Mark
A reading companion that turns the act of underlining into something you'd want to share
Mark is a capture device and companion app built by Eason Tang through TroyLabs' BUILD program. Eason's thesis was that reading should be social, a Spotify Wrapped for what you read, rather than another place to file highlights. I joined as the designer and worked across four surfaces over the semester: the app and its share system, the brand, the physical packaging, and the deck we presented at LAUNCH.
Reading is private, and nothing carried it anywhere else
- Capture had to happen without interrupting the reading itself
- Nothing connected the device to the app, or the app to a library
- A highlight is only interesting to the person who made it
Eason had the thesis before I joined; my problem was making it real. Most of the work was decomposition: the device, the app, and the share layer each answered a different question, and the answers had to add up to one product rather than three.
Reading, made social
Wrapped-style cards that turn a stretch of reading into something postable. Deliberately quirky and over-designed: a share screen only works if someone wants to be seen posting it, so this traded restraint for personality.
From page to library
Logging a highlight on the device without leaving the page, then sorting captures against books, categories, and notes written in the app. Organised by reading habit rather than by file.
Twenty, then three, then colour
Twenty rough packaging concepts narrowed to three, then iterated in depth before any colour went on. Yellow was load-bearing in the early identity, so it came last and on purpose rather than as a starting constraint.
LAUNCH
The three-minute pitch presented at TroyLabs' end-of-semester LAUNCH summit.
