Cultura

Bluetooth speaker redesign for the loud and cramped world of family-run food trucks.

In Fall 2025, my partner and I designed Cultura, a Bluetooth speaker built for the realities of family-owned food truck kitchens.

Cultura was built around a use case the market hardly focuses on: shared music as a working tool for morale and connection, not leisure.

In Fall 2025, my partner and I designed Cultura, a Bluetooth speaker built for the realities of family-owned food truck kitchens.

Cultura was built around a use case the market hardly focuses on: shared music as a working tool for morale and connection, not leisure.

Year

2025

2 months

Discipline

Reverse Engineering

Branding

Prototyping

What prompted this project?

Existing speakers weren't built for this environment.

I always get a quesadilla from this on-campus, family-run food truck. But every time I went there, I couldn't help but notice their greased-up JBL on the counter.

And then I wondered. Is this a problem for food truck owners?

Who are we designing for?

A family running a food truck, together.

Our user is a family-run food truck team — often multiple generations working the same shift, in a kitchen that's loud, cramped, and physically demanding for hours at a time.

Hands are rarely free: they're prepping, plating, cleaning, or too unsanitary to touch a phone screen.

Music, for this group, isn't background noise. It's one of the few things holding morale together across a long day.

Our user is a family-run food truck team — often multiple generations working the same shift, in a kitchen that's loud, cramped, and physically demanding for hours at a time.

Hands are rarely free: they're prepping, plating, cleaning, or too unsanitary to touch a phone screen.

Music, for this group, isn't background noise. It's one of the few things holding morale together across a long day.

Interviews

We talked to family-run food truck owners who have been in business for 5-15 years. Hygiene was a significant aspect they cared about.

Maintaining strict hand hygiene throughout a shift

Minimizing how often gloves come on and off during service

We talked to family-run food truck owners who have been in business for 5-15 years. Hygiene was a significant aspect they cared about.

Maintaining strict hand hygiene throughout a shift

Minimizing how often gloves come on and off during service

Market trend

A scan of the current market showed the category splitting into two lanes: low-durability speakers under $50 and premium waterproof models near $80–130 built for outdoor use.

The common theme we noticed was the small buttons, fabric material, and unremovable grills. None of these were suitable for a fast-paced kitchen with messy hands.

(And they all look the same)

Reverse engineering a bluetooth speaker

To design a better one, we had to understand how a current one is actually built. We fully disassembled a market speaker — grill, diaphragms, motherboard, battery, aux port — to map every constraint we'd be designing around.

What is the design process?

Design Research Methods

We used SCAMPER to explore the speaker's form and materials against kitchen conditions.

We mapped associations around "a speaker for small/family-owned business owners" and surfaced four recurring demands:

Durable
Hands-free/big buttons
Multifunctional
Sleek

We used SCAMPER to explore the speaker's form and materials against kitchen conditions.

We mapped associations around "a speaker for small/family-owned business owners" and surfaced four recurring demands:

Durable
Hands-free/big buttons
Multifunctional
Sleek

This pointed us toward a product that had to survive the kitchen physically before it could serve any other function.

Journey map

We then mapped a food truck owner's full day, from 7 AM prep through peak service to closing at 10 PM, showed that gloves go on and off repeatedly during every peak window, and that music already enters the workflow twice: to draw customer attention while setting up, and as something owners turn to during rare downtime.

Ideations

We explored form factors from cube to cylinder to modular-block, testing where buttons, grilles, and customizable panels could live without compromising durability.

[Detailed Iteration]

Prototyping

We iterated through button count, ergonomics, and grill placement to finalize the layout, emphasizing the play button above all others.

3D Printing

We 3D printed and transplanted the disassembled speaker's internals inside our own redesigned form factor for the functional model.

Notable Features

Accessibility

Oversized buttons to be able to push with wrists or elbows.

Magnetic sides can mount anywhere in the kitchen walls, keeping the counter space free.

Material / durability

Steel casing and detachable grill for grease resistance and cleanability.

Branding

We wanted the design to reflect the identity and energy of food truck culture: bold typography, take-out box packaging, and a grill built around a customizable culinary identity system, so owners can shape the truck's look and feel around their own food and story.

Cultura

France

$80

From $20/month, or 4 payments at 0% interest with Klarna Check purchase power

This product is excluded from site promotions and discounts.

Shipping

You'll see our shipping options at checkout.

What did I learn from this?

Observe.

The idea didn't start with asking people what they want, but started with noticing things from my day-to-day life. Words are useful, but watching people and their environment often surfaces the problem before anyone can put it into words.

Build.

3D printing and assembling our model with the internals gave more insight into changes than keeping everything in the digital world.

Instagram

Insta