Experiments in Motion is a research initiative conducted by the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in partnership with Audi of America to develop and test new paradigms in the relationship between motion, mobility and design. Project Projects collaborated with Columbia GSAPP and Audi of America to develop a graphic identity and website for the overall project.

The Experiments in Motion program will draw from global thought leaders from around the University, architecture and design professionals, and an expanded network of urban mobility experts from New York City and Audi. Part of the Audi Urban Future Initiative, the program is curated by Therrien Barley, and represents the U.S. pilot of a series of locally driven, interdisciplinary research and student programs with the world's leading institutions and schools, tapping into the vast potential of academic intelligence and emerging talent. Project Projects was approached to create a fluid identity system evocative of the project's focus on movement, as well as a website that could support and encapsulate its ambitious and expansive research goals.

To evoke the fluidity of motion, Project Projects designed an identity system consisting of letters that morph and move about with nonlinearity. Further demonstrating the boundless presence of movement, the system can function across a variety of scales, surfaces, and aspect ratios, from favicon to city block. The accompanying website serves as a ground for both individual inquiry and collaborative sharing among students, teachers, and project curators, with a micro-network of research blogs powered by Tumblr and customized by each participant. With the addition of animated GIFs by illustrator Santtu Mustonen, the site illustrates the coursing energy that comes with ideas on the move.

Using basic tools readily available and present on the web — GIFs, third-party hosted video, and a free social networking platform that promotes open-sourced, collaborative thinking and doubles as a flexible, customizable CMS — we were able to address the challenges of this mercurial brief and present a unique result. The project was received with positive press: in March 2012, Architizer.com lauded the website's social media-based structure for attempting to transform the conventional graduate school experience using the web.

Whether printed and shown in a static state, or displayed on screen with against an animated backdrop, the identity system for Experiments in Motion visualizes an abstract, ethereal quality with using a simple graphic technique to evoke the fluidity of motion. The website component of the project activates popularly used, open-source technologies to customize a widespread social media platform – in this case Tumblr — to create a unique and efficient solution for a project with complex goals and boundaries, and encourage open, collaborative modes of research.