Brand New reviews our identity for Jigsaw

Upperquad's identity work for Jigsaw gets reviewed by Brand New

Building a brand that could support the importance of Jigsaw’s work required everything—identity, interactive, animation, typography, data viz and more—working together to create something bigger.

Brand New

Reviewed Mar. 31, 2020 by Armin Vit

Our brand program is reviewed in depth and considered by <a href="https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brand New</a>, which chronicles the latest in identity work.

<a href="https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_and_identity_for_jigsaw_by_upperquad.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read the review here</a> or get [deep into our case study here.](/work/jigsaw)

Jigsaw identity reviewed in Brand New

New Horizons

New Horizons, is a collective exploration of the new from Upperquad. The limited edition of 200 of two-color Risograph printed, saddle stitched and hand numbered zines was released for the new year.

A blank canvas. Energizing. Intimidating. Shining with potential. Crisp with opportunity. Whether a new year, a new job, a new project, or a new client, there is something special about the openness of it all. Inviting us to push our boundaries and embrace an earnest optimism toward what could be.

Challenged with blank canvas of our own, we created New Horizons. An adventure of its own designed to stretch our minds, reimagine our perspectives, and revel in what is to come. A look inward. Onward. Upward. Forward.

New Horizons pushed the boundaries of design, in unexpected ways in the print medium. Upperquad always creates things to reach new audiences and challenge our collective capabilities.

The limited release hit the mailboxes of clients and friends of the studio in 2019.

A collaborative design project to raise money for disaster relief efforts

Beacon Relief

We got together with some friends to support people affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, an earthquake in Mexico City and wildfires in California.

In 2017, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma wrecked coastal communities a mere weeks apart. An earthquake shook Mexico City one day before Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico. Close to home, wildfires burned through thousands of California acres. Puerto Rico still lost power restored. The hits seemed to keep coming, leaving communities reeling and families left trying to pick up whatever pieces they have left.

Upperquad wanted to help. We found Direct Relief - California's largest international humanitarian nonprofit. They’re uniquely poised to help in these situations, as they specialize in emergency response and disaster relief around the world. They provide medical assistance to improve the health and lives of people affected by disaster, working through a massive network of local partners in each area who are able to assess the situation, respond to immediate needs, and rebuild healthcare systems in the affected areas.

We reached out to some friends and people we admire. Together, with the help of dozens artists and designers from all over the world, we built and launched Beacon, a collaborative design project to raise money for the ongoing disaster relief efforts. The result is a beautiful digital gallery, an expression of our combined hopes, thoughts and prayers for the communities facing impossible circumstances.

We want to thank everyone who donated and participated in the project:

APAK (Aaron Piland & Ayumi Kajikawa), Adam R. Garcia, Anthony Morell, Bailey Sullivan, Bryan Couchman, Cecilia Uhr, Chris Gash, Chris Markland, Dangerdom, Elliott Tran, Emmanuelle Bories, Frederique Matti, Gabriella Sanchez, Globe Collection and Press at MICA, Grace Ho, Jeanne Carlier, Jessica Strelioff, John J. Custer, Josiah Zimmerman, Justin Colt, Justin Kemerling, Kailie Parrish, Kelsey Wroten, Lanny & Kristin Sommese, Marcio Gutheil, Mark Weaver, Matt Carlson, Matt Stevens, Mattiel Brown, Michael Malowanczyk, Midge Sinnaeve, Mike McNeive, Morgane Sanglier, Niya Spasova, Pinky Abraham, Ramis Khawaja, Richard Perez & Jen DeRosa, Ricky Linn, Ryan Hubbard, Scott Boms, Seth Eckert, Tim Belonax, Tommy Perez, Trevor Van Meter, Ty Wilkins and Zach Stubenvoll.

A new model from Google DeepMind, built from the ground up for multimodality.

The Gemini era

Upperquad worked closely with Google DeepMind on the brand and interactive site for Gemini, a new foundational model.

Gemini is built from the ground up for multimodality, reasoning seamlessly across text, images, video, audio, and code. This family of models surpasses state-of-the-art performance on a range of benchmarks, and consistently outperforms human experts on massive multitask language understanding.

Gemini redefines the capabilities of artificial intelligence. This safe and powerful multimodal foundational model is accessible everywhere. Gemini powers the AI in Google's full suite of apps, including the standalone consumer-facing generative AI app of the same name. Google also makes the model available as a building block for developers.

Over the course of eight months, Upperquad worked closely with Google DeepMind, Brand Studio, Events & Experiences and Creative Labs to develop a new brand and website introducing Gemini.

Often associated with AI in the broader industry space, the spark within our logo comes to represent the north star, positioning Gemini as a guiding light in the field of AI. Positioned next to the dot of the first “i” in Gemini, the spark creates a twin set, referencing the twin stars of the Gemini constellation. Carrying complex meaning, the simple mark also fits naturally into Google's existing AI visual language.

Our task was to create an integrated brand and interactive site to help usher in the Gemini Era, visually conveying the power of this model that will fundamentally change the experience of the Internet from this point forward. The work needed to be distinct, dazzling, and foundational to see Gemini through a long period of growth.

Explore the <a href="https://www.behance.net/gallery/188450701/Gemini" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">brand identity</a> and <a href="https://www.behance.net/gallery/198778881/Gemini-Model-Family" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interactive</a> further on Behance.

Brand New reviews our identity for Jigsaw

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New Horizons

Beacon Relief

The Gemini Era

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