In film and animation, dialogue is the most direct route to storytelling. But for this Dell Technologies project, we wanted something that could travel — reaching international audiences without the friction of language or localisation. So we made the decision early to strip out all spoken word, and let that constraint do the creative heavy lifting.

Without dialogue, every visual beat had to earn its place. We needed to tell the story of how Dell creates access to better technology in a way that felt compelling and universal — no exposition, no shortcuts. Our reference point was Hitchcock's Rear Window: the idea that proximity can replace backstory. We placed our two characters, Tom and Marie, in studios directly across the street from one another, letting their relationship unfold in real time. It also gave us a quietly timely way to explore remote working and social connection — themes that resonated strongly in 2020.

Working this way sharpened the process with the client too. Locking the concept early meant we could go into production with the look and feel clearly mapped out and very little room for ambiguity.

Visually, we developed a clean 2D style — simple character forms with subtly exaggerated proportions and overlaid textures. For the world itself, we drew from across Europe: Parisian apartment buildings, Berlin streetscapes, a hint of East London grit. The cast was small but deliberately considered, reflecting a genuine cross-section of society. A consistent golden-hour colour palette ran throughout, keeping the tone warm and the focus firmly on people rather than product.

To give ourselves room for cinematic movement, select environments were built as 3D models textured with 2D illustration — slow pushes, gentle parallax — without tipping into the kind of abstract, polished motion-graphics language that can pull an audience out of a human story. We kept everything grounded and real-world.

For the soundtrack, we needed something that could carry emotion without competing with the visuals. We found a composition that didn't just match the warmth of the animation — it came with its own quiet message, almost purpose-built for the project: together, we can weather any storm.