In November 2007 we pitched for the Melbourne Next Wave art festival. This was an important milestone for us, as we were able to convince a room full of important people that we were a legitimate business.
The festival theme was "Closer Together" which prompted us to create the HUGBOT; a domestic closeness enforcement appliance. Hugbot is the logical conclusion to the online social networking arms race, and has a very fashionable pair of red gloves. We cobbled together a Hugbot prototype out of heating ducts, duct tape and expanding foam, and photographed it in its natural home environment. Much love to Adrian Hogan for the great concept illustrations.
Our type treatment started with rationalizing the Next Wave logo down to a family of strokes that could all be drawn on the same grid. We expanded this into two display faces; named Ergosterol Etch and Ergosterol Tech (anagrams of Closer Together). Although we lost the pitch to our very talented friends at Chase & Galley, in the end I feel that we were all winners, happy participants in the grand old game of life.
Type Grid System - Each letter drawn from same grid.
Ergosterol Etch - Why make fi and fl ligatures??
Ergosterol Tech - Etch's sloppy & overweight cousin.
Hugbot Concept Illustration - Illustrations by Adrian Hogan
HUGBOT PROMO PHOTO - Space-heater control panel!
Promotional Poster - We love graph paper!