Kupu Haerenga
Kupu Haerenga invites you to learn te reo through your own personalized journey.
Client
Spark NZ
Year
2025
Summary
Kupu Haerenga is a speculative extension of Kupu, the popular app that allows users to scan everyday objects with their phone camera and learn their Māori translations.
Kupu Haerenga aims to encourage regular engagement by using the scan function as part of a custom tailored curriculum, matched to each user’s individual reasons for learning te reo Māori.
My Roles
Shape Layer Animation
Storyboarding
Background Illustration
Brand Development
Team Credits
Jade Luke-Hurley | Motion Design
Matt Brown | Graphic Design
Joshua Tupara | UI/UX Design
Development
Storyboard
Kupu Haerenga was born from the team’s shared desire to more deeply immerse ourselves in te ao Māori, each for our own individual reasons. For some, this meant better communicating with whānau, for others, reconnecting with heritage or reaffirming our identity as Kiwis.
Through an autoethnographic approach, we designed Kupu Haerenga as something that genuinely appealed to us as the target audience. This was reflected when creating the narrative for our explainer video, by featuring one of our motion designers, Jade Luke-Hurley as the protagonist.
Background Illustration
The backgrounds are all inspired by scenery found in Aotearoa from the iconic rolling hills of farmland to the snowy peaks of the Southern Alps. This illustrated scenery is featured across our promotional material, from posters to app backgrounds.
Animated Elements