Immunity Project
The Immunity Project is creating the first free vaccine that can prevent healthy people from contracting HIV. They asked Metapattern to help them communicate their story with the world.
“The Y Combinator-backed project discovered how to mimic natural immunity to fight HIV. The Immunity Project’s work is based on the discovery that there are people born with a natural immunity to HIV. After identifying these “HIV controllers” in the population, the team applied machine learning to reverse-engineer the biological processes HIV controllers use to defeat the virus, mimicking natural immunity.”
We were thrilled to work with The Immunity Project team, Dr. Reid Rubsamen and Dr. David Heckerman, the creator of the Microsoft spam filter and use our design craft to tell scientific advances with the world at large, one of Metapattern's biggest creative joys.
CHALLENGE
To create a universal symbol that represents Immunity and the story of "HIV controllers."
APPROACH
In Metapattern, we are inspired to bring elegant and futuristic design to help humanitarian technologies communicate their message clearly. Driven by our reverence for scientific illustrations and minimal design, we used our craft as designers and technologists to tell a story of hope and empowerment. So that soon a day will pass that nobody dies from AIDS.
PROCESS
We guided the entire team through a series of design workshops, discovery and ideation sessions to identify the essence of the brand, the core values and the visual imagery needed to represent with clarity and accuracy the essence of Immunity Project's vision.
To start the brand inception, we researched scientific cellular illustrations and molecular biology to understand how immunity works inside our cells. See our inspiration moodboard.
RESULTS
The crowdfunding campaign successfully raised $482,000, was backed by Y Combinator and Microsoft Research. Here's the story of the symbol behind the Immunity Logo.
The logo uses the hamsa metaphor: the universal symbol of protection. It also alludes to a magnifying glass with a biosphere inside the hand, symbolizing the natural immunity the controllers have inside of their cells.
