Knowledge Lab

A start-up that saw everything begin with USD 3.7 sextillion

 
When Barack Obama presented the details of his USD 3.7 sextillion budget back in 2013, it wasn’t just financiers who were left rubbing their eyes. The presentation took the form of an interactive graphic that used bubbles of different sizes to depict the individual items, meaning that less effort was needed to interpret them and the ratios at hand came across clearly. One person was rubbing their eyes in Switzerland, too: Peter Häusermann. Back then, Häusermann was working as a manager at the Swiss software and financial services provider Avaloq. But he wouldn’t be there for much longer.

An innovative way of presenting data
Obama’s budget presentation was an eye-opening experience for Häusermann. At home in the worlds of finance and IT, he saw the potential in a solution that went a step further than traditional IT services: everyone can collect and manage data. And everyone can depict this data in pie charts and boring graphs. His idea was to use data science to intelligently link information and make it visible in a fresh way so graphs bring joy. Häusermann founded a start-up and christened it Knowledge Lab.

Emotionally differentiated from the competition
Fast-forward a couple of years: now successful, Knowledge Lab commissions GRIP to develop the brand, taking into account the company’s future direction. This new direction included being consistently, courageously and emotionally differentiated from all the usual presences of tech companies, especially for new media. The Knowledge Lab website was at the heart of the result, revolving around the start-up’s high-quality data experience in the form of animated graphical elements. Furthermore, GRIP is responsible for company communication, public relations and social media.

Incidentally, in the post-Obama era, the administration has returned to traditional ways of presenting its budget proposals. Some help from Knowledge Lab would have been of benefit to them.

The images used by Knowledge Lab are simple, authentic and depict themes relating to Zurich, where the company is based.

The start-up Knowledge Lab uses various communication measures developed by GRIP to stand out from the crowd.