Dear Nicholas and Team
We are excited about the possibility of bringing a Gemini experience into the physical world.
We do our best work in the complex realms of unexplored technology, building the products that define the future of human-machine interaction. That means moving fast between hardware and software, treating every prototype as a question rather than a demo, and finding real progress even before the brief is fully defined..
With Neuralink, we worked directly with their neuroengineers, starting from the most complex constrained part of the system and designing outward from there. With Nike, it meant expanding a complex technology from a single sketch, building an experience with their hardware that unified it into something whole. Both demanded the same range underneath, moving between electronics, mechanical design, and software without losing the thread between them.
That is the work below.
THE CHALLENGE AHEAD
From Platform to Personality
Most software companies only meet a customer through a screen, so the brand has to work hard to feel human at all. IgnitHQ gets a rare chance to skip that step, letting someone meet the platform in person before they have clicked on anything.
The job is bigger than making Duke look good. It is making Duke feel like the dog he is named after, dependable and attentive, never showing off, always listening for what someone actually needs from him. Not cartoonish, and not a security bot doing laps around the booth either. The distinction you drew on our call, a trusted companion rather than a surveillance drone, is really the whole design brief in one sentence, and we intend to hold onto it through every phase of this work.
When every detail, from form and materials to lighting and behavior, works in harmony, Duke becomes more than a robot. He becomes the personality of the platform.
THE THEMES WE HEARD
The key insights shaping our approach
Shape Duke's Character
Duke is more than a robot—it is the physical embodiment of the IgnitHQ brand. We'll explore multiple visual directions to create a distinctive personality that feels approachable, memorable, and unmistakably IgnitHQ.
Design Expression Through Behavior
Through lighting, movement, sound, and interaction, we'll define a behavioral language that makes Duke feel alive—communicating confidence, intelligence, and approachability in every customer interaction.
Ground Every Decision in Reality
Explore ambitious concepts while grounding every decision in the technical realities of the Go2 platform, integration requirements, and production feasibility.
SCOPE
Program overview
Robots are rarely remembered for their appearance alone or their behavior alone. They are remembered when both work together to create a character that feels whole. The Form and Behavior Sprint for Expressive Robotics is Card79's methodology for designing a robot's physical form and behavioral expression as one integrated system. By combining industrial design and interaction design from the very beginning, we develop a personality that not only looks distinctive but behaves in ways that feel intuitive, engaging, and true to the brand.
The program moves across four collaborative phases, from discovery and character definition through concept development, refinement, and a production-ready handoff. Every decision along the way builds toward a robot people instinctively understand, trust, and remember.
the fAB SPRINT PHILOSOPHY
FORM +
BEHAVIOR +
LIGHT +
VOICE +
MOTION
= PERSONALITY
A robot's personality doesn't emerge from its appearance alone. It is shaped by the relationship between form, behavior, light, voice, and motion. When these elements are designed independently, the result often feels disjointed—a friendly shape with mechanical movements, expressive lighting that doesn't match the voice, or behaviors that undermine the character. The FAB Sprint brings these disciplines together from the outset to create a coherent personality that people instinctively understand, trust, and remember.
OUR CLIENTS
our work
Selected Robotics Work
From autonomous mobility and warehouse robotics to robot companions, these projects show how we help robotics companies turn technical innovation into products people understand, trust, and adopt.
Our Practice
Experts in Human-Centered Robotics.
We bring together hardware, software, industrial design, interfaces, and human factors to create autonomous systems that people understand, trust, and adopt. From concept through deployment, we help robotics teams transform technical innovation into successful products.









