WIRED & IBM’s

The AI Effect EP 3&4

I worked on a four-part video series for IBM and WIRED that explores the role of AI across different industries. The series is featured on WIRED UK’s YouTube channel, alongside accompanying articles on the WIRED website. For this project, I was responsible for the styleframes, storyboards, and article illustrations. Here, I showcase my work for episodes three and four.

Banking gets more personal with AI

Episode three delves into the role of AI in the world of banking and finance. For this one we tried to come up with a unique way to translate complex issues into a simple and understandable style.

Styleframes

Because the topic revolves around the digital world, we initially explored a fully pixelated visual style. Coins, money, and other financial elements were designed in a gamified pixel look. After reviewing this direction, the client felt it was not the right fit, so we shifted toward a more retro rubber hose inspired style while keeping the same color palette and core ideas.

The main focus of the story is a single character whose financial journey we follow. From visiting the bank to shopping in stores, this character helps guide the viewer through everyday financial interactions. To gamify and simplify the concept, we designed a playful character that represents the consumer, visualized as a coin purse with arms and legs.

Pixel art image of a purple smiley face with a crown, holding a white thumb up, on a black background.
A digital illustration of a glowing yellow sphere connected to a circuit board with energy lines, surrounded by stacks of coins labeled with Euro symbols, and electronic components.
A digital illustration of a financial or business meeting in a high-tech setting. Several yellow smiley face characters with laptops are sitting at a conference table on either side of the room. On the walls, there are screens displaying graphs and charts showing positive data trends. In the center, there is a large, illuminated vault door, and in the foreground, a bowl of coins with dollar signs.

Storyboard snippets from episode three

Illustration of a spinning roulette wheel with euro banknotes scattered around.
Two cars involved in a collision on a city street, with one car hitting the rear of the other.
Illustration of falling money, coins, banknotes, among clouds, with some coins showing a Euro symbol, in black and white
Two cars involved in a head-on collision on a city street with buildings and trees in the background, and damage to the vehicles.
Grayscale collage of multiple screenshots depicting car accident scenes with shield icons and checkmarks, indicating protected or secure incidents.
Black and white digital illustration of Bitcoin coins floating in a futuristic, digital network with interconnected lines and nodes.
Digital illustration showing a smartphone with a tennis court on its screen and two tennis balls on the court. Surrounding the phone are colorful icons representing social media messages, comments, and notifications, all connected by lines. The background is blue with a textured pattern, and the Wired logo is in the bottom left corner.

Article: Not yet released..

Digital illustration of a person holding a smartphone, viewing a data graph on the screen with colorful bar charts against a sunset backdrop with clouds and tree silhouettes.

AI helps sports become more entertaining

Episode four is not yet released but I wanted to share some stuff on it already.

For every episode, there is an accompying article that goes with it. So a style had to be designed for the episode as well as custom article illustrations. These two episodes are about how AI works in finance and in sports. Below are the two article illustrations for finance.

Episode 4 coming soon!

Styleframes

Digital illustration of multiple tennis courts with tennis balls, surrounded by floating social media icons and speech bubbles on a purple background.
A smartphone displaying a financial chart with a red background, overlaid with abstract red and orange elements resembling virus particles, and glowing white flowing lines.

Storyboard snippets from episode four

Abstract digital illustration featuring binary code flowing into a magnifying glass that enlarges part of the code.
A tennis ball hitting a wall, with motion lines showing the direction of the bounce.
A diagram of a tennis racket with spherical objects floating around it, in grayscale.
A ping pong ball on a table with markings indicating the impact point and trajectory of a hit, with curved lines representing the ball's path and impact zones.
Gray, abstract illustration of interconnected spheres with lines, representing molecules or atomic connections, with a digital or scientific theme.

Credits

Creative Director

Director

Motion Designer

3D Animator

Animator

The AI Effect

Later will take care of itself. It always does.