Akai Professional · 2018 · Inventor / Marketing Lead
Released globally in 2018, I conceptualized, created the original product wireframe and marketed the Akai Fire. The Fire is the world's first dedicated hardware controller for FL Studio, the popular digital audio workstation (DAW). Conceptualizer and co-inventor of the product - Design Patent No. D897993 and No. D897373.
FL Studio is one of the most widely used digital audio workstations in the world, the software a generation of producers learned to make beats on. While other major platforms had dedicated hardware built around them, FL Studio did not. That gap was the brief.
I conceptualized a controller designed around the way producers actually work in FL Studio and drew the original product wireframe that set its layout and control scheme. The design was patented, and I am named co-inventor on two US design patents, D897993 and D897373.
I led the global marketing release in 2018, taking the Fire to market as the first instrument built for FL Studio and putting it in the hands of the producer community it was made for.
The Akai Fire shipped as the world’s first dedicated hardware controller for FL Studio and has sold more than 30,000 units, turning an open gap in the market into a product category of its own.
