The making of ... Inevidesk: The Movie
Since we launched Inevidesk back in September 2020, we have been working hard to increase awareness of our virtual desktop service within the sector. We’ve worked with PR companies, published articles, advertised with the AJ and sponsored Architecture Today’s first season of podcasts. We also employed a tireless and inventive sales team who have done wonders in securing us introductory meetings to many architectural firms over recent months.
As we approached our anniversary, we wanted to develop our branding to reflect both the progression in our service and our rapid establishment as the agile working platform of choice for a growing number of AEC organisations.
Whilst undertaking various attempts at PR and advertising people kept telling us that video was critical; that more people are likely to open emails that contain ‘video’ in their subject line, that more people would engage with video social content. It also made a lot of sense to us to use video as Inevidesk is particularly awesome at supporting moving graphics: animation and the navigation of complex BIM models.
We wanted to build on the wonderful work that our brand designers CHK Design created for us in 2020: the strong yet playful logo and icon, the use of pulsing dots to represent networks and connection, the distinctive colour palette of rich purple and highlights of turquoise and coral (which somehow fell away as we developed the website). The idea was to bring these elements to life in an animated video that would reflect the sophistication of our clients’ work.
We initially looked at companies that specialised in creating animated videos, but it was quickly very clear that this wouldn’t do. These companies had templates and set styles that (a) we’d all seen before and (b) didn’t have the necessary design sophistication. We wanted to appeal to very discerning designers – which was going to mean a much more bespoke approach.
HelloYes are a design agency that we had known for quite some time, having worked with them some 9 years previously for another company. In the intervening time they had amassed a truly exceptional body of work and a list of clients including The Guardian, The Financial Times, Brompton bikes and the animated title sequence of the recent remake of All Creatures Great and Small. Their initial discussions with us were full of enthusiasm and exciting ideas and their pitch really compelling.
The first step was to write a script to develop the visuals around. HelloYes brought in Mary Ann Horgan, an experienced copywriter to help us crystallise our messaging and wrestle a somewhat tech heavy and complex set of ideas into something brief, punchy and immediate; that would communicate the ‘promise’ of Inevidesk in around 60 seconds or so (no more than 90 seconds – apparently most people won’t stick around longer – and in which case certainly won’t get around to reading this article … ). Having been through a similar process a year before, we were steeled for quite a few iterations as we knew this wasn’t necessarily an easy thing. But Mary practically nailed it in the first draft. Super work and, with a few minor tweaks, we were ready to progress to the visuals very quickly.
Utilising 3D animation to some extent was important to us. We wanted to incorporate an experience that BIM users would recognise, that would illustrate this element of building design. It would be more expensive to produce, but worthwhile. The style had to be clean and modern. It needed to be very cool.
The idea was to utilise the already established Inevidesk ‘dots’ in a 2D abstract sequence that would break through into a stylised 3D city where the benefits of using the service were illustrated as we cut and pan across its buildings and infrastructure.
The style was settled early: lots of white and space with the use of Inevidesk’s brand colours as strong visual elements to contrast, highlight and bring to life key elements of our city. The Inevidesk icon would loom like some benevolent alien tech over laptops and buildings where it was in use. The city itself, rendered in white and shade, felt like both a 3D model (which it is) but also a call back to old school physical modelling in white foam.
Lots of attention was given to the infrastructure: traffic had to be moving correctly around the roads, we wanted to incorporate different building types to demonstrate where Inevidesk could be used: offices, homes, transport hubs and the like. The design of the house was modified to be ‘more architectural’. Inevidesk icons appeared in a city over the water to show its potential for multi-city/ country use. HelloYes’s attention to detail was precise and thorough.
Our concern was ensuring that the audience would understand the principle that Inevidesk would allow companies to move away from rows of fixed desks and large expensive office spaces and enable staff to work in more creative and comfortable ways (this having been one of the most consistent elements raised with us by the organisations we were meeting). There were a few iterations of the ‘architects office’ condensing into one desk: workstations disappearing, plants and laptops appearing, options opening out.
In fact, we wrestled with the compulsion that we had to explain more. That we had to be more literal. We felt a need to try and explain everything in the 60 – 90 seconds that we had. HelloYes, in their infinite wisdom, assured us this was not necessary. The aim of the video was to catch an audience’s eye, to provoke interest and steer them to our website and to talk with us. There was plenty of time to get into the detail at that point.
Once the animation was locked in, the final stages included sound design and voiceover. Yes, many people would probably end up watching it without sound (hence the subtitled version we mostly use), but we wanted the potential for an immersive and tonal experience also. We decided against a music backdrop and instead HelloYes employed a sound designer to create an aural environment to accompany the abstract, slightly spacey opening sequence before popping into the 3D city which became much more realised with a layered city soundscape, carefully modulated to match the pans, zooms and activity in the animation.
To ensure we retained the level of quality throughout we also decided to utilise a professional voice over artist and after considering a number of different voices and tones we settled on Alicia Ambrose-Bayly; an actress and voice over artist who conveyed the script in a friendly, warm yet professional way. With all these elements now integrated, bar a little tweaking of sound levels, the video was – after quite a number of months – complete.
The film now takes centre stage on our website homepage. It has been launched into the wilds of LinkedIn via an ongoing campaign. It’s going to form the basis of a wider brand refresh in the New Year as we build out from the imagery and style of the animation.
We’re getting a lot of compliments. We hope you like it too.
If you want to know more about Inevidesk, please get in touch. We’d love to talk about that all important ‘detail’ which you will find can revolutionise just how your organisation can work: https://www.inevidesk.uk/contact/
If you’d like to contact or check out the work of those involved in the making of the video and our initial branding then links are below:
https://www.maryannhorgan.com/