Our award-winning brand identify is a nod to Richard Brautigan’s poem All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. The poem explores technology’s influence on society, and whether it creates a utopia or dystopia. The tension between these two opposing concepts embodies the complexity of AWO’s work.
A series of poems by Tom Sharp were commissioned for AWO's launch and laid out by Accept and Proceed. Explaining the idea behind them, Tom Sharp said the poems "are a mix of darkly poetic folklorish metaphors about 'data rights', and concrete-poetry typography with bits of computer programming stylings. We want people to read them and think more about just how protected they feel their personal data is."
Fans of documentarian Adam Curtis will also notice that the director and producer also borrowed the poem's name for his three-part TV series, in which he suggests that the way humans see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers they built.
The branding is a result of a partnership between creative agency Accept & Proceed and poet Tom Sharp. The approach won multiple awards for its novel way of engaging with issues of technology and data, including two D&AD Wood Pencils, awarded only to the most outstanding work that achieves true creative excellence.
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