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3 June 2025 • Ashwin Srihari • Bangalore, India
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Today, something truly surreal happened: my app, Denim, was selected as a finalist for the Apple Design Awards.
Five years ago, I didn’t know a single thing about coding—let alone building an app. Here’s the story behind Denim.
Like many other millennials that grew up in the iTunes era, I was obsessed with my music library.
Every day after school, I’d toss my bag, run to the family computer, and start downloading the latest tracks my friends were raving about.
Each song would take 5–10 minutes to download back then—even though it was just 6 MB—then I’d update the metadata, add the correct album artwork, all just to make sure my Cover Flow looked perfect!
Image Credits: 512 Pixels
The twist? I wasn’t even using a Mac. My iTunes library lived on a chunky old Windows PC. Apple hadn’t really arrived in India yet—but that didn’t matter. Nothing felt more satisfying; it was truly mine.
A decade later, when Apple Music launched, I fell in love with my library all over again—this time thanks to their meticulously crafted playlists, each with stunning artwork designed by world-class artists. I could scroll through them for hours.
Image Credits: The Verge
But my own playlists? They looked unsightly now. I wanted beautiful covers just like Apple’s.
With my amateur skills, I started designing my own playlist artwork. I thought it was cool, so I shared it on r/Apple. To my surprise, people really liked it. That’s when I first thought: maybe I’m not the only one who wants this.
My reddit post in r/Apple