Welcome to release v2026.10!
Just when we were saying hello from the summer break, autumn is already around the corner 🍂
We’ve got something new planned for our upcoming newsletters. We recently put together an AI Manifest to guide how we use AI internally and to share our position with the world. The next issues will each focus on one of its ten principles, in no particular order.
We’re starting at the end, with principle 10/10:
Boutique, not mass-produced!
We’re different from other companies, and proud of it. Because we think around corners, outside the box, and beyond the horizon, we find answers you won’t find elsewhere, or in AI. Turning complex pieces into a coherent, well-rounded whole takes taste, intuition, and a feel for what works: human qualities AI and the mass market can’t replicate.
In this issue
- 🏆 Success story: A playful exhibit makes the search for antibiotics tangible – Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland
- 🌳 Blog article: Custom icons in the age of AI
- 💥 Comics & illustrations: Handmade by our content creator Eric
- ✏️ Centigrade Recommends: Angine de Poitrine: the Dada response to AI slop?
Until the next release,
Your Centigrade team 💙
Success story: HIPS – Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland
Science you can get hands-on with!
A playful exhibit makes the search for antibiotics tangible
How do you explain the search for new antibiotics? For HIPS, we built a unique exhibit featuring plush bacteria, 3D animations, and an analysis chamber filled with fog and lasers. It was on display aboard the floating exhibition MS Wissenschaft.
Visitors who find the right drug candidate for the pathogen receive an invitation to the MICROBELIX citizen science project. The exhibit is based on HIPS’ call for people to search soil samples themselves and help research new antibiotics.
We believe projects like this are where we shine: projects that need a specific, creative approach, and complex topics we have to learn from the ground up. That’s what we enjoy, and it’s how unique solutions are created instead of off-the-shelf products.
Blog article
Custom icons in the age of AI?
Sometimes choosing not to use AI is the better option. That’s the message of a blog article by our Visual Designer Max. Instead of turning to AI-generated or ready-made icon libraries, Max set strict design constraints for our service icons. Designing icons ourselves helps create a consistent, recognizable, distinctive look, strengthening our brand identity and improving the user experience.
Handmade comics and newsletter illustrations
If you’ve been following us across our channels for a while, you’ve probably come across our comics. For this newsletter, we’re shining a spotlight on the comics and newsletter illustrations created by our content creator Eric ✏️💙
They’re a great example of the small details and nuances we always make room for. We feel truly at home in our corporate identity when our playful, authentic side shines through to the outside world.
Below, you’ll find the first comic we posted! There are plenty more on our Instagram channel.
Centigrade Recommends
Angine de Poitrine: the Dada response to AI slop?
These two characters are probably familiar to most people, unless you’ve spent the last six months doing a lot of “touching grass” (in which case: respect).
If you haven’t heard of them, Angine de Poitrine are a Canadian musical duo who went viral in a big way, and for good reason. Many see the band as a response to the growing flood of AI-generated content.
While so-called “AI slop” is generic and interchangeable, Angine de Poitrine make music that pushes at the boundaries of what we consider Western mainstream. Their custom-made double-necked instrument, microtonal playing, complex rhythms, and unmistakable visual style have quickly become an online symbol of human creativity in contrast to formulaic, push-button music.
Here’s the KEXP live performance that made them go viral. If you’re interested in the band from a pop-culture perspective, there are plenty of articles and videos about their success. Definitely worth a look!
