The valuable variant.

To capture the core features of GitLab Dedicated, a professional variant of GitLab’s service that facilitates private hosting and support for advanced development teams, an explainer video was put on the table. But a story of their customer’s challenge—a need for greater security—couldn’t be gloom and doom. Toting a solution that helps developers create, a lively approach was the way to go.

Developing the visuals.

The GitLab team gave us lots of freedom to explore, and so we went the extra mile. Taking inspiration from their logo—which is a tanuki, though mistaken for a fox at times—we took animals for a spin. We also referenced two video games, Alto’s Adventure and Alto’s Odyssey, which allowed us to develop a simplistic, nature-focused style.

Setting the scene.

And so an intentional use of nature began, where we built scenes of sunsets, mountains, planets, filled with trees—even deer—and colored it all in with gradient pastels of purples, pinks, and oranges.

Saying what matters.

Are you relaxed yet? Don’t get so comfortable. Our biggest challenge was striking a balance between beauty and technicality. Given this was a new exploration of the brand, these visualizations were uncharted territory—previous iterations of solution videos were diagrammatic and functional. But for this project, our goal was to leave the target audience with high-level value, opening up a door to awareness and interest, rather than digging too deep into the details. And we did just that.