The Beautiful Meme gives data network company 01T an intriguingly undulating identity overhaul

If you did a straw poll of what everyone here at It’s Nice That liked, no, loved, kinetic, 3D rebrands for data network companies would get a very strong showing. So imagine our delight when we were told that the Beautiful Meme — last seen attempting to change the slightly stuffy face of the City of London with a bold identity for the new Twentytwo development — had been given free reign to create such a thing for data network company, 01T.

It’s easy to pretend that the internet just works, just exists, funnelling directly into our phones, laptops, and fridges without a second thought — comforting, too, as imagining the reality of it all is a bit much for a grey Tuesday morning in mid-September. Ignorance isn’t a luxury that the team at the Beautiful Meme have been afforded in this instance however, and so their work for 01T — who specialise in literally creating connections in the worlds of gaming, pharmaceuticals, finance, and media — sees them using a brand language which “fluidly represents network cables and the mass of data transported through them.”

Founder and creative director of the Beautiful Meme, Tom Sharp, makes the point that “internet infrastructure is everywhere, under our feet, under the sea, unseen," he says. "Part of our challenge was visualising something that’s invisible.” The challenge has been met by basing the identity around the slinky simplicity of typeface, Neue Haas Grotesk.

They’ve also produced an intriguingly undulating short video too, featuring all sorts of slo-mo flows, which “reflects 01T’s focus on just one service – designing data networks from scratch.”