Work BioTech

Biotic

Biotic is a nonprofit organization stewarding SpudCell, one of the world’s most significant breakthroughs in synthetic biology: an open-source synthetic living cell designed to make biology easier to build with, share and access.

Mucho created a brand to make this complex breakthrough simple, compelling and accessible: inspiring scientists, organizations and communities around the world to participate.

Services

Brand Identity Digital Motion

Industry

BioTech Technology

The Challenge

While parts of Silicon Valley are busy inventing technology to replace more and more of what humans do, apparently leading to the end of humankind, some very intelligent biologists are working on something far more important: its future.

For the first time, humans have built a synthetic cell from scratch. Not modified an existing cell, but built one from its most basic components. Something that can grow, copy itself and divide, and be openly shared with scientists around the world to study, change and build upon.

So, is it alive?
No, or maybe. The scientists behind SpudCell don’t claim to have created life. But there is no single agreed definition of what life actually is, and SpudCell already behaves in many of the same ways as a living cell.

Imagine cells designed to manufacture medicines and materials, cure disease, break down pollutants, capture carbon, and produce food and fuels anywhere in the world, regardless of geography, climate or geopolitics.

Something this powerful also comes with enormous responsibility. That’s why Biotic was established: to make sure this breakthrough is developed openly, responsibly and for the benefit of everyone.

We were lucky enough to be asked to brand Biotic.

The Strategy

Before we could make Biotic simple for others to understand, we had to understand it ourselves. We immersed ourselves in the science, asked naïve questions, challenged assumptions and listened to the extraordinary team behind it. Dr. Kate Adamala provided the scientific breakthrough, while Drew Endy, Chris Raggio and Jan Jedryszek are building a vision for making it accessible to everyone.

This led to our strategic idea and tagline: Ex Uno Plures, “Out of one, many.” A reversal of the American motto E Pluribus Unum, “Out of many, one.” It captures the potential of SpudCell. One living cell, openly shared, becoming the foundation for countless discoveries and possibilities.

The Solution

The logo is a simple dot. The purest representation of a single cell, and the starting point for everything that follows.

Working with Reaction-Diffusion software created by Karl Sims, we developed a living visual language of animations and still illustrations. Starting from a single point, the system grows, evolves and multiplies to express the possibilities of SpudCell.

The color palette is purposefully limited to black and white, reflecting the purity and simplicity of a single cell.

The initial identity is deliberately minimal so that it can evolve alongside the science. As the organization grows and new possibilities emerge, color can be introduced into the brand.

This is only the beginning.

The Urgency

We wanted to communicate the urgency without scaring people. To show why we need to act now, we created a countdown to ‘Bloomsday’ rather than ‘Doomsday’, marking the days until 2050, when the world may no longer be able to naturally produce enough resources to support its growing population. The result is a live clock that works across time zones, continuously counting down to 2050.

Click here to view the Biotic website and explore the responsive ‘Bloomsday’ clock: Biotic.org

The Mucho team have been extraordinary to work with. Rob and colleagues led us through a process of explaining our then very nascent story of Biotic. Especially, ‘Why Biotic?’ By listening and prototyping together, we arrived at wonderful representations of what Biotic is all about: ‘From one, many’ and ‘soon enough to matter.’ For example: 8,494 days ’til Bloomsday.

Drew Endy Co-founder, Biotic

Our responsibility wasn’t to make synthetic biology look beautiful, but to make one of the most significant scientific stories of our generation understandable, approachable and inviting.

Rob Duncan Mucho Partner and Creative Director