Business challenge
Version control systems are always a challenge for non-technical people.
Versolid set out to give creative teams — musicians, videographers, architects and game developers — a purpose‑built version control solution. Before Versolid, those teams relied on ad‑hoc tools such as messengers, Google Drive or Dropbox, which led to lost revisions, duplicated effort and frequent data loss during manual merges.
The market was fragmented: affordable, easy‑to‑use version control software for non‑technical creators simply did not exist, and the few existing products were regarded as overly complex. Versolid therefore needed a clear product vision, a recognisable brand and a usable desktop application that could run on every major operating system while eliminating the chaos of current workflows.
Design challenge
The visual identity had to convey both the technical notion of a “commit” and the creative spirit of the target audience, remaining legible at large and small scales and adaptable to formal and playful contexts.
The desktop UI had to present version control status indicators, getting and sending files — in a way that felt intuitive to users unfamiliar with traditional source code tools.
The team required a reusable set of UI building blocks that could be shared across the landing page, marketing materials and the application itself, while supporting a dark mode option that developers had specifically requested.
Story
I worked directly with the founder to crystallise the product vision and translate the early concept into a functional desktop application. Together with the designer I explored logo ideas, settled on a mark that subtly references a commit symbol and hints at the gaming industry, and defined a versatile colour palette that works equally well in bright and muted environments. I guided the designer through the creation of the full branding suite — logo variations, typography, iconography and communication assets — and then organised all of these elements into a cohesive design system named Solidaster.
Solidaster comprises thirty‑five reusable Svelte components and twenty interaction patterns, covering everything from buttons and form fields to status badges and file‑tree views. I collaborated hand‑in‑hand with the front‑end engineer to implement the components, integrate the dark‑mode toggle, and ensure that the commit flow displayed file statuses clearly and allowed one‑click sending of files. Throughout the process I kept the back‑end and full‑stack engineers aligned with the visual language, so that the UI and the underlying version‑control logic remained tightly coupled.
Results
By unifying brand, UI and code under the Solidaster design system, Versolid delivered a polished, cross‑platform version control tool that solved a real pain point for creative professionals, accelerated development, and opened doors to high‑profile collaborations.
