Show all projects

  
A stack of twelve black books, spines reading MAX UNIVERSE and fore-edges W-04, the top cover carrying a blue and violet crossing markThe atlas: one crossing per cover, the whole run stacked

The challenge

Max had the deepest catalogue in streaming and the shallowest relationship with the people who love it. Fans of its biggest worlds organised on other platforms, because the service offered a grid of thumbnails and nowhere to actually be a fan.

The solution

We built Max Universe as a navigable map rather than a feed. Worlds have coordinates, timelines and edges; titles sit inside them. The X in the wordmark is drawn as two crossing beams — the point where two worlds intersect — and that crossing becomes the core interaction of the whole product.

A flat magazine spread with a grid of small black map tiles and the huge word WORLDSEvery world gets a code, a coordinate and a tile
An open black book angled on a dark surface showing a white contents list and blue and violet register marksContents as legend: six ways to read the map
A folded poster showing flat blue and violet lines crossing on black beside three short white headingsThe poster insert: forty routes, every crossing ringed
A tightly cropped white editorial spread with a black three-line pull quote and a blue duotone interior photographFeature spread, cropped hard: the argument in three lines
An angled open book with the huge word TIMELINE and a blue rule carrying ringed nodes across both pagesWorlds on a rule: the timeline runs through the gutter
A phone standing upright on a plinth showing a white app screen with blue and violet crossing routes and coordinate labelsThe product: a map you navigate, not a feed you scroll
An angled open book with a blue page reading EVERY WORLD HAS AN EDGE beside a grid of framed photographsWorld profile: the edge is where two catalogues touch
A flat spread with the words THE CROSSING in layered blue and violet outlines beside a framed photograph of a long wool coat laid flat with its collar and cuffs closed, resting on a pale grey surface.Chromatic specimen: the display face, six offsets deep, beside the coat laid flat and closed
An angled open book showing a catalogue of flat blue and violet branded objects each with a reference numberKit of parts: tokens, tickets, tape, one crossing pin

Project Information

Every streaming service solves discovery the same way: a vertical stack of horizontal rows. It is efficient, it is universally understood, and it is completely hostile to fandom.

Fans do not browse. They go deep, sideways and backwards — into timelines, into adjacent titles, into the specific episode where two things connect. None of that is expressible in a row of thumbnails.

Max Universe replaces the feed with a map. Worlds occupy space, have edges and neighbours, and can be entered rather than selected. Titles live inside worlds; timelines run through them.

The X in the wordmark is drawn as two crossing light beams — the moment where two worlds intersect. That crossing is not decorative: it is the core interaction, the point where the product invites you sideways instead of down.

The interface stays almost monochrome so that key art carries all the colour, and the blue-to-violet beam is reserved for navigation states — the light you follow rather than the thing you look at.

CAIO BARRETO

Creative Direction:
Caio Barreto

Design:
Júlia Bertoldi, Nara Vasconcelos, Kwame Osei, Marina Yuki

Motion Design:
Rafael Duarte, Ingrid Sollberg

Interactive Design:
Caio Bastos, Elif Demir

Strategy & Copywriting:
Priya Raghunathan, No Alves

Project Management:
Helena Braga

Account Direction:
Diego Fontenelle

Operations:
Sofia Krammer

Product Design:
Caio Bastos, Elif Demir

Motion Systems:
Ingrid Sollberg

Fonts:
ABC Favorit, ABC Diatype — Dinamo

Year:
2026

Digital Product · Concept

Self-initiated concept work. Max Universe is not a client of CAIO BARRETO. Imagery generated, not photographed.