Responses by Rob Duncan, partner and creative director, Mucho.
Background: The purpose of the project was to create a brand identity for Biotic, an ambitious initiative working to advance the development of synthetic living cells and make this groundbreaking technology accessible to the world. Our challenge was to communicate complex science in a simple, compelling way, helping people understand its extraordinary potential for the future of humanity. The identity needed to engage scientists, researchers, investors and institutions, while also inspiring curiosity and understanding among a broader public.
Design thinking: Our thinking was to create an identity as simple and fundamental as the science itself. The logo is a single dot, the purest representation of a cell and the starting point for endless possibilities. Using reaction-diffusion software developed by Karl Sims, we created animations and illustrations that explore how a single cell could grow, evolve and create something extraordinary. The identity was deliberately kept in black and white, reflecting the fact that this is just the beginning of a potentially world-changing scientific breakthrough. In the second year, we can add color and continue over the years so that the identity grows and comes to life alongside the science.
Challenges: Creating an identity that could live up to the extraordinary scientific breakthrough pioneered by Dr. Kate Adamala. We needed to understand the complexity of the science before we could communicate it in a way that was simple, accessible and inspiring. Synthetic living cells have the potential to change the future of humanity, but the idea can also feel intimidating or even frightening. Our challenge was to make the science feel approachable and optimistic, creating a visual language that was not only easy to understand, but also beautiful, creative and mesmerizing.
Favorite details: I’m proud of the entire project from start to finish. We were entrusted with an extraordinary scientific breakthrough that has the potential to change the world, and the client gave us the freedom and trust to tell their story in the way we believed was right. That kind of trust is incredibly important. The most enjoyable and ultimately most successful projects come from a genuine collaboration between client and designer, built on mutual respect, trust and a shared ambition to create something extraordinary.
New lessons: This project reinforced something we’ve always believed—understanding is the most important part of design. You have to listen, ask questions and truly understand what a client does, why they do it and why it matters before you can begin to tell their story to the world. If you cannot explain a complex idea simply, you probably don’t understand it well enough yourself. As the great Bob Gill once said, “If you have a solution before you know what the problem is, then you’re not designing, you’re just making wallpaper.”
Visual influences: We were hugely influenced by the pioneering work of Alan Turing and his discovery of how patterns form naturally in biology. His research into reaction-diffusion helped explain how simple chemical interactions can create the extraordinary patterns we see in nature—from animal markings to the growth of living organisms. We took this thinking and used reaction-diffusion software developed by Karl Sims to create mesmerizing animations and illustrations that grow, evolve and transform, much like the possibilities of synthetic living cells themselves. Rather than simply illustrating the science, we wanted the science to inspire the design, creating something beautiful, unexpected and full of possibility.
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