roughly the size of two postage stamps, where the user also has about two seconds of attention at any given moment.
In-house concepts
Not every project at Little Labs was a licensed brand. Some of the most enjoyable work came from original concepts we developed in-house. Ideas like Let's Puck It and Let's Watch It, iMessage apps built around a simple theme and shipped fast.
We focused on choosing a concept, committing to it, and proving it worked before spending time polishing it to death. When you remove the pressure of perfection, you make bolder decisions. A strong idea executed with conviction will always outperform a weak one refined to a mirror shine that never ships or ships late.
Star Trek
Some projects land differently. Working with brands I'd grown up loving like Star Trek was the kind of work that doesn't feel like work. I've been sci-fi obsessed for as long as I can remember. The challenge was real though, Star Trek has one of the most passionate and detail literate fan bases in existence. They know the canon, they notice the inconsistencies, and they hold licensed work to a high standard staying true to the core identity while bringing something fresh enough to feel intentional and true to the brand.
Little Labs was quite the ride. We got to work with the biggest brands in the world and dream up apps of our own. Here are some various projects we worked on. Feel free to ask me more about them.
