Red Hat Summit 2026
Red Hat Summit 2026
ROLESCLIENT: Red Hat
DIRECTOR OF CONTENT: Mack Garrison
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Meryn Hayes
PRODUCER: Ashley Targonski
CREATIVE DIRECTION: Cory Livengood
ART DIRECTION: John McGowan and Cory Livengood
DESIGN & ANIMATION: Will O’Connell, John Flores, Sam Bass, Taylor Cox, Thom Haig, Alesis Heaps, Nocky Dinh, Philip Nordstrom
AUDIO & MIX: Sanctus Audio
DETAILSSome projects revolve around a single deliverable, but this one was defined by an entire event. Red Hat Summit is one of the biggest stages in enterprise tech, and Red Hat trusted us to help shape the experience. We delivered multiple pieces of content, coordinating across multiple internal teams and outside vendors. The job wasn't just to make great work. It was to make it all feel like one show. That's a different kind of challenge, one where organization and communication matter just as much as the creative. Thankfully, we're very good at both.
The Opening VideoCreating the opening video for Red Hat Summit meant setting the tone for the entire event, including the keynotes that followed. The massive stage made that responsibility feel even weightier: eight screens, seven spanning the full width of the stage plus a semi-transparent “Blow Through Screen” up front that added depth to the display. We had to find the right energy to wake up a coffee-in-hand crowd without overplaying the moment before the day even started, and figure out how to use that much screen real estate without it becoming visual noise.
We created a city that builds up from nothing to a complex metropolis, a metaphor for Red Hat's evolution told in three acts: a wireframe city for the Linux era, blocks stacking together for the cloud era, and a fully realized, futuristic skyline for the AI era. The center screen carried the animation, while the flanking screens brought in archival material Red Hat shared with us: old logos, product boxes, early UI, past Summit speakers, to root the metaphor in real history. Custom sound design built specifically for the piece paired with live lighting and fog effects, turned the screen experience into something fully immersive.
We also built the project with a Day 2 deliverable in mind: a version of the video updated overnight with real quotes and footage from Day 1. By pre-rendering and isolating specific moments for swap-out, and coordinating footage intake through final audio mastering ahead of time, we turned around a live-event edit on an overnight clock with no room for error.
We were on-site to see it fill the screen live, and later built a YouTube version that compresses the eight-screen experience into a single frame.
The OpenShift Hype VideoIn addition to the opening video, Red Hat asked us to create a hype video for their product, OpenShift, teasing a new release to the Summit audience. It needed to move fast, hit hard, and stand entirely on its own next to the opening piece.
We went high-end 3D for this one, built around a dynamic animated timeline that traces OpenShift's story and builds toward the release.
Rounding Out the RoomBeyond the two flagship pieces, we also created the smaller touches that shaped the Summit experience from the moment attendees walked in.
A looping animation played in the lobby, teasing the opening video before the show even started. On the main stage, a seamless preamble loop held the room’s attention until the show kicked off. Then once the event was underway, animated interstitials ran between speakers, keeping the energy consistent during the transitions.
These pieces didn't need the scale of the opening video or the OpenShift hype video, but they mattered in a different way: they made sure Summit felt considered and cohesive in every moment, not just the big ones.
CONCLUSIONAcross five pieces of content and one deadline, Red Hat had a Summit that held together from the lobby to the main stage. The opening video established the visual language for the entire show, which carried through the keynotes and every moment in between. The OpenShift hype video landed with the energy a product launch demands, then kept working long after the event through six social cutdowns. The interstitials and lobby loop tied the smaller moments together, so nothing felt like an afterthought.
It's the kind of project that only comes together when a client trusts you to navigate complexity, and we're proud of how it all came out.
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