Presenting The Future: The Aesthetics and Branding of IBM’s Smarter Planet

IBM’s Smarter Planet campaign aims to inform about both the technology and the markets it has invested in, while highlighting opportunities for networked solutions and systems.  Unlike absurd future visions of  yesteryear, the World’s Fair flying car, robot-in-every-kitchen type, this depiction is a very grounded, surprisingly tangible one.

So, what does IBM’s vision of the future looks like today?

Bright, networked, and overwhelmingly human.

Despite the fact that Smarter Planet is a campaign concerned with technological problem-solving, tech is notably absent.  Instead, this vision is saturated with people. Every solution is framed by the faces and voices of developers and the people who will ultimately benefit from these developments. Though the technology is clearly what’s being pushed, it takes a perceptible backseat to human problems, solutions, and benefits.

Simplicity dominates IBM’s campaign graphics. Generally, Smarter Planet images, illustrations, and videos use artistic license to represent IBM’s advancements in monocolor and energetic patterns.  Bright hues and movement, think cartoon-like lightbulb lines, imply optimism and defy perceptions of stasis.  These images are often drawn moving upward or outward mirroring the momentum and optimistic worldview that IBM would like to portray.

This optimism is what serves to unify the Smarter Planet campaign and vision. Especially on the website, with twenty-five sections of complex and difficult issues, the tone is upbeat.  IBM wants to be clear these are not present points of despair, they are, instead, future opportunities.  Ultimately this realistic optimism, explained through simple graphics and human outcomes, creates a more compelling, accessible and intriguing vision of the future.  Sure, it’s not Rosie the robot, smell-o-vision, or personal rocket-planes, but it’s a more honest depiction of what may lie ahead.

IBM’s Smarter Planet