The Robots
A Human Party in a Machine Language
Narrative Event Experience
Challenge
Strategy
Visual System
Application (On Site)
Outcome
Reflection
Organiser
CSM MA Narrative Environments
Team
5-person graphic team
Role
Graphic Design Lead
Deliverables
Key Visual, Posters, Spatial Graphics
Year
2024
Location
London, UK
Challenge
A party built around one song.
The annual party of CSM MA Narrative Environments took Kraftwerk’s 1978 track The Robots as its theme, reimagining it as a party for the future that explores how humans and machines coexist in today’s technological world.
The song describes a cold, precise and endlessly repetitive machine world, while a party should feel lively, energetic and human. So the visuals had to hold both: keeping a 1978 track feeling futuristic today and making the abstract idea of human-machine symbiosis visible, while turning that machine world into something playful enough for people to step into and enjoy.
Kraftwerk - The Robots (click to play)
Strategy
Machine rules, human play.
As graphic design lead, I led a team of five to create a visual identity that could extend across the entire party, all within a week. I therefore decided to build it as a modular visual language. It follows the logic of a machine: strict units, repeated structures and a minimal palette.
Within this restrained system, we created a set of pixel robot characters to bring the machine world to life and give the party its energy. The rigour of the system and the liveliness of the characters sit side by side, giving the visuals a sense of human-machine symbiosis.
This visual language then became the starting point for the whole party. We worked with the spatial, projection mapping, lighting and other teams, each building on the same language, to shape the evening together.
Visual System
The visuals grow directly from the song itself: its repetitive, mechanical rhythm and the orange and black of its music video became the party’s core visual language, while building everything from pixels drew on early screens’ vision of the future, keeping a 1978 track both retro and forward-looking today.
Kraftwerk - The Robots (Cover)
Kraftwerk - The Robots (Music Video)
Every composition is built on the same pixel grid. In the key visual, solid colour breaks down into pixels from top to bottom until it resolves into the full grid, like a signal slowly distorting as it draws viewers into the world of the robots.
I drew two sets of robots from the same blocks as the grid: a crowd of small dancing robots standing in for the party guests, and four characters based on the band members. They can appear on their own or scatter across layouts and the space, each dancing in just a few frames to the rhythm of the song.
Two pixel typefaces set the tone: a bold, retro italic serif for titles, and a blocky pixel face for labels and details that follows the same modular logic as the grid. A clean sans handles the lyrics and longer text, set on soft orange backing shapes that read like stickers, adding a playful contrast to the sharp pixels while keeping the text clear. Combined across posters, cards and other materials, the type stays restrained while still feeling retro and full of character.
Lyrics Poster
Food Menu
MA Narrative Environments Card
Party Theme Card
On Site
On the night, the visual language moved off the page and into the room. The installations followed the same modular logic, stacking screens and objects like building blocks, while the screens and projections carried the pixel elements across the space. Even the performance followed suit, with dancers moving to the song’s mechanical rhythm like robots. Together, every part of the party spoke one language, from the first poster to the last experience.
Featured on the MA Narrative Environments Instagram
Outcome
We are the Robots.
On 4 December 2024, Studio F104 at Central Saint Martins filled with students, alumni and guests from the creative industry. Between the installations and screens, the dance floor and the robot-themed menu, the evening never stopped moving. Old friends caught up, new connections were made, and many stayed until the very end. For one night, a 1978 song became a world people could step into.
Reflection
“Design for fun”
“Lead the work, not just do it”
“Speak every team’s language”
With no commercial goal behind it, this internal party gave us room to push ideas further and be bolder, and the process itself felt more open and playful. On the night, guests were relaxed, in high spirits and happy to stay until the very end. It reminded me that joy is contagious and that making people happy is also a design goal worth taking seriously.
It was my first time leading a team on such a short timeline, and my first instinct was to take on much of the work myself. But I soon realised that a lead’s value lies not in finishing everything alone, but in getting the whole team working. My role shifted with it: setting the direction, shaping a system everyone could design with and keeping five people moving as one.
As graphic lead, I worked with the leads of almost every team, from spatial and lighting to social media and beyond. Each had its own priorities and its own design philosophy. As a result, a large part of my role became translating between different teams and listening closely to what their work needed. It showed me that much of a design lead’s work happens in conversation, not just on screen.
Next Project/
Key Visuals · Campaign