Anybots
Mountain View, CaliforniaIn 2001, Trevor Blackwell, co-founder of Y Combinator, started Anybots because he “couldn't believe it was 2001 and there still weren't robots helping around the home and office”. The company built telepresence robots that let users be physically present and mobile in a remote location, years before remote presence became a daily fact of working life.
In the popular imagination, robots either threatened to take your job or were expensive toys. Anybots offered something different: a way to be somewhere, present with people, even from the other side of the world. The brand had to convey the warmth and ease of that possibility — to make a robot feel like something, even someone, you’d be happy to see coming toward you in a hallway, rather than a machine you’d step aside to avoid.
I created the Anybots brand identity — a mark and visual language grounded in organic, human forms and vivid color, with a personality as friendly and inventive as the company itself. I also produced the company’s signage, multi-lingual print collateral, product photography, and initial marketing materials.
Anybots became a well-loved part of Silicon Valley culture. The identity I designed appeared in the opening title sequence of every episode of HBO's Silicon Valley, the critically-acclaimed satire of the tech industry.
“I couldn’t believe it was 2001 and there still weren’t robots helping around the home and office.”
— Trevor Blackwell