VSA PARTNERS
VSA Partners has a long-standing working relationship with General Electric (GE), a bond that was expanded in 2002 with the launch of GE’s first online annual report. Since then, their partnership in the online space has grown to include many internal and external sites. For a second iteration of GE.com, which was relaunched in 2007, VSA worked closely with the client to tell the modern story of innovation at GE. The work was brought to life in monthly features accessed through the site’s home page.

The site’s feature on nanotechnology was an opportunity for GE’s Global Research Center in Niskayuna, N.Y., to reveal the potential of its groundbreaking work to a mainstream audience. Nanotechnology is the applied multidisciplinary science whose theme is the control of matter on an atomic or molecular scale, generally 100 nanometers (equal to one billionth of a meter) or smaller, and the fabrication of devices and materials that lie within that size range.

For the site, VSA wrote and designed an online showcase for the surprising ways this technology can impact everyday life. Via theme-based animation and imagery, the feature story introduces consumers to GE’s research and development focus at the microscopic level, offering discoveries that can translate into improved security, energy efficiency and airline safety at the consumer level. “VSA wanted to bring a sense of exploration to the feature, as well as subtle educational mechanisms, through the use of simple imagery, navigation and animation,” explains VSA creative director Patrick Heick. Because VSA’s goal is to make the experiences fit the messages, no two GE.com Innovation features are alike. To tell the nanotechnology story in particular, VSA needed to take a complex topic and reduce it to essential, explanatory text. Pairing the text with visuals of the butterfly wings, seashells and lotus leaves helped explain the concept of science at the small scale better than either text or imagery alone could have. Once inside the feature, users can easily dive deeper into additional information or access an Imagine page where they can explore possible future applications for the technology—such as shoes that clean themselves in the rain or nonstick ketchup bottles. The exploratory nature of the nanotech feature, coupled with easy-to-understand text and imagery, helped simplify a complex topic while giving readers insight into a new generation of research they might not normally associate with GE. Terry Lee Stone

VSA PARTNERS | CREATIVE DIRECTOR: PATRICK HEICK | DESIGNER: HUGH CONNELLY | PRODUCER: ELISE BITTNER | DEVELOPERS: BILL NORDSTOM, MATTIE LANGENBERG WRITER: KATHY CHENG | CLIENT: GENERAL ELECTRIC | WWW.VSAPARTNERS.COM