Our collaboration with Afresh explored in depth

Brand New Reviews our identity for Afresh

Upperquad's identity for Afresh gets reviewed in Brand New

For our collaboration with Afresh, we wanted to get a much deeper visualization using motion, color, and typography. We imagined a world of machine intelligence organizing the complexity of fresh produce.

Brand New

Reviewed Sep. 28, 2022

Read the review here on <a href="https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_and_identity_for_afresh_by_upperquad.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brand New</a> or get deep into <a href="../work/afresh/" rel="noopener noreferrer">our case study</a>. 

Afresh identity reviewed in Brand New

Honors for our collaborations with Google

Upperquad at the Webbys in 2022

We're honored to receive a Webby Awards nomination for our collaborative work with Jigsaw and the Google Quantum AI teams.

With over 14,000 entries from all 50 U.S. states and over 70 countries for this year's Webby Awards, the biggest in their history. This is Upperquad's 9th nomination for the Webby Awards - dubbed by  New York Times the Internet's biggest honor.

The Current: The Internet Shutdowns Issue

The Current is an online publication from Jigsaw, outlining today’s digital threats and solutions. This issue explores government-imposed internet shutdowns which are on the rise globally, with devastating impacts on affected communities. Fighting back requires shining a light where governments impose the dark. The issue was produced as a collaboration with Jigsaw, Upperquad and AccessNow. It is nominated in the category of Best Individual Editorial Feature.

Upperquad's collaboration with the Jigsaw have resulted in five Webby nominations and one Webby win over two years.

<a href="https://jigsaw.google.com/the-current/shutdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">View the work</a> or <a href="ttps://winners.webbyawards.com/2022/websites-and-mobile-sites/features-design/best-individual-editorial-feature-indbrandorg/204851/jigsaw-the-current-the-internet-shutdowns-issue" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">see the nomination</a>

Discover the Quantum AI Campus created in collaboration with the Google Quantum AI team was recognized as an Honoree in Science category. The site allows users to explore Google's Quantum AI campus in Santa Barbara, the location of Google's quantum data center, fabrication facility, and cutting-edge research facility.

<a href="https://quantumai.google/learn/lab" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">View the work</a> or <a href="https://winners.webbyawards.com/2022/websites-and-mobile-sites/general-websites-and-mobile-sites/science/203544/discover-the-quantum-ai-campus-by-google-quantum-ai" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">see the nomination</a>

Upperquad at the 26th Annual Webby Awards

How are makers experiencing the global pandemic?

Stories from Makers in a global pandemic

Upperquad explores how are makers are experiencing the COVID-19 global pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic and resulting quarantine has been one of the few truly global experiences of our lifetimes. A period that every individual, community, city and country has felt deeply and grappled with in their own way. Through moments of isolation and inspiration, we found a certain comfort in knowing that we were all experiencing and evolving within this situation together.

At Home is an effort to document this unprecedented moment in time; it’s a collection of stories from people around the world, designed to help us connect, empathize and support one another through this surreal, shared experience.

Over the course of 12 weeks, we conducted over 60 interviews with makers in four cities. In this effort, we broadly defined a maker as anyone who creates and takes pride in their craft—a definition that introduced us to painters, nail artists, business owners, mixologists, beekeepers, musicians, curators and more. We first launched with interviews from Berlin and expanded to San Francisco, London and New York City.

The heartfelt, human stories are really the magic of this site. We feel very proud to have created a space where people felt safe enough to share their stories and express themselves fully. There’s a lot to discover; there’s humor and sadness, hope and despair, creativity and stillness. Individually, each story offers a new perspective, told through a distinct voice and lived experience.

Explore more at <a href="https://at-home.club/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">at-home.club</a>

A massive thank you to all the makers who participated in the project, including:

Abigail Wheeler, Alba Rey, Alex Hall, Elena Breuer, Fabio & Rupert of Roy Kombucha, Francisco G. Silva, Hiroo Tanaka, Izabela Rosiak, Joana Schmitz, Kikelomo Oludemi, Laureanne Kootstra, Maddy Ayers, Mathias Modica, Medhat Aldaabal, Noel Alejandro, Simon Kaiser, Tobias Raschbacher, Whitney Wei, William Bagnoli, Ylenia Gortana'

Derek Anthony, Emily Nathan, Genevieve Bandrowski, Jessica Furui, Jillian Knox, “Joonbug” Mcintosh, Kim Stace Thomas, Linda Fahey, Luca & David Of Colpa Press, Sepehr Alimagham, Sincere Justice, Todd Tankersley

April Hill Writing, Ayanna Birch-Bailey, Bruno Valasse, Charlotte Brooks, Crispin Jones, Dale Gibson, Daniel The Gardener, Em Cole, Emma Fineman, James Telford, Jemma Ryan, Jesse Laitinen, Majeda Clarke, Mark F. Painter, Meetal Patel, Monique Brown, Sista Barista

Andre Bato, Christina Lonsdale, Haik Avanian, Miss Juliet, Rachael Yaeger, Reed Tankersley, Remi Odunsi, Sebastian Speier, Zipeng Zhu

At Home

Say hello to the Crumbskees in Communication Arts Interactive Annual 27

The Crumbskees take CommArts

The Crumbskees, a multiplayer web and mobile based experiment from Upperquad, has been selected in the Website/Interactive category for Communication Arts' 27th Interactive Annual. Thirty-three projects were selected by a jury of creative professionals from the 442 entries.

Originally built as a demo for an in-person SF Design Week event at the Upperquad San Francisco studio in 2019, the Crumbskees started as an installation that allowed people to use their phones to play on a shared screen together. The original game was based on shapes and Upperquad brand colors, but was a surprisingly fun.

From this working concept, Upperquad decided to make the game accessible to everyone on the web. We added some original couch potato characters and added psychedelic colorful animation styles inspired by our love of Adult Swim cartoons. And, in the process, we also captured something about the surreal COVID-19 experience.

Husani Oakley

We want people to simply pull out their phones and have fun, so we eliminated any user interaction on the display device - all the navigations happen on the phones, which can become controllers. The site was built using Node.js and WebSockets, which allows the phone to connect directly to the browser during game play, and not through a game server.

Upperquad creates experiences with new technologies beyond what is usually possible. The Crumbskees pushes the boundaries of design, type and technology. We’re always making things that reach new audiences and extend our capabilities.

The Communication Arts 2021 Interactive Annual <a href="https://www.commarts.com/magazine/2021-interactive" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">is available online</a>. Play the Crumbskees at <a href="https://crumbskees.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">crumbskees.com</a>

Brand New Reviews our identity for Afresh

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Upperquad at the 26th Annual Webby Awards

At Home

Crumbskees win CommArts

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