BCG 3D + automation

A beautiful 3D world that reflects the business.

First-of-its-kind, a cloud-based 3D tool enabling marketers to create topic-related imagery withing seconds, from anywhere.

Key information:

Project name: BCG 3D + automation

Date: 2021-2022

Creative Direction: Jan Dudzik

In numbers:

Unlimited on-brand imagery
15-30 seconds per render
No cost per image

Impact:

Global social media
Editorial
Company website
Events (COP26, COP27, WEF Davos)

Vendor: someform

Brief descriptor:

Brands can’t differentiate from competitors by relying on stock photography only.

To reflect topics relevant to the business offering, we have created an additional layer of the ownable visual world (3D imagery).

To enable image generation at scale from any office within the network, we have placed our software in the cloud.

Visuals:

3D world that reflects the business

To truly differentiate the BCG brand we had to go beyond the obvious, beyond stock imagery.

In the highly competitive management consulting market where key topics largely overlap between competitors, there is a need to stand out.

To do that, we developed an abstract visual 3D language reflecting a whole range of subjects, including climate & sustainability, digital transformation, and Resilience.

3D imagery was designed to reflect
the three key global topic areas:

BCG Core Brand

This is the main brand look that contains 3D objects which represent different parts of the business.

The narrative behind the visual tells a story of conquering complexity, of finding elements that work, and building the best solutions for BCG’s clients.

BCG Climate & Sustainability

Climate & Sutainability is one of the main topics for BCG. To support this topic, we have created a set of 3D objects that represent themes behind the climate.

The narrative behind the visuals talks about the complex and delicate balancing act of protecting natural environment while making sure that our C&S solutions support the economic progress.

BCG Digital & AI

Digital & AI is hugely important to BCG because the technological advantage is what supports workers and helps business thrive.

The narrative behind the visuals talks about BCG specialists looking at the ever-changing, complex world of Digital solutions and building a stack of the ones that provide benefits to our clients.

The three visual systems above were defined based on key global brand topics. They would form the basis for visual explorations.

In use:

3D-powered visuals have been adopted extensively in global brand activations.

Our ownable visual language and tool developed for BCG came in handy soon enough. We have deployed our design automation tool in multiple creative briefs such as BCG presence at WEF Davos, COP26, COP27, multiple banners on our main social media channels, and media partnerships with the likes of The New York Times.

Innovation:

3D design with automation capabilities

When building our solution, from the beginning we knew that we wanted to democratize the image generation process. We tapped into the latest in technological solution development and worked with our vendor on cutting-edge software merging image automation and the latest in 3D rendering. Our cloud-based tool enabled anyone with access to replicate on-brand 3D imagery, within seconds.

Areas of importance
when introducing 3D design:

Reflecting brand and lines of business

Our visual language is an abstract representation of our key topics and lines of business. We created a differentiated look per key topics as well as the core BCG brand look that contained all topics in one.

Scale and expandability

From the very beginning, we worked on this project with scaling in mind. Our cloud-based platform enables anyone in the organization to generate always-on-brand 3D imagery and use it for their needs.

The platform we have created allowed us to get out of the realm of singular, expensive 3D executions and move into a mass-produced, cheap, and yet beautiful 3D work that would always stay on-brand. It enabled people with no 3D training to become creators.

High speed and low cost

Leveraging latest in tech allowed us to provide unprecedented speed and low cost per image.

Our platform was able to generate beautiful 3D imagery in around 15 seconds vs. multiple hours like in a traditional “rendering farm”.

Unlike custom-made 3D graphics, our imagery has almost no cost per image.

Above: BCG Image Generator is cloud-based a tool combining algorithm-powered image generation and a real-time rendering engine. This unique mix allows for an extremely fast generation of high-quality, on-brand images.
Video shared courtesy of someform.