Communicating the complexity of computational learning to non computers.
Google Cloud Platform
Agency: Hello Monday
Project: Motion Design
Year: 2017
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Creative Direction, storyboard, editing, writing, animation, compositing
Google Cloud approached Hello Monday to help them create a video that could explain Machine Learning. They wanted to show it at conferences and eventually release it to the public for learning purposes.
The biggest challenge was that the ML space was tough to explain in a succint and relatable way. We wanted to communicate in an educational way, but also needed to get potential enterprise customers excited about the potential. Communicating to multiple audiences can be a challenge.
We collaborated closely with the Google Cloud team to craft a video that felt aspirational. It was a video about technology that felt like it had a very human touch. The motion needed to feel alive and energetic, responsive and almost tender in a way.
It was an interesting puzzle to solve. At the time we weren't sure how to communicate machine learning without sounding technical. There were all sorts of hand waving we did in our "explaination". We didn't want the language to be so technical that the message was lost. We didn't want to get too visually perscriptive because the concept of ML was still so abstract
To stay true to the complex and abstract nature of machine learning we built a clear narrative and story language and visual style to create a compeling dicotemy. The narrative is clear and straight forward and the visual representations tell a simple story. "From chaos to order." All the while the visual style is informed by pure abstraction. Taking queues from the Avant-Garde movement known as "Suprematism" (and a little Bauhaus). The tension pairs nicely with the growing pains of learning something new, and the clarity helps send a clear message that "hey, this is wild, but not that wild."
It's important to stay human when describing the world of machines.
"The team that put together this video has won the internet today." — Random Youtube comment
It was important for us to have a story in thumbnails. Not only to help the client understand the concept but to drive our visual explorations. These boards were obviously going to evolve as we moved forward but it gave a solid north star as the project revealed itself.
