Introduction

Folding at Home is a non-profit project that aims to further research on protein folding, to help combat diseases and advanced medical conditions through more sophisticated drugs and treatments. The project conducts research with the help of thousands of hours of processing time donated by contributors. With the help of donors computers, Folding at Home is able to generate an enormous amount of data by running simulations of the folding.

Because this is such an interesting project, and the work they do is so important, when given the task of redesigning a non-profit's identity for a class, I jumped at the oppurtunity. Folding at Home's image has been very tightly associated with science and computing in the past, with most information surrounding the project focusing on the power of their network, and the details of the science involved. When researching people's motivations for contributing however, you overwhelmingly find that, to most people, those things are secondary. Folding at Home's relative success compared to similar projects (eg SETI@Home, Einstein@Home, ClimatePrediction.net, etc...) is owed to its focus and mission.