TAKAYUKI RYOU「隆行遼」is the name of the character designed to represent a vocal database that was developed for use in the OpenUTAU synthesizer. The vocal database (more information here) is based off of my singing voice, which users can use to compose their own music with. This has been a personal passion project of mine for years, and it allowed me to flex not only my design and layout muscles but also my illustrative and character design muscles.

I went through multiple iterations of the character design in sketch form before digitally illustrating the official art for him. The backstory is that RYOU is a long lost robot who’s been floating through space for decades, singing to himself to keep himself busy. Then I created a logo and icons to represent different features of this voicebank, along with a color scheme. I created the color blob background in Photoshop and am using it across all design pieces for RYOU. This project brings together my love of music and Japanese culture with technology and graphic design. The screenshots at the end of this portfolio give a preview into the iterating and variations that went into designing elements for this project.