Prototypes
Our experiments and internal projects: nothing to buy here, just what we learned from them.
We prototype for two reasons, and both count equally. First: it is our technology watch. You do not learn a technique by reading that it exists, you learn it by using it for real. Second: a house has troughs between real projects, and an idle trough lets a team rust.
Every prototype carries a function to test or a goal to set itself. And each opened a path we would not have found on a client project, where you do not run experiments with other people’s money.
>Launching a brand of our own, during covid.2021–2023Stopped
What we were after
During covid, we wanted to launch protective masks in the colours of anime and video games.
The crafts involved
A research project engages the same crafts as a client project. That is precisely the point: it costs the price of a real project, with no client at the end.
>The same concept as Shinji, pushed somewhere else.2021–2023Stopped
What we were after
Same concept as Shinji.
The crafts involved
A research project engages the same crafts as a client project. That is precisely the point: it costs the price of a real project, with no client at the end.
>A second Apple repair centre, in the middle of Geneva.2021–2023Stopped
What we were after
Opening a second Apple repair address, right in the middle of Geneva. The question was not technical, but a brand question: does a new shopfront, with its own name, tone and store, land better than a second address of the existing brand? Everything was drawn to the end: the logotype and its grid, the typography, the palette, the street sign, the workshop lettering, the window, the furniture, the stationery and the objects. The shop never opened.
What it opened up
The method for launching a retail brand, end to end and in a single pass: name, mark, store, objects. It served again unchanged on Mac SOS. And a conviction that still holds: in a local trade, the shopfront is drawn before the website.
> Delivering breakfast across Geneva.2021–2023Stopped
Origin
In-house idea
What we were after
An in-house idea: delivering breakfast across town. We treated it like a real client — name, logotype, full packaging, palette, typography — because a concept you do not draw to the end cannot be judged. It is the only one of our trials where the packaging comes before the website: on a delivery, the bag is the first and often the only branded object the customer touches.
What it opened up
The conviction that a delivered object beats a page view: that reading is what later produced the OGGO and Mac SOS objects.
>A real client, who stopped his own project.2021–2023Stopped
Origin
Client — stopped by them
What we were after
This one is not an in-house trial: it was a real client, and the client is the one who stopped the project. The brand and the site were done: logotype, nocturnal tone, night photography, home, fleet and sign-up screens, right down to a video. It lives here because delivered work is worth no less for the client having changed their mind.
What it opened up
A lesson in method, and an expensive one: we no longer build a whole site before the client’s model is settled. Today the first step is written down, and that is exactly what it is for.
>A fast-food brand, drawn end to end.2021–2023Stopped
Origin
In-house idea
What we were after
An art-direction idea pushed all the way, for a fast-food brand: name, logotype, merch, packaging, visuals, interior fit-out and street sign. The bet held in a single constraint: can a fast-food brand be quiet — lower case, black and white, no appetite colour — and still be wanted?
What it opened up
Yes, provided humour takes the place of colour. It is the only one of our trials where TONE does the work the palette does elsewhere, and that is a card we keep.
>The client still exists; our proposal does not.2021–2023Stopped
Origin
Proposal not selected
What we were after
A Geneva video production studio, for whom we drew a complete identity and site: black and yellow, a pixel typeface, a six-cell services screen, the stationery and the merch. The client still exists and is working; he simply carried on without our proposal. It is the most frequent case in a creative trade, and the least shown: you do not lose a client, you lose a direction.
What it opened up
The two-versions rule, which still holds today: a lone proposal cannot be judged, only endured. Since then, nothing leaves for a client without its alternative.
>The agency before. Our own brand, before WTTM.2018–2020Our history
What we were after
The former name and brand of WTTM.
The crafts involved
A research project engages the same crafts as a client project. That is precisely the point: it costs the price of a real project, with no client at the end.
> A monthly report that is a page, not a file.2026Alive
What we were testing
An advertising dashboard in the house art direction, with zero JavaScript: pure CSS charts, one series per chart, never two axes. The constraint was deliberate: we wanted to see what you lose, and you lose nothing useful.
What it opened up
A product in its own right, sold on the digital marketing page, and open to every client at espace.wttm.ch.
> Bringing a typeface to life with no image and no script.2026Alive
What we were testing
Space Mono glyphs let loose behind the header and the footer, animated in CSS alone. The goal was as typographic as it was technical: to prove a decor can be made of the brand’s own material, and not of a bought pattern.
What it opened up
The house decor is no longer bought. It is composed.
10 entries · 7 stopped · 1 our own history · 2 alive or shipped.
A stopped prototype is not a failure: it is an answer obtained at the price of a real project, with no client at the end.