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Our fight requires us to go back.

Developed for (and in close collaboration with) will.i.am and Intel futurist Brian David Johnson, Struck was tasked to produce a world-building press kit for a proof-of-concept property that used real scientific theory to tell a story of time traveling robots and wizards. But we took the opportunity to make it so much more than that.

WILL.I.AM
WIZARDS
AND ROBOTS
AN ARTIFACT FROM THE FUTURE
Science and magic

Our early thoughts on spells carried through to execution. Hand gestures were performing equations, and because of this, individual gestures could string together effects.
This would also port over to how we understand gesture interface today and how the site could be controlled.

Brian quickly overwhelmed us with research content, so we transformed the single booklet into a meta-work that was literally sent from the character in the future to warn the present (this was also to be worked into the comic). As the main character was a librarian, we segmented the piece into four different books that each told different facets of the world: science, history, future and language. A digital rosetta stone, that housed the book contents as well as instructions to print the robot at home.

We pushed everything we had into this, working with will and Brian David to craft a prequel arc that helped explain the backstory of the events, rolled in the concept art that had been developed by Ironhead Studios (the character design studio behind the X-Men and Marvel movie franchises), and helped fill in some of the gaps between the page and the creatives' minds.

Roughly 200+ pages of final copy was written, sorted and cultivated into the four books and will tasked us to produce something that had '...never been done before' - so we 3D printed the packaging, and used wildly different binding, print techniques, ink and more with each book. Brand identity. Two fonts were designed from scratch. Multiple artists, writers and designers came together to produce the additional work to flesh out the worldbuilding.

Will and Brian David unveiled the work and property at NYCC in 2013 to great fanfare. The final output is as beautiful to see and hold in craft as it is to consume in its execution.

The end result is a scientifically-grounded theoretical exploration of magic as science, language, time travel and robotics. Sourced, illustrated and threaded through with a narrative about the future.

Plans were also produced for a sentient ARG-like site that could aggregate social personality to learn, and STRUCK also worked with IDW Comics to field and vet comic artists, taking on some capacity as editors in the macro-vision. As social inputs are shared, beats, color and synesthesia would be fused with will's music - allowing for unique compositions, concerts and visual backdrops.

"I can't believe I deleted the fucking video of will gushing over this." Crap I say

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