Hadjo Media called upon Superlux to bring its talent for creating engaging, seductive visual stories to networking technology with a provocative brand message for the IBM-Juniper Alliance. The production company collaborated with the design/animation/VFX boutique to create ‘Mutualism On a Global Scale,’ a two-minute brand film that showcases their client’s innovative state-of-the-art networking solutions. Tasked with crafting a message that was colorful, dynamic, and relevant to a diverse audience, Superlux, which has built a reputation for crafting bold moving images that intimately connect viewers and brands, was in its element.
“IBM-Juniper Alliance is a consortium of thinkers, engineers and global problem-solvers dedicated to building a Smarter Network,” says Mark Falls, co-owner and creative director of Superlux. “The more we thought about networking, the more we saw the interrelationships of the natural world. Taking our cues from the organic environment, we used images of nature to create a resonant organic backdrop juxtaposing the tale of a business category – and a dynamic partnership – that are truly symbiotic of the IBM-Juniper offering.
The project began at the concept phase – with Superlux creating a variety of motifs and design languages and initiating a collaborative dialogue with the clients as their design and FX team focused on identifying and expanding upon the strongest visual solutions that most dynamically express the essence of the brand’s message.
“Our client, Hadjo Media, has done a lot of shooting and editorial work for IBM Digital Video Services (DVS) the Atlanta-based unit of IBM. DVS often calls upon outside creative companies for production and post services. Due to our strategic relationship with Hadjo, this job was a great fit for us,” says Falls.
The brief for this job was to tell the story of the alliance between two separate corporations, IBM and Juniper, a tangible entity that seeks to market itself as a distinct alternative to standard-issue networking solutions. The message, ‘Networking is evolving. It is business critical. Innovation is important,’ positions it as a unique alternative to traditional network solutions because it presents more effective and customizable options.
IBM’s teams were the primary target audience for this message, as they spec out network solutions as part of broader integrated software-hardware-personnel implementations. Because these groups are dynamically structured, with diverse missions, fluid personnel and a decentralized hierarchy – the message had to be crafted in a way that was relevant to a wide audience.
Falls, who helmed his team as they explored various approaches to translating their ideas into a complex and versatile graphic system, notes, “We did a lot of initial conceptual groundwork, and the one theme that stood out was the way networking mirrors natural ecosystems. Our approach was to overlay the technology aspect with nature imagery. We found a great quote from molecular biologist Lynn Margulis, which set the tone: “Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking.’ Once we came up with the central framework and the idea of juxtaposing nature footage with diagrammatic animation, we made a conscience effort to avoid buzz words in the messaging and steer the text towards more ‘natural’ language.”
Superlux initially created style frames for three concepts, presented them to the client, got their feedback, and then set about reimagining and recombining the elements they designed (which all made it into the finished product) for the various scenarios. Its team created the graphic representations of network architecture using a combination of 3D and 2D with plug-ins, and choreog
