Imbue is a San Francisco based, independent research company working to build AI systems that can reason and be deployed in the real world. In 2023, as the conversation around the emerging capabilities of artificial intelligence became mainstream, Imbue was at the receiving end of a $200 million Series B funding round, reaching a valuation of over $1 billion.
With the intention of boosting their market presence and creating something that would draw new talent to the company, Slow Clap collaborated with the team at Imbue to create a video that would tell the story of their brand through the eyes of their co-founder and CEO, Kanjun Qiu.
“We wanted to create an updated narrative and tell our company’s story. We also wanted to attract candidates with whom our story resonated. On top of that, we wanted to clarify our narrative to the broader public.”
– Nic Seo, Head of Product Experience at Imbue
Approach
Imbue wanted to convey a story that felt more authentic and personal than your average explainer video. Not only is AI a dense and highly technical subject matter, but the growing number of players in the artificial intelligence space meant we had to be very deliberate in how we would differentiate Imbue from the “big players” in the industry, all while telling a story that would generate interest and curiosity.
Working closely with the team at Imbue, we decided the best way to achieve this was through a series of anecdotes and metaphors that we would then bring to life visually through hand-drawn animations. Through extensive pre-interviews with our protagonist, Kanjun, multiple script revisions, and storyboarding, we were able to hone in on the perfect combination of parts needed to effectively communicate the company’s belief that AI can unlock human potential and creativity.
“We were able to go in knowing exactly the story we wanted to tell, but we still asked authentic interview questions that elicited authentic interview responses, without sticking exactly to the script.”
– Daniel Lichtenberg, Creative Director & Founder of Slow Clap
Daniel Lichtenberg directing the video crew on the set up.
Execution
Over the course of two days we filmed at Imbue’s office, a quaint Victorian house in San Francisco’s Eureka Valley neighborhood. We still wanted to inject some of the documentary storytelling spirit that we are known for bringing to all our projects at Slow Clap, so we went for a direct-to-camera style of interview, allowing us to feel like we were having an intimate conversation with Kanjun. We made the decision not to use a script on a teleprompter, allowing Kanjun to answer our questions freely and express her thoughts genuinely. We also spent some time hanging out with the rest of the team at Imbue, capturing b-roll footage of the group working together in their office.
Ryan Yen and Gabriel de Cuba reviewing the set up through a small video monitor.
Once in post-production, we worked with illustrator Rose Tully to create custom hand-drawn illustrations that were directly inspired by Kanjun’s personal sketch-work, working through several ideations to ensure the illustrations looked and felt like Kanjun’s. These illustrations were then animated by motion graphics artist Larry Brown, and served as a fun yet effective visual representation of the personal anecdotes Kanjun relates to us throughout the video.
“Imbue was looking for a narrative animation film style where it’s very seamless and flowing. We were presented with Kanjun’s journal as a reference. It was very dreamy and untethered and very light. Imbue liked the pencil look and they just wanted it to go with a watercolor fill in.”
– Rose Tully, Illustrator
Water color sketches using the Imbue color palette of Kanjun.
Illustration of Kanjun doing different activities.
Results
The final product was a brand story video that felt inspiring, forward-thinking, and true to Imbue’s brand. As of the time of writing, our video has over 100,000 views across Imbue’s social media platforms.
Illustration of Kanjun and friends watching fireworks on a hill in San Francisco.
“Slow Clap’s biggest strength was their collaborative spirit. They treated us as a thought partner instead of just asking for tasks and running off to do their own things. Their authenticity was also impressive. They cared about their clients and the story we were trying to tell; this came through in the final product. ”
– Nic Seo, Head of Product Experience at Imbue
Further Reading
AI startup Imbue gets $12 million in follow-on funding
Imbue to Develop Next-Generation AI Models with $150 Million Dell High Performance Computing System
Imbue raises $200M to build AI models that can ‘robustly reason’
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