Impossible Engine, a full-service production studio headed by former agency creatives, just completed recent branding campaigns for Deschutes Brewery and technology company VMware. Impossible Engine collaborates with agencies and businesses to find the most effective ways to communicate their client’s ideas through motion. The studio utilizes all aspects of animation, live-action and emerging technology like VR to help brands communicate with their audience.
Big Ideas Into Motion
Impossible Engine founder Scott Oliphant heads up a team of writers, designers, directors and animators. Both he and his ACD Joshua Rosenquist hail from the creative side of traditional ad agencies. Along with Lead Producer Katherine Sternat who’s worked with startups both small and large (recently Google in Boston), the team applies their expertise to video for web, television, short films and immersive VR experiences. “We make recommendations, some agencies loop us in early in the process to kick around ideas and possibilities they might not otherwise consider,” says Rosenquist. “We’ve helped many agencies figure out how to do something they’ve already pitched and sold to the client.”
Creative Collaboration
To celebrate last year’s solar eclipse, Impossible Engine created a 3D spot for Deschutes Brewery with a bottle of their flagship Black Butte Porter blocking out the sun. As one of VMware’s vendors of record, Impossible Engine produces a large variety of work. One recent standout was a show opener for the software company’s 2017 Partner Leadership Summit. “We used 3D animation to visualize VMware as the structure, or “magic”, that underlies things,” says Oliphant. “Since the event is about their partners, we wanted to illustrate how together they can grow from a seed to a thriving ecosystem.”
Two Chill Locations
Clients and agencies can access Impossible Engine through offices in Bend, Oregon and Austin, Texas. “Currently, about 70 percent of our business originates from the West Coast,” says Oliphant. “Our two locations ensure both quality of life for our entire team and flexible availability to our clients. From Bend we have access to clients from San Francisco to Seattle within a 1.5 hour plane ride. Workflow wise, we have two large synced storage arrays that enable our offices to collaborate on projects simultaneously.”
Creative Partnership
Oliphant believes that as agency creatives are being asked to come up with more interesting technical and creative executions, they have been discovering the advantage of working with Impossible Engine. “We’re here to partner with agencies both technically and creatively,” he says. “We do a lot of R&D to help agencies work out how to execute sometimes complicated ideas. Whether it’s how to drive a car around an unfolding paper ball, hacking an oscilloscope to produce 2D animation and images, or helping clients work through how to use emerging technologies like VR. We fit into the agency creative workflow at any point, often at the beginning, helping agencies come up with amazing ideas to pitch, overcome executional challenges and expand their horizons about what is possible. Producing great creative with other teams has been a really positive experience for both us and our clients.”
About Impossible Engine
Impossible Engine is a creative, full-service production company that uses animation, live action, and virtual reality experience to communicate big ideas. We convert ideas into motion. For more information please visit www.ImpossibleEngine.com.
