In 2020 we got asked by Marmoset to collaborate with them and Jolby on a microsite to celebrate their work and community. We had worked with Marmoset before and loved their team – and had been itching to work with Jolby (one of the best illustration and branding studios in Portland if not the country or world) – so we said yes immediately.

Truth be told, some of their ideas were a bit outlandish – but also very fun and exciting. We though it through, came up with a simple structure for the project, and Jolby went to town working on the illustrations.

Once we got the design back, we went heads down making it real. Jason Sawyer, who worked with me at the time, took the lead on the animation stuff while I tackled the sound components.

The Music Machine

The Marmoset team wanted a playable music component – so we worked together to create the Music Machine – a playable, sample-driven device. As a musician myself, I had the urge to some fuzz and delay effect pedals. Marmoset loved it, so we had the Jolby team work up some illustrations (aren’t they adorable?).

We also made the Music Machine triggerable via your keyboard keys – hence the seemingly random letters on each button. The ASDFG row of your keyboard controls the looping samples while the QWERTY row triggers one-shot samples. The pedals are controlled with the 1 and 2 keys and the stop pedal is controlled with the ESC key. I’ve probably spent a couple hours just zoning out playing with this thing — it’s a lot of fun.

This was a dream project – and something I hope to do more of in the future. Have an animation or sound-driven project in mind? Get in touch!