What is motion language?

Great motion design gives a brand personality, captures attention and can guide audiences through a concept, emotion or experience. The value of a clear and strong motion language is creating brand consistency across all channels, shortening production time and enabling faster decisions for new projects.

Overview Principles of growth Best practices Animation examples

What does motion language look like for Greenhouse?

Greenhouse motion language is a foundational system for content creators to deliver brand alignment across assets and campaigns. This guide includes principles, definitions, examples, tools and more. The intention is to elevate our brand’s motion, enable production scaling and improve customer engagement with Greenhouse marketing efforts.

Our motion design should exemplify plant-like growth: fluid, organic, upward momentum. Our animation is intentional and modern, but still approachable.

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Principles of growth

Animation should feel fluid, intentional and controlled. Base animations on the growth of shapes and upward movements.

Shape

Objects can grow from a singular point or drift upward into frame.

Movement

Typography, messaging, photography and other content should subtly drift upward into frame, reinforcing our fluid and intentional growth.

Duration (time)

Use timing to convey intention and accuracy. Type should resolve and stay in frame for a minimum of 2–5 seconds for legibility.

Easing (acceleration)

Controlling speed helps with visual clarity and focus. Exits can be faster than entrances because they require less attention.

Scale (size)

Use scale and reveals (alpha mattes) to imply upward growth and fluid movement.

Best practices

Focus

Drive attention with cadence and maintain upward motion.

Timing

Use intentional ease and offsets to create a fluid sequence.

Anticipation

Our tone is intentional and fluid. Avoid playfulness and bounce.

Growth

Upward fluid movement. Content can grow from a single point.

Depth

All content should behave as a flat card. Parallax should be minimal.

3D and motion blur

We never use 3D or motion blur.

Animation examples

Product and UI

Abstractions help convey complex information quickly; usually built over a transitional movement with quick fades and vertical drifts. Use intentional sequences to show examples of user experience.

Typography

There are three animation styles for copy. Per-word, per-line and full-block. Per-word is used for hero titles and small, focused copy. Per-line is used for medium paragraphs and body copy that needs extra attention. Full-block brings on all copy at once for faster legibility and minimal distraction.

Transitions

Transitions are used to control the flow of an edit and set the tone for subject changes. Use different speeds and styles depending on the content and audience.

Leaf shapes

Use leaves to add a human touch to product and data layouts. Leaves fan out slowly revealing a hero persona. They can also be used as a transitional device from footage to footage.