XPLANE created four-minute movie for global BASF Group

PORTLAND, Ore. (Sept. 3, 2008) — XPLANE, a global consultancy driving better results through visual thinking and design, has developed the animated movie Earth 2030 for BASF Group — the world’s leading chemical company. Earth 2030 is a four-minute production that articulates in a visual and compelling way the future of the world’s climate while inspiring viewers to take positive action by being more efficient and conscientious of their energy usage. The complete movie can be viewed at www.basf.com/climate.

“At BASF we continually improve energy efficiency each and every day through the development of our products and the way we do business,†said Christian Schubert, director, corporate communications at BASF Group. “As for communications, we looked for an easy to understand and compelling way to make a wider public aware of how the growing energy demand will affect our future — and motivate people to think of their individual contribution to make a difference. The XPLANE team did a great job of helping us convey our messages and communicating them in a highly innovative and creative way.â€

Through a series of strategic visual collaboration sessions, XPLANE and BASF identified the key messages that needed to be communicated in the movie and what illustrations would convey these messages most clearly to viewers. Hand-drawn with modern style lines the animations in Earth 2030 are organic and move slightly as the viewers watch. Elements are “drawn†onto the screen, and then “erased.†Much of the animation is light artwork over a dark background and accompanying copy was designed to match the illustration style. The movie is currently available in English, German and Japanese and will be translated in further languages like French, Portuguese and Spanish.

“The creation of Earth 2030 was very much a collaborative effort between XPLANE and the team at BASF, making us all very proud of the finished product,†said Antonio Robert, general manager for XPLANE EMEA. “By bringing together XPLANE consultants, designers and key decision makers at BASF, we were able to create a movie that is powerful, thought-provoking and artistically ahead of the curve.â€

According to BASF, efficiency is the most important way to address the growing energy demand and to protect the climate. Being energy efficient in industry, mobility and housing will offer the biggest opportunity to cut down on usage trends. Just through efficiency, and with already existing technologies, it’s possible to significantly curb the predicted increasing global energy demand and thus the CO2-emissions by the year 2030.

“The Earth 2030 piece is powerful — because of both the message and impact that it carries — but also because it’s another example of how effectively visual thinking communicates complexity, delivering unrivaled understanding,†said Dave King, vice president of client services at XPLANE. “We expect BASF to see great results from this piece and we are pleased to have been a part of the process.â€

With an innovative, multidisciplinary methodology, XPLANE is unique because of the team’s focus on visual thinking and information-driven communication to develop clarity, convey key messages to clients’ target audiences, and generate the desired results faster and more efficiently. Companies have hired XPLANE to motivate employees, drive sales, convince decision makers and improve processes.

ABOUT XPLANE

Founded in 1993, XPLANE is a global consultancy that drives better results for many of the world’s leading corporations including Intel, Nokia, Vodafone, Microsoft, BASF, Unilever, U.S. Department of National Intelligence and BP through visual thinking and design. XPLANE offers clients unique and personalized service through its employees’ diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise, including journalism, consulting, technology, marketing, training, illustration, interaction, process improvement, information design and architecture. Global XPLANE headquarters are in Portland, Ore. USA; European offices are based in Madrid, Spain and a third office is located in St. Louis, Mo. USA. For more information about XPLANE, visit www.xplane.com or call (866) 750-6467 (USA) + (34) 915 635835 (Spain).

For more information contact:

  • Parker Lee
  • 503 467 7756
  • plee@xplane.com