If anyone can make AI look good, it's Pentagram. And brothers Jody Hudson-Powell and Luke Powell have done just that with their new identity for Cohere, a language AI platform aimed at making AI accessible for business owners.
Cohere can generate copy, classify information and summarise just about any piece of text, and the output is delivered in a simple to use platform designed for developers and businesses around the world. This isn't just about mucking around with AI or making funny AI images, it's about saving businesses time, for example, a law firm that needs specific info in hundreds of court documents, a software provider that wants to find key takeaways from hundreds of reviews, or online communities seeking out hate speech.
To create Cohere's identity (opens in new tab) the Pentagram partners started with the idea of NLP - natural language processing, but wanted to avoid familiar tropes associated with AI, such as sci-fi. Instead, they were inspired by biology and the visual language of cells, dividing into shapes and plains.
"We saw these shapes and plains as a bubbling neural network that could be morphed and spun out in multiple ways, in the same way that NLP can," the brothers say in a press release. "We then explored the possibilities of this network. Our cells became detailed, sculptural balloons. Our voronoi plains became textured pebble structures. Our custom designed typeface became vastly customisable with each letterform being able to be split at any point."
Cohere's new typeface includes headline, outline, text and mono versionos. "The Headline version features characters with Voronoi cell cuts that are automatically dispersed through the characters as you type. There is a variable version that allows precise control over weight, number and placement of cuts," Pentagram explains.
The result is an adaptable future-facing brand that reflects the infinite possibilities of AI, yet does it in a way that feels grown-up and aimed at businesses, rather than just people joking around on the internet. It also helps position the brand and AI itself as something to embrace, rather than be scared of.
See it in action below or read more about the project on Pentagram's website (opens in new tab).
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