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IBM recently launched a campaign called “A Smarter Planet,” centering on the idea that the systems that run the way we live are increasingly becoming interconnected and “intelligent.” For the creative team at Ogilvy & Mather, the agency of record, the challenge in executing the campaign was coming up with imagery that would vividly illustrate abstract concepts.
As is often the case, the challenge was also part of what the made campaign so much fun to do. “It’s a very exciting and very creative time to work on the IBM account at Ogilvy,” says O&M creative director Michael Paterson. His team had the chance to establish a new visual language for IBM—a language created both by illustrators and graphic designers (such as Carl DeTorres, Tomato, Non-Format, I Love Dust, Lamosca, and The Office) and by photographer Craig Cutler.
Craig shot two series of ads focusing on the role of midsize businesses, generating imagery to bring to life headlines like “The server that made an entire university smarter,” for which he stood some books up and arranged them in a circle, so that their spines all face in and their pages are fanned out a bit. Shot from above, they look like colorful pipe cleaners or fiber-optic cables. The image registers visually as a high-tech icon, though it’s really just a bunch of books. “Creating something about of nothing—that’s the trick,” says Craig. (At the end of this post are examples of Craig’s sketches, alongside the final ads.)
Here, Michael explains the origins of the campaign and talks about how he and Craig collaborated to bring it to life.
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Can you give me a little background on the genesis of the “Smarter Planet” concept and how it fits in with IBM?
The “smart planet” thought came out of a speech by the CEO of IBM, which is always a good place to start! At the agency we began noodling around with ideas based on this, and one day one of our junior art directors came up with this beautiful graphic icon of a planet with little “think rays” popping out of the top. It looked like the planet just got smart.
Not only was it a great idea, but it also opened up a completely new visual language for IBM—one based on graphic design. As the campaign developed, we started collaborating with some amazing new contemporary graphic artists, like IBM used to
do with people like Paul Rand, Eliot Noyes, and Charles and Ray Eames.
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Where are these ads being distributed and by what means (magazines, newspapers, etc.)?
They are running globally in newspapers, magazines, and outdoor, and we animated them for the Web. Yesterday I showed Craig pictures of buses in Shanghai. They were covered with our ads! It’s amazing when you see your work all over the world. You get a real kick out of it. That’s one of the great things working on IBM at Ogilvy.
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How did you determine that photography was the way to illustrate the campaign, and how did you come to choose Craig for the job?
We had moved away from photography with the Smart Planet campaign in the quest for a new visual DNA for the brand. We got a brief to do a campaign about smaller businesses. We felt that it was time to bring photography back but treat it like design.
Craig is trained as a graphic designer, and his work is incredibly graphic, as well as feeling very natural and beautiful at the same time. I think his work pushes the boundaries of commercial photography into the art world, distinctions that are becoming blurred today anyway. He was the natural choice.
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Craig tells me that he first submitted interpretations of individual items, such as a soccer ball, but that you were looking for something different. Can you elaborate on this?
Yes. We asked him to shoot some tests for us. They were cool, but it got us thinking about how we could turn this into something totally new conceptually. We asked ourselves some questions: What does it mean to make a soccer ball or a pill or a bottle of wine look smart? How can we make the ordinary look extraordinary? How can we elevate these things so you see them in a new way, almost like intelligence has been applied to them? So Craig and I worked on this, and that’s how these images were born.
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Craig also noted that this project was highly collaborative. Can you give me an example of how you and he worked together—the kind of problem-solving and brainstorming?
Craig is involved in the process from the start. And when I say the start, I mean the brief, before there’s even an ad. Let’s say there’s a company in Europe that makes green energy, and IBM has helped them develop their business. Craig and I will bounce ideas off each other. Then Craig will sketch. And let me say his sketches are wonderful, hugely evocative. There’s a personal gesture that’s so rare today. You can feel Craig’s passion for he project in his sketches. I mean, he can draw!
Me and my partner, Greg Gerstner, will develop the ad itself in parallel—I know that sounds weird. And then we propose visual ideas based on Craig’s sketches. It’s a very exciting and different way of working with a photographer. It’s hugely satisfying.
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A few of Craig’s sketches, plus the final ads:
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