A lot of AI tech advertising aims to show you what a product does or how it works. Sometimes that's necessary, but it can also go wrong like in the dystopian ChatGPT Astra advert or, more recently, the terribly stressful Apple HomeView advert.
The UI design platform Figma took a different approach with its recent launch video for its AI agent. It aimed for emotion by capturing nothing less than the the feeling of not just a product but the process of design itself. And it used an unexpected medium.
The Figma Agent is a system-aware AI assistant that works in the platform's files, layers and frames. It can be sued to rapidly explore layout directions, build user flows, generate new screens from text prompts, and remix existing designs.
To announce the transition out of beta, the digital product and marketing agency IVERSON eschewed the traditional feature walkthrough to focus on the experience of the software. To do that, it sought to capture the whole design process, from the tyranny of the blank page to research, the first ideas, iteration, feedback and the moment the work starts to flow.
The film was written and directed by Iverson's founder David Dinetz. He settled on dance as the ideal way to capture the invisible internal processes involved in design. He worked with choreographer Tony Testa, whose career has included work with the likes of Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez, to build a language that would reveal that experience through physical movement.
The resulting film was made almost entirely in camera with live performance, moving sets and practical effects set to a Fred Again track.
The piece follows IVERSON’s Webby-winning Figma Slides film (below) but takes the collaboration into a more physical world. The shape of the choreography captures the emotion of design, while the pace seeks to capture the speed and fluidity of the software
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Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.