HOD·HOD
A Soft Sci-Fi Shoulder Companion Drone
Designed in collaboration with Adobe through the Creative Apprenticeship program
Hodhod is a personal companion drone designed to live with you, not just fly for you. Inspired by the hoopoe bird, a symbol of guidance and quiet wisdom in Persian poetry, Hod.hod rests in a small dock on your shoulder and accompanies you wherever you go. It's translucent shell, warm amber glow, and quiet presence are built around one idea: technology that feels calm.
01 ______ The Problem
The problem with drones is everything around the drone.
Launching, framing, landing, packing, charging. A drone is supposed to capture the moment, but it pulls you out of it. You stop the hike to fly. You miss the light while you set up. You hold the controller instead of the experience.
Hodhod is built to disappear into your day. A small companion drone that rests in a soft dock on your shoulder, it launches itself, by voice or autonomously, captures the shot, and returns. No controllers. No setup. No interruption.
02 ______ The Product
Wherever you go, Hodhod goes too.
When you want the shot, Hodhod responds to voice command, or launches autonomously based on context, learning your environment over time.The rotors spin up, the drone lifts smoothly out of the Perch, captures the moment, and returns to its dock without breaking your stride. You never reach for a controller.
You never stop walking. You never pull yourself out of the experience to operate technology. The interaction is designed to feel like having a thoughtful companion, not a piece of equipment.
03 ______ The System
Hodhod doesn't live in a backpack or a charging case. It lives in a soft wearable dock that travels with you, a standalone accessory that works over any jacket, sweater, or shirt. One product. Two pieces. Built to move with you.
04 ______ The Moment
Translucency was the breakthrough material decision. By letting the internal components, the small circuit board, the warm light at the core, the motor mounts, read softly through the frosted shell, Hodhod becomes honest about being technology while still feeling tactile and human-made. Like an early translucent iMac, or a piece of Bauhaus-era industrial design: tech you can see, but never overwhelmed by.
05 ______ The Material
Materials are the design.
Hodhod's palette translates "soft sci-fi" from concept into something you can hold.
Frosted acrylic diffuses the internals, tech that's honest but not loud. Technical fabric makes the dock feel like clothing, not hardware. Amber polycarbonate warms the LED from clinical to alive. Silicone lives at the contact points, where the system touches.
Together: a product that reads as tech, but feels like company.
06 ______ The Process
The entire project lived inside one canvas.
Adobe Firefly Boards became the studio, references, sketches, form research, material studies, hero compositions, and final variations all in one infinite space. Decisions happened in pictures, not paragraphs.
Designed to be seen, not noticed.
Hodhod's form was developed through dozens of silhouette studies. The pebble shape avoids the aggressive angularity of consumer drones and leans into something softer, closer to a smooth stone than a piece of military hardware. The four ducted rotors are recessed flush into the body, eliminating the spider-leg arms that make most quadcopter feel utilitarian.
Designed by: Mehrnaz Amouei
Commissioned by: Adobe Creative Apprenticeship program
Tools: Adobe Firefly Boards · Adobe Firefly Video · Adobe Photoshop · Adobe Express
Shout out to Adobe as my partner in this workflow.
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