Liby Hays
(2025)
This collaborative design with artist Kati Kirsch parodies quarantine-era digital office culture and corporate bonding strategies by adapting them into dated, “shovelware”-style videogame cover art. The pixelated cutaway was inspired by the 1994 management simulation game, SimTower: The Vertical Empire. The bottom strip featuring banner ads can be cropped according to style preference.
"Welcome to the Coins FCC Pies Virtual Corporate Retreat—a three-day synergy-driven experience designed to strengthen our core competencies and reimagine team alignment, all from the comfort of our shared virtual spaces! Once you register, you’ll be free to participate in our suite of Mandatory Breakout Session Minigames. Collect produce and punish misalignments in the Vertical Farm Simulator. Master the art of unitasking in the Scrumspenceful Escape Room. Leave kinesthetic feedback for higher-ups in the “Physicalizing and Digitizing Emotions” Obstacle Course & much more!"
The back of the shirt features the retreat’s Terms and Conditions, aestheticizing digital document signing and user-input feedback loops. The sub-menus, pop-ups, AI assistants and Screentime Supplement Ads accrete into an attention-grabbing collage.
The design built on a preexisting facet of Conspecifics lore– our “shell corporations.” We invented a number of fake companies that were anagrams of the word "Conspecifics" and included them in our launch event photo-op. The Digital Corporate Retreat Tee references these shell corporations as sponsors.
Spotlight on the Shell Corporations:
1. Conic Epics, SF, a classical education tutoring service
2. PFC Sconces II, resource management for sconce manufacturers
3. Coins FCC Pies, a regulated investment firm
4. FCC Noise Pics, concert photography for noise venues
5. Iconic Pecs, SF, an ab implant start-up
6. Sconcespecifics, a B2B sconce manufacturer
Shirt documentation in a quick photoshoot at the Ford Center, shot by True. Models were found in situ.