Nexus Construct Bombay Sapphire's 'Imagination Machine'

Motion ads in the outdoor space have come on leaps and bounds in recent years. What was once the backing for Harrison Ford chasing down replicants has now become an everyday reality, with moving images beaming out of train station walls and shopping centres around the world. One of the most eye-catching examples to hit the UK recently is the staggering 'Imagination Machine' – a digital moving artwork for Bombay Sapphire from Nexus.
 
Created from the 'Imagination Distilled' creative concept by Gravity Road, the 'Imagination Machine' is a glourious visual treat spanning print, an animated film and outdoor. Directed by Nexus-based multi-disciplinary motion and design team nextdoor, with creative direction from Cannes Lions-winning directing duo Smith & Foulkes, the machine uses the process for making Bombay Sapphire as an analogy for the sublime power of creativity.
 
With visuals born out of Bombay Sapphire's brand story, the piece combines imagery and narratives from the brands history with countries from which botanicals are sourced though to the unique process of distillation, all contained within the form of a blue cocktail glass – reflecting the brand's aesthetic. From the starting point of a stand-alone print image with multiple layers that could then expand and develop into movement, the Nexus team worked on storylines, models to establish the look, resulting in a finished project in digital 3D for the outdoor LCDs.
 
We managed to grab a few words with nextdoor about the processes involved in creating such a piece, the journey from creative concept to finalised project and how it feels to me working in such a futuristic form.

 
How did you get involved in the Bombay Sapphire project?
 
We were approached by Gravity Road to bring to life their concept of the 'Imagination Machine', which would form part of their 'Imagination Distilled' campaign for Bombay Sapphire. We were excited about the prospect of creating a digital Imagination Machine that reflected the ambitious nature of the campaign.
 
What was the brief? Did it take long to come up with the concept for the creative?

We began with a very extensive brief from Gravity Road asking us to create a machine that sparked the imagination by taking inspiration from the botanicals and the distillation process used to make Bombay Sapphire gin. The visual concept of their campaign was centered on the rich product and brand story – the heritage and make-up of the gin, and the process of its creation – and how this is an analogy for the power of creativity and imagination.  We spent around 2 months coming up with the final design . Like every job we have to re-invent how we work and this was no exception. Each botanical was explored in a myriad of imaginative ways. Visual concepts were mixed with the landscapes, animals, iconography and design from the origin of the botanical, or taken from a more abstract angle. The balance in the end seemed to be found with taking some abstract designs and mixing it together with something from the botanicals' origin.
 
When it comes to characters/element design like this, where do you start? Does one thing lead to another?

Initially we gathered a lot of references and listed ideas centered around the botanicals used in the gin. The list was quite large invariably making the volume of reference imagery gigantic. This could have been overwhelming as we had a very open brief, but we had the time to explore and filter all this information into lots of concepts. At this stage it was more about making a little scene for a story to take place. This proved to be a challenge, as we wanted to fuel the imagination and not dictate it, which meant hinting at the botanicals' origin without being overtly obvious. We found that there is a fine line between these two opposites when each element would end up being such a small part of the overall design, which had to be visible from a distance. It was at this point that we started to bring everything together in the form of a line drawing to pare it down to the elements where most important. This drawing then became blueprint for the 3D team to work from.

What's the workflow on a job like this? Do different members of the team work of different elements, or do you work through in stages?

The workflow is a staggered one with multiple people working at various stages. It is broken down into small parts, as we like to work with specialists who can bring the best quality to each part of the process.
 
As this job was not only a static print we had to make sure we could reproduce it in animated form. So after the 2D design process we moved onto 3D modelling which is in my mind just an extension of the design process. It was from this point we had to think in both static and motion. So the animators took the best keyframe for the characters and key elements, which were then refined so that the story we created in the motion version, had the same impact in the static execution.
 
Was it always the plan to virtually create the piece as a digital 3D object? When did the idea for animating it come?

Right from the beginning we were asked to create both the static and animated executions.  In fact the digital was the first
 

Have you seen the billboards in-situ? Do you feel like you're working in a Blade Runner future?
 
It's always nice to see something you've worked on in-situ after seeing it for so long on the many screens of the studio. It does seem quite futuristic, and I'm really excited about seeing what's next with this type of medium. With enough freedom you could really push this form of medium into a very engaging place.   

Do you have a favourite element in the piece?

It would have to be the monkeys swinging around the statue's head. It was one of the first designs I did and it made it all the way through to the final version.

Would you like to work more on the idea? Is there a narrative that could be found?

The beauty of this machine we created is that there is so much depth to the ideas. You could make a whole a series of short films about each element.