IBM Watson
In the fall of 2008, IBM approached Ogilvy with the task of creating the face of Watson, a computer designed to understand natural language. As a test, the computer would appear on Jeopardy in a competition against the world's best champions - Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.
But what kind of image could represent a supercomputer nearly capable of human thinking? Was it humanoid? Was it abstract? Should it be an actual person? We also had to contend with the fact that the Avatar had literally seconds of camera time per answer, altogether, about 6 minutes of camera time total. It had to convey emotion in an instant.
Our solution was an abstract piece of generative art that took cues from the existing Smarter Planet icon campaign and made use of color, speed, and shape to convey ideas of data, intelligence, and even emotion. We worked with pioneering generative artist Joshua Davis to bring the idea to life.
What powers Watson / Click here for an animated experience.
Identity