Reflection
The process of neural-network training is like crafting a multi-dimensional lens. Machine learning visualised as a dynamically transformed crystalline object.
Put Smart To Work
Through innovative technology and industry expertise, IBM is changing how the world works by building smarter businesses.
Think is IBM’s flagship event, inviting businesses and thought leaders to discuss new and emerging technologies which will fuel the world’s next industrial transformation.
FIELD designed seven visual systems for the conference to align with different business units and narratives.
I was working on r&d, design, animation, material development and texturing, mostly on the Construction and Community spot.
Continuously evolving large scale cloud architectures, smart and seamless scaling.
ADAPTATION: IBM CLOUD & INFRASTRUCTURE
All modern businesses need to be adaptable and flexible, and it is these qualities which are helping industry respond to fluctuating markets, global supply chain management, and evolving customer bases and needs. With their cloud technology, IBM is helping build smarter businesses.
Cloud and Infrastructure was one of the biggest campuses at Think 2019, highlighting the importance of the cloud in moving businesses forward in the next industrial age.
Visuals for the space convey a fundamental sense of structure and support, but one which is evolving and adaptable.
The journey from individual components to large scale solutions, aided by smart transformations.
CONSTRUCTION: IBM Solutions
Think 2019 was the first time when all IBM businesses came together under one roof. Together with industry leaders and experts, researchers and developers, the aim of the conference was to create a dialogue at the intersection of all these groups.
With so many different businesses and interests represented at the conference, it was important to emphasise how seamlessly IBM technologies can complement each other, and integrate with their clients.
Focusing on highly-satisfying motion sequences and resolutions, the Solutions campus visuals also showcased both natural materials and smart surfaces to demonstrate the range of capabilities in IBM.
From a chaotic explosion of unstructured data to ordered and insightful discoveries, through intelligent pattern recognition and analysis.
GENERATION: AI & Data
“Every day, we produce two and a half quintillion bytes of data. It is the raw material of our digital society, the most powerful natural resource on earth. But all the data in the world means nothing if we can’t refine it, trust it and transform it into insight. To see patterns, to anticipate change and give us the confidence to act.”
As branding for the AI and Data campus, Generation was conceived as a response to the vast quantities of data and information processed by IBM Watson systems.
Using Watson allows customers to unlock the value of their data, to see patterns, predict future events, scale their business and optimize their workforce.
Watson’s current grid branding provided a starting point which exploded to a massive scale – millions of particles representing millions of pieces of data, which at first seems chaotic and uncontrollable but is reigned in and organised by Watson; from chaos to order.
A dynamic and evolving system of colour and soft, fluid texture, which envelops systems in a protective shield.
PROTECTION: IBM Security & Resilience
At the forefront for most industry leaders attending Think is security – how to protect both their businesses and their customers, from threats that are diverse in nature and spread rapidly.
Visuals for this security campus took the idea of an aurora – an amorphous shape which is highly adaptable and flexible, providing a protective shield around the data and computer systems of IBM Security clients.
The process of neural-network training is like crafting a multi-dimensional lens. Machine learning visualised as a dynamically transformed crystalline object.
REFLECTION: Visualising Machine Learning & Neural Networks
Neural networks and machine learning are the building blocks of many IBM businesses showcased at Think 2019, and have an increasing influence over our lives and how technology around us functions.
To illustrate intangible, invisible technologies, the visuals for Reflection used a relatable material – glass – which can take on the qualities of a smart, technical structure. Using the glass as a series of filters, similar to the way in which neural networks are built and learn, touches of colour add a prismatic quality and highlight the facets of the machinery.
A dynamic cloud space, with constant flow, is organic but organised.
“Transformation begins with a simple objective. A clearly defined goal designed to meet strategic ambition. And that goal can take many forms – reducing waste, increasing productivity, better service for customers. Once defined, organisations of all shapes and sizes marshall their resources, execute the plan, and apply the world’s most advanced technology in pursuit of performance.”
The ambition behind Think 2019 was to bring together IBM, industries and expert technologists to discuss smarter businesses.
Those partners of IBM form part of an important ecosystem, where transformation and collaboration are changing the way businesses work and how they respond to the world around them. Because of the adaptability of IBM technologies, this can evolve in a very fluid and organic way – illustrated here by the natural, flowing movement of lines and forms.
Studies of social dynamics expressed through playful abstract shapes + animation.
COMMUNITY: IBM Employees + Festival Attendees
Alongside IBM, preferred partners were invited to showcase their businesses at Think 2019. Community highlights their involvement and the interaction between all parties.
A more playful visual approach, but using highly polished textures to create characters which mimic the social interaction of different groups and interests coming together. Interactions at the conference, and of the people involved, are where innovation begins.
FIELD
Xavier Boivin, Norra Abdul-Rahim
IBM
Julien Bauzin, Paul Brenner, Rosie Emery, Fernando Magalhães, Xander Marritt, Jonas Otto, Davide Piscitelli, Rupert Burton, Will Denning, Chris Hanson, Dan Hoopert, Ben Koppel, Michaela Lautenschlager, Kari Massey, Maxim Meshkov, Marcel Piekarski, Marian Pramberger, Peter Tomaszewicz
Kuedo & David Kamp