Google NeurIPS 2025

NeurIPS (Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems) is one of the world's largest artificial intelligence research conferences, the annual gathering of the people producing the knowledge of the field. To mark Google's presence at the 2025 edition, held in San Diego, a visual system was created that launched at the conference and remains in use across the brand's other events in the field around the world, through the 2025–2026 calendar. The work was developed by Polar in partnership with 1st Ave Design, on the visual front, and SpecialGuest, responsible for strategy, content, and booth activations.

Google arrived at the 2025 conference with more than 175 accepted papers, and it was from them that the graphic concept departed. The titles — technical, and of widely varying complexity — gave rise to the “From… to…” structure: on one side the research formulation, on the other the challenge in the field it helps to solve.

Translating that logic into image began with cellular automata — mathematical models made of a grid of cells that change state according to simple rules and, over time, produce complex patterns and behaviors. It is one of the founding models of theoretical computation and a recurring reference in discussions of complex systems and of the origins of artificial intelligence. From the grid, the graphic system moves toward the other end, where the same translation takes shape in a fluid, organic view. From the rational representation to the abstract one, the two views appear at times on their own, at times combined.

The connection to the brand is chromatic. Google's institutional palette appears in solid colors and in gradients, and it is what holds the whole together as the forms open up across very different scales — from a printed piece to the environmental design of a space.

The system unfolded across a broad range: signage and environmental design for the booth, printed materials, Out of Home media, and an arcade game developed with AI. Beyond the conference space, the same system shaped a digital talent acquisition campaign for Google.