Exascale Day

HPE Exascale Day Social Content

Since 2019, Hewlett Packard Enterprise celebrates Exascale Day on October 18: a day to acknowledge the scientists and researchers who make breakthrough discoveries with the help of some of the fastest supercomputers in the world. The holiday is named after Exascale computing, a system capable of at least one quintillion, or a billion billion, calculations per second.

Our team is tasked with creating social content to build excitement for, explain the significance of and celebrate 10.18. Below are select pieces from our 2020 collection. This includes explainer content, general promotion graphics and (unbranded) content for influencers.

Role: art direction, design, illustration. Animation by Ryan Piracha. Copy by Micheal Newell.

Branded Content

The two pieces above were created for HPE’s brand channels to promote Exascale Day. First, is a teaser graphic that was posted in the days and weeks leading up to 10.18. This was paired with post copy that built anticipation for the day’s events. The second piece is an explainer animation that illustrates the speed and potential benefits of exascale computing.

I created the zero pattern concept in 2019 and carried this motif through to our 2020 content as well. I think including a ludicrous amount of zeros on a page really contextualizes just how damn big 10 to the 18th power is.

Influencer Content

In addition to HPE-branded content, we were also asked to create unbranded content to distribute to influencers in the tech space. I presented a moodboard with two unique styles, expecting for the client to choose one. They loved both styles (!) and I had the opportunity to design and art direct with both, dubbed Endless Possibilities and A Quintillion Layers.

Endless Possibilities (glowing grid style, above) is retro-future inspired to harken back to a time when the power of technology existed only in our collective imagination, where anything could happen. This style plays into the excitement of endless technological potential. I wanted to inspire our audience to go beyond what is currently possible and imagine what our future could hold with exascale computing.

A Quintillion Layers (stacked elements style, below) plays off of having, like, 33 tabs open at a time – so much information, so many browser windows, the info feels infinite. You even might think, “if only there were a supercomputer to help sort through all this at once…” This style works because it allows visually interesting type treatments and illustrations while being simple enough to quickly grasp the messaging – not to mention being #relatable because, be honest, how many tabs do you have open right now?