Mr. roboto song poster

Mr. Roboto by the Styx tells the story of Killroy, a rockstar who is sent to a prison where workers are replaced by robots, The workers are human on the inside, but treated as subhuman on the outside. The lyrics “my heart is broken, my blood boiling, my brain IBM” describes humanity and robots. There are mixed feelings and irony regarding machines. They dehumanize, but also have the ability to save lives. For that ability, Killroy is thankful which is described by the lyrics “domo arigato” or “thank you very much”. The song is a commentary on this disparity, identity crisis, and escape. 

I wanted to typographically illustrate this human and robot disparity. The text “Mr. Roboto” and “1984” look technical and controlled, with the bottom of the letterforms deteriorating. The other text, the Japanese letterforms writing “domo arigato”, provide a contrast with its lively curves and human-like appearance. Despite the contrast, the two letterforms intertwine with one another to represent the confusion of the disparity.