Opbeat illustrations

Published on: 18/03/2026. Filed under: product, marketing

I found these illustrations on my hard disk from the Opbeat days. The brand got acquired, so they’re no longer online and would otherwise be lost - but I think they’re too good not to be online.

Full credit to Mads Themberg, our amazing illustrator for bringing the product to life. Also to Rasmus, Ron, and ofc the rest of the Opbeat crew. Making comms for a developer brand is so much better when you have an amazing team of developers to bounce ideas with.

Opbeat was a developer tools startup (think error-logging, APM etc), and this illustration was used for the beta signup page.

It’s a way more interesting and evocative way of saying “product dashboard”, and elevates the importance of uptime and code-quality to feel like the space race.

This first illustration was from before I joined the Opbeat and it set the tone for what was to follow. The nuclear reactor style consoles and colour palette gave a whiff of the 70s, and already coffee consumption was prominent.

Error logging on the move

An early version of the homepage hero that communicates the core value proposition - way better than any block of text (dev insights and coordination regardless whether you’re in office, at home or on the move).

The clothing and laptops are a bit more modern now (needed for relevance), but the console, automobile and sofa continue the 70s vibe.

Small details allow visitors to explore the illustration further, and deepen the narrative connection - the messy coffee cups and cereal bowls, the Opbeat sticker on the laptop, and the Tintin style moon rocket.

Illustration as storytelling

Devops software is by nature a technical product and can be pretty dry to communicate. Because of this, most technical brands stay dry, technical and ultimately boring - think control panel screenshots, word-art and feature lists.

In early 2015 we refined the product proposition and relaunched the website and brand. Switching to a muted blue colour palette for consistency & portability.

We reorganised the website around the core pillars of the value prop: performance, errors, releases and workflow, and created a hero illustration for each.

The website heavily leant into illustration as a story-telling device, a way of communicating the value proposition, benefit and outcome. It also provided a way of injecting fun, interest and personality that set us apart from the competition.

The Opbeat homepage hero. A tighter, bluetone version that could sit alongside text.

The performance monitoring hero. The chart on the right echoed the actual Opbeat control panel.

The errors page hero leant into the metaphor of putting out fires (in the middle of the office!). The panic on the engineers’ face while everyone else is chill.

The release management hero, showing software releases on a conveyor belt.

Context showing the top of the release management webpage, and how the illustration visualises the product description.

A children’s fable on devops workflow and best-practice is not something you would normally read.

Devops design language

To bring the product to life and to create consistency we created a sort of design-system for devops. Which we mixed up on different screens.

Errors were represented with fire (‘putting out fires at work’). We also used smoke as an indication metaphor, cos “where’s there's smoke there’s usually fire”.
Releases were represented by shipping crates (borrowing from the shipping metaphor). And the crates were stamped with the picture of its author (traceability between any errors and it’s author was a big feature at the time).
And observability (or lack of) was represented by OTT scanning tools.

The Opbeat design-language: shipping crates, fire & OTT scanners.

The hero for the mobile page. Nothing says mobile bug report quite like fire bursting out of a phone.

Meet the team

Teamwork is a big part of software engineering, and to create an immersive story, a regular cast of characters evolved. Over time they became the faces of the Opbeat team.

It was at this point we also wanted to ensure some diversity, and introduced a special blue skin tone exclusively for Jools. Also to satisfy our product thinking itch - each character had names and a persona.

Team photo with early versions of Hank / Clooney, Headphone boy, Peter & Erica.

An extract of the internal reference sheet for our illustrated cast.

Details & easter eggs

Unlike stock photography, everything about an illustration is bespoke. This allows you to fine tune your message for your audience, but also forces you to consider the details. Every detail is intentional, and from speaking to our customers they noticed the details.

From a marketing POV, this creates moments that reward attention - and as a marketer you really want your viewers to read your product material.

If devops was a movie, this is what fixing a bug would look like. Also, zoom & enhance.

This Reservoir Dogs tribute accompanied this feature-benefit pair: “Our non-judgemental algorithm automatically assigns the error, so you can skip finger pointing, stay friends with your coworkers, and focus on coding.”

As “Official coffee sponsor” of many developer events we placed this cardboard cutout at the coffee stands. Complete with its own recursive cardboard cutout.

Another day another fire, good thing Jools has a MOTIVATION poster in his cubicle.

When I think of technical debt, this is what I think of. The solution? Gaffa tape.

Getting surreal

We did a bunch of grass-roots community engagement, and the artwork always received a ton of positive feedback. So of course, we had to see how far we could push it.

We ran this campaign on Twitter to promote our mobile app. One of our followers (rightly) pointed out that it was dangerous to use your phone while biking.

So it got us thinking, what other situations might you be doing when your phone sends you an alert.

Here’s Erica rock-climbing and checking her phone …

Here’s Hank hang-gliding in office attire …

& for a final bout of absurdity, we ended the ad campaign with a fight-scene on top of a train, and the reveal that Erica has a double-life as a secret agent.

Yes it’s silly, but the best advertising doesn’t feel like advertising - it’s story-telling. This campaign was designed for Twitter and our specific target audience. We promoted the adverts for initial traction, but multiplied it with organic reach from engagement and resharing.

This kind of work is only possible with a deep understanding of your target audience, and eating lunch every day with the amazing Opbeat engineers meant the ideas came direct from the target-audience.

& obviously a final huge credit to our fantastic illustrator Mads. Imagine being able to visualise anything you could imagine - this is what good illustration can do.

Opbeat got acquired, the brand has disappeared, but hopefully at least some of the illustrations now have a new home on the Internet.