The Center for Philosophical Technologies

Branding, website design and digital development for the Center for Philosophical Technologies (CPT) of Arizona State University. Visit website ↗

Introduction

The CPT is an Arizona State University strategic initiative that brings together philosophers, designers, artists, scientists, critics and creatives to interrogate, critique, and reconsider the relation between philosophical inquiry and technological development in the 21st century and beyond.

Challenge

The CPT approached the Moby Digg digital design agency to develop a visual language that mirrors the innovative and interdisciplinary process of the institution — to create, develop and explore new spectrums in a visual language.

Approach

The Munich-based design agency Moby Digg created a logo that reflects the center’s dynamic DIY approach. The acronym CPT serves as the cornerstone but the letters can be arranged freely within the branding system and are framed by parentheses. Moby Digg researched the linguistics and semiotics that inform the expression of ideas through typography. This led to the conceptual rediscovery of parentheses: They allow writers the freedom to provide additional and clarifying information, insert relevant thought, provide context and content.

Outcome

This variable branding system can be used both statically and in motion as well as adapted to various design formats and spacial contexts. What’s more, it maintains acronymic, representative nature of CPT and can be used in practical research texts or claims, creating connected streams of thought while leaving room for context.

Impact

The website’s backgrounds build an analogy to Arizona’s desert landscape, symbolizing a view of the far horizon. Blurs serve to emphasize the intersection of disciplines at CPT and the vast informative clouds those disciplines encompass. The floating forms show an abstracted version of the constantly evolving thought process at the institution. The logo, typography and bubble compositions create a brand identity that invites free associations in the poetic, informative, technological realm of philosophy and design.

Team

Creative Direction: Gabriela Baka, Maximilian Heitsch
Lead Design: Gabriela Baka
Design: Sebastian Haiss
Lead Development: Artur Nagenrauft
Development: Sebastian Haiss, Maximilian Heitsch, Korbinian Lenzer