3.5
Naming and art direction for NEURA's humanoid robot
Naming a humanoid robot isn't just a branding exercise — it has to carry an idea, work across languages, and feel right the moment someone reads it. NEURA's CEO had a clear strategic direction in mind; our role was to translate that into both the name and the visual identity around it.
Designed in partnership with the Porsche Design Studio, NEURA Robotics released its latest humanoid robot at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. 4NE1 3.5.
Beyond the name, our job was to build a visual language coherent with the product and aligned with the brand direction NEURA's CEO wanted to set — researching textures, colors, and building mood boards to define how 4NE1 would look and feel before a single final asset was produced.
Our creative direction started from a simple belief: innovation shouldn't feel distant. When a design feels too far removed from what we know, it stops being something we can relate to — it becomes a concept, not a presence. Talking about tomorrow's world is an interesting challenge precisely because of that tension: push too far into science fiction, and people stop seeing themselves in it.
So instead of placing 4NE1 in a hyper-futuristic setting, we deliberately blended a science-fiction sensibility with something vintage, warm, and familiar — a humanoid robot standing in your grandmother's living room. Old wallpaper on the walls, textures that feel raw and real, nothing polished or artificial. That contrast — advanced technology inside a space that feels lived-in and human — is what let the robot feel less like a concept, and more like something that could genuinely belong in someone's home.
Concept visual generated with AI, as part of our mood board exploration.
Concept visual generated with AI, as part of our mood board exploration.
Concept visual generated with AI, as part of our mood board exploration.
AI played a real role in this phase — helping us generate and iterate on visual concepts fast, testing directions that would have taken far longer to explore by hand. It let us cover more creative ground in the research phase, without cutting corners on the final result.
Concept visual generated with AI, as part of our mood board exploration.
The visual identity and art direction we built for 4NE1 reached the public stage at CES 2026, where NEURA Robotics unveiled the 4NE1 3.5 at its booth. Rather than a walking demo — what many attendees expected — CEO David Reger used the moment to present NEURA's broader vision for the company, with 4NE1 as its centerpiece. For visitors hoping to see movement, the smaller 4NE1 Mini delivered it instead, performing a choreographed dance that kept the booth's energy alive.
