ai hardware

Modular, expressive hardware for a new kind of chip.

Graphcore’s IPU (Intelligent Processing Unit) is built to accelerate AI, tackling complex workloads that would slow down even the fastest traditional chips. It’s a powerful piece of technology, but like most server rack products, it risked disappearing into the background. We were brought in to help it stand out.

Collaborating with Pentagram partners Jody Hudson-Powell and Luke Powell, we developed the industrial design to extend their visual identity into the physical world. The brand system, inspired by ‘resolution’, generates evolving shapes and colours using custom software. We took this idea and translated it into hardware.

The result is a modular system of hexagonal tiles, each one interchangeable, creating near-infinite configurations across the unit’s surface. It’s a playful and highly customisable design, unusual for server hardware, which is typically generic and hidden from view.

Behind the faceplate, we worked through technical challenges including a bespoke heatsink and ventilation system. A bold chassis design ensures the IPU gets noticed in the rack, with a signature pattern of cut-outs and a removable badge that reinforces the brand.

The final product reflects both the intelligence inside the chip and the expressive identity of the company behind it: generative, modular, and always evolving.