Dawn of the Smart Grid

Introducing GUS

Northern Powergrid had done a joint project with Siemens to develop a Smart Grid, a new way of distributing power across a network. At the time the only people who understood and were discussing Smart Grids were engineers in the power industry. Northern Powergrid knew they needed to simplify the story of Smart Grids so they could communicate their innovations the broader market.

We got one of our writers to interview the engineers at the heart of the project so we could understand what the story was in simple terms. From those conversations we hooked onto the idea of Smart Grid being a computer at the centre of a great universal system or GUS. We used GUS to humanise and explain the technical processes, he was a friendly computer in the centre of it all, pulling levers and making things work.

We worked with illustrator Daniel Duke to design GUS. We animated it, and created an accessible, relatable story around a complex technology, that helped introduce this clients innovative, industry leading research to a much wider audience.