The Alan Turing Institute - Motion Branding
Motion Branding
As the UK’s national data science and artificial intelligence institute, The Turing has a duty to lead public conversation and engagement on the scientific, societal, and economic impact of the field.
To effectively communicate complex topics they wanted to evolve their current identity into an engaging motion branding package for digital and social.
The use of motion also allowed a new opportunity to tell a story about the Turing’s mission.
At its heart the motion design describes a journey: from math to real life. From the lines of code behind a screen to actions that have real-world impact and consequence.
The challenge was to disrupt the public’s perception of data science and AI, often interpreted as dystopian and conceived in clinical laboratories by unknown forces. The Turing in fact represents a space where brilliant minds collaborate and conduct innovative research with integrity and excellence. The math itself should also be celebrated as a key character.
The motion design is comprised of three main elements:
The animated type system takes the Turing’s current typography and reimagines it for motion. The layout has been designed with simplicity in mind – to encourage concise amounts of information, and also to improve screen legibility. The type first appears as mathematical operators. Each heading, sub-heading and body text section is assigned its own operand. These decode into the correct character before a final organic ripple moves through the type to signify its arrival in reality, whether its presence is actual or artificial.
Inspired by fragments – the condensed snippets of code which are core to a certain operation – the ident and transitions interpret this visually by splitting the layouts into defined sections and rotating them around a point of origin. They act as a dynamic, living device like a camera shutter – always recalibrating and capturing the right moments. Overall this provides an opportunity to assimilate the connection between math, represented by fragments of geometry or footage, and a final, realised image.
The surfaces of the layout devices (shapes based on the original Turing identity) were given a new tactile, human finish Inspired by the glass cubicle dividers in the Turing offices which the scientists write on with markers, we find fingerprints and freehand math in the details of the surfaces to remind us that fundamentally data science and AI is a human endeavour. It is created by the best minds and can offer new opportunities for humanity.
The motion package intends to provide reflection and excitement for the public about the possibilities of data science and AI, and crucially it aims to offer this information in a way that is understandable and inclusive.
Credits:
Motion design: Copperworks Studio
Sound design: Chris Banks
Turing in-house producer: Dan Whitfield
Turing in-house communications director: Mark Burey
Original Turing Identity: Red&White