Farm League’s Britton Caillouette Helms Mesmerising Design-Driven Film Campaign for Google

'Making Material You,' a new campaign from Google Seed Studio, creative film company Farm League and director Britton Caillouette, is an artful and abstract look into the creative process behind the development of Google’s democratised design and ultra-customisable new UI, named Material You. 

The campaign – part explanation film and part design manifesto – features four unique films that explore how Google has imagined an adaptive, personal, and expressive future for design. The Seed Studio team developed the film concept in tandem with Farm League director Britton Caillouette, in a partnership that first began as an Instagram DM from Seed Studio design director Philip Battin in August 2021. That message resulted in a two-year-plus process of creative development, production, and post. 

Headlined by an anthemic film and followed by three informational short films, the series features top Mexico City artists, designers, chefs and beyond, and uses the real words from iconic designers. The environments of Mexico City, from the modernism to brutalism to the lush natural settings, all inform the feeling of the film. The voiceover, which features the aforementioned talent, explores the root of creative inspiration.

As a passionate design-minded filmmaker, Britton Caillouette’s recent directorial work also includes a collaboration with the Eames Institute on the legacy of Charles & Ray Eames’ design contributions. He is currently in post production on a feature documentary about the Tengu Club, a historic Japanese fishing club in the Pacific Northwest with a culture rooted in folklore and myth.

The campaign will live on Google Design website beginning on May 15th, 2023 and was a featured component of their most recent Google I/O conference on May 10th, 2023.

Britton Caillouette, director at Farm League, comments, “Google Seed Studio had been developing this whole new design infrastructure that informs a lot of the UI and the software behind their devices. They wanted to make a film that told a story of the project in a visual way that would communicate what they aspired to do with this software. Because the concept of design thinking is so abstract, I knew I wanted to represent the roots and intention behind it in a dynamic and visually expressive way.

We came up with a really interesting visual language to explain what they were doing in a way that was conceptual, that gave a nod to the history of design, and where this project stood in the history of design…while also just feeling really fresh and original and beautiful at the end of the day.”

Tim Lynch, founder and executive producer at Farm League, comments, “The film concept was an exercise in design thinking itself: How do you create a film that’s as creative, electric, and artful as the UI system itself? How do you capture ‘creativity’ visually to communicate how unique this design process was? How do you design something that feels unique to everyone? 

At Farm League, as filmmakers we’re constantly dissecting our own creative processes and how we can continue to elevate our craft. To do so within the larger context of a campaign that also explores the creative process was a truly inspiring and unique experience.”