Making content creation accessible to the masses.
- Venture Journey
- Recon
- Funding
- Development
- Launch
- Growth
- Exit
- Type
- Joint Venture
- Founders
- Alex Dreiling, Sören Balko, David Hewitt, and Tobi Raub
- Status
- Acquired by Microsoft
We partnered with Clipchamp to envision an editing tool that could turn any novice with a video idea into a bonafide video-making star. Today, Clipchamp Create is used by over 16 million people worldwide, with membership growing by 20% every month.
JM worked closely with Clipchamp to define their product and brand strategy, design the user experience and interface from start to finish, and strategise their business venture: from pricing to investment and hiring strategies for their internal design team.
As a JM joint venture, we were able to build the deep relationship with Clipchamp that we needed as design partners to execute and nurture a living, breathing and evolving product. Over a twelve-month period, we created an easy-to-use platform with major features beyond the core editor including a stock library, templates, team-based project management and updates to the marketing website.
“Our goal was to not only help envision and establish the foundation of Clipchamp Create as a product, but to establish an internal design culture within their team that could live on beyond our time with them.”— David Whipps, Product lead and strategist
We kicked off Clipchamp’s journey toward Clipchamp Create with a product recon (aka “reconnaissance”) phase packed with lean user research, market analysis, production envisioning and venture validation. This recon laid the foundation for pitch material that was created to secure Series A investment.
Launching a new feature in a crowded market can be risky, so our first step was to test and validate Clipchamp’s concept as quickly and leanly as possible. Establishing the right product-market fit and demand allowed us to confidently move ahead with the design and prototype of the product.
Beyond just providing an easy-to-use, accessible and affordable video editing tool, one of our core goals was to set new standards and expectations in quality videos, especially within a professional context.
“Clipchamp strikes a good balance between power and usability, and might be just the tool for you if Movie Maker Online offers more options and settings than you're likely to need.”— TechRadar
Product design is never just about products themselves – but how they’re used, interacted with, loved and brought into our lives. We communicated how Clipchamp would live in the world through illustration, rather than relying on photography – the illustration work we created could show more abstractly and intuitively how the features are used. At times, it would be nearly impossible to demonstrate how the technicality of a feature works (think, exchanging files with someone) – and more importantly, why that feature is valuable. We take every opportunity we can to use illustration to our advantage in communicating these more abstract features.
Considering our diverse audience, we designed a suite of character personas to distil and orient our pipeline around the specific needs of core product users.
Whilst the illustrations served the purpose of communicating core product ideas, we used icons throughout the app and brand to articulate smaller interactions. Eg. a simple ‘record video’ icon is used in conjunction with that function. These icons impart a cleanliness that ties right into the product design, using minimal rounded lines and a single colour. They’re all unique to the Clipchamp brand and to each other, but absolutely live in the same suite and work in tandem with eachother wherever they appear.
“The pivot paid off and the company has amassed a user base of 6.5 million people around the globe, including employees from major corporations such as Google, Tesla, Microsoft, Deloitte and BHP.”— AFR
Clipchamp Create was the company’s first step to expanding into the U.S. Since the work with JM, Clipchamp also saw a 20% month-on-month growth for Clipchamp Create, and received the Dermot McManus Award for Innovation from The Export Council of Australia. In late 2019, Clipchamp were named as Premier Partners of Dropbox.