Wabi is a platform for creating, discovering and remixing personal software: small apps shaped around the people who use them.
As a founding designer, I worked with the team on Wabi's launch across web, motion, social and App Store touchpoints, building on Studio Dumbar's identity. The work spanned the private beta in October 2025 through the public launch in February 2026.
Studio Dumbar's five-circle mark, Selecta typography and glass orbs gave us a shared visual language. We carried it across the launch, from the manifesto site and introduction film to social campaigns, the funding announcement and the store listing.
October: An App for You
Wabi went into private beta on October 9, 2025. The pitch was a single correction to a familiar line. There's an app for that became there's an app for you.
The site told that story as a manifesto. It opens on “Many Years Ago,” set in an editorial serif, and walks down a column of text past the app icons of the early App Store era. Crossed-out lines and highlighted words give it the feeling of an argument being made in real time.
The introduction film brought the same message into motion. Across the site, film and social posts, we returned to one idea: software could feel personal again.
The glass orb connected those formats. It could hold a photo, an object or a small world, giving the promise of personal software a recognisable shape. On the website it sat alongside the manifesto; in motion it became a lens; in social carousels it appeared among the objects and interests that make up someone's life.
We adapted the story to each setting. The website gave it room to unfold, while the films and social posts carried shorter expressions of the same idea into feeds.
November: Twenty Million
On November 6 Wabi announced a $20M pre-seed led by a16z. The announcement put the number at display size in Selecta and let a pile of orbs, each one a different app, spill in from below.
The film that went with it showed what those orbs stand for: small apps for friends' birthdays and everything in between, each with its own glass interface.
February: The Doors Open
The App Store listing went live in early January, and the countdown started soon after. On February 2 the first 10,000 access codes went out, and on the tenth Wabi announced 100,000 invitations for the month.
The store frames are the identity at its most compressed. Each one has a single promise in Selecta and a single screen that proves it.
The launch also extended into artist collaborations and partner work, adapting the same language for different audiences.
Across those touchpoints, we kept returning to the same promise: apps shaped around people's lives. The films were part of that wider effort, alongside the website, social campaigns and App Store presence.