From concept to visual

Infographic process 

From the very first meeting with Saila (Senior Proposition Marketer) we were awed by this talking plate assignment. PreZero represents a big assignment, namely: Thinking further for a sustainable tomorrow. Which also became the title of the talking plate. Together, we took on the challenge of further drawing out the path the client is taking on his or her way to a sustainable tomorrow. Ah… I mention it, we soon came upon a ‘path’… and a bumpy one at that. The metaphor was born into which we were going to plot all the information.

The customer goes through 4 stages during his or her “journey.” A 4-step plan, in other words. This time not in bullets, but with sub-steps/goals. And all supported by a smaller illustration. It was continuous balancing between taking away text (even more? Yes!) and thinking about what image could reinforce it. Answering the viewer’s first question “what does this actually mean for me, what step can I take with my organization now, but also tomorrow?” was an important approach. After all, you want to reach everyone and get them on board.

Parallel to this creative process, we looked at how we could incorporate PreZero’s colors and corporate identity into this carrier plate, so there was a personalized illustration style. We continued this throughout all the expressions to really create a unity.

The talking plate was then developed into a “Menu Card. A handy help-out with the offer per customer phase, as a framework for the sales offer towards the customer and the internal portfolio management.

After a while of sharing, discussing together and testing with the internal and external customer (yes! It worked!), the wish came to make an animation of it as well. All in all, we created a number of different products, an illustration (talking plate), a formatted document (Menu Card) and a number of animations. Which we are incredibly proud of. We also really see it as a co-creation with PreZero (Saila). We wish such a collaboration to everyone!!!

From infographic te animation

After the talking point for a sustainable tomorrow was complete, the desire came to convey this story in the form of an animation. Of course we can do that! It would be 3 animations containing “roughly” the same message but aimed at 3 target groups. One for internal use, explaining in a little more detail what a sustainable tomorrow means and how PreZero helps customers get there. One for external use, a bit more concise and aimed at parties working with PreZero. And one for governments where the focus is on municipalities.
PreZero came up with a script for the voice-over text, to which we added images in a session. It was great to discuss content and images together!

The storyboard phase soon followed, the first imaging of the ongoing story. Then the scenes were drawn and set in motion by the “magic” of animation. The end result is quite something. A beautiful set of animations with the same look and feel. A nice unity that matches the other communication tools we created for PreZero.

PreZero speaking out

Saila: “When I started as Proposition Marketer at PreZero 2.5 years ago, I quickly noticed how many great things we get to do together with clients. That made me curious: what would the ideal road to a sustainable tomorrow look like? What would be the best suited offer for the customer at what point? Because some clients are already further “on the road” than others, but all of them can take the next step today to move forward on sustainability and circularity. As project lead, I set to work, together with my project team, to write this out further.

Around the same time, I attended the Business Drawing and Visual Storytelling training with two colleagues at Buro BRAND. All three of us noticed that images better convey the essence of a story and make it stick. Drawings also help to simplify the sometimes complicated proposition structures.

So here too, 1 + 1 became 2. Or actually even more than that. Even though our own drawing skills have improved quite a bit by now, but not yet at a professional level, we asked Buro BRAND to draw our way to a sustainable tomorrow (which we had already written out and tested internally). And what turned out, such a talking picture does indeed talk a lot easier than a piece of text. We now have a number of them in billboard format in our office.

The menu card gave just that extra depth to the story in order to make it really concrete: what are we going to do together? Which focus area can we work on with the customer? To support Sales further in this, we have also developed a number of slides for use in sales presentations, it is part of our sales training courses, etc. The animations round out the story and are ideal for internal use on intranet and for new employees, for example. Externally, we use them on our website, in sales calls and on LinkedIn, for example.

Some of our customers are really still starting out, so this story is still new for them. Others are already well on their way and see this as a confirmation of what they are already doing. But we find that for all clients it is very nice to see where you are now as an organization (with our Quickscan), where you want to go, and which steps you can take today to eventually get there. That structure and that pragmatism also makes the conversation more strategic in nature.

I don’t think that would have been possible based on the original word document with that chunk of text! So thank you to Buro BRAND. You knew how to challenge us every time to delete even more text and to think even more visually. There was true co-creation and we really enjoyed that. See you next time!”