Product design that transforms congenital heart disease into music | D&AD Awards 2023

Creative Director Oskar Hellqvist tells us how his team at Abby.World created a drum machine based on the heartbeats of four children with different heart defects to raise awareness of congenital heart disease for the Swedish Heartchild Foundation. With the help of audiovisual artist Love Hultén, each ECG was decoded into a sequencer, allowing the user to create music with the children’s heartbeats.

The heartbreaking effect of the CHD-4 machine puts the problem in the hands of potential donors. The success of CHD-4 spread and has been adopted by artists including Alt-J, who played to huge crowds with the children’s tiny heartbeats guiding the rhythm.

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