DESIGNING THINK SUMMIT
OVERVIEW:
Think Summit is an annual event hosted by Movable Ink focused on providing practical advice, strategy, and inspiration to loyalty, CRM, and digital marketers. Hosted in New York City, the event attracts attendees from all industries representing some of the world’s most innovative brands.
PROJECT TIMELINE:
16 Weeks
TEAM:
Executive Creative Director (Lindie Gerber), Graphic Designer (Michelle Nakad), Graphic Designer (Beth Post), VP of Marketing (Jess Vogol), Experiential Marketing Manager (Arielle Hornedo), Event Marketing Specialist (Danielle Buonavita)
THE CHALLENGE
BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE.
‘We live in a world in which we are barraged with messages across multiple devices — from the moment we wake up, to the moment our heads hit the collective pillow — it is widely known that creativity is the key to cutting through a noisy world. Ever since the dawn of the marketing industry, we have valued the ability to creatively communicate an idea. In today’s world, visual is the language that moves people.’ — Vivek Sharma, CEO & Founder, Movable Ink
In preparation of our largest event to date, with an estimated 700+ attendees, our primary objective for the 2019 Think Summit was to remain true to our brand positioning while we set forth in developing a brand kit for the sub-brand that would act as a versatile, diverse, on-brand visual system.
A BRAND SYSTEM
The brand system would consist of:
- Primary logo sets
- Multiple logo variations (to account for all potential applications across digital and print executions)
- Primary & secondary color palette and pre-built color solutions
- Reusable graphic sets
All of which would be in line with the Movable Ink master-brand while acting as a uniquely identifiable, standalone brand.
And this is how we did it.
. . .
OUR APPROACH
Retaining the Movable Ink master-brand architecture formed a crucial part in the development of the Think Summit sub-brand. We had the opportunity to leverage traction gained from past events while amplifying previously-established brand affinity.
WE STARTED BY DOING RESEARCH. LOTS OF IT.
First, we gathered all existing brand identity elements, which included mapping all components onto a single document to make sense of the system that had been established to date.
A full identity exploration led to addressing all of the key areas defined in the logo analysis while offering potential solutions for future applications such as variance in font-weight.
The design exploration phase commenced by implementing all findings from the research and audit phase and applying it to the logo and all logo variations. This exercise resulted in the primary logo below:
During our color exploration phase, we were able to establish a primary palette by merging color theory from Movable Ink with colors extracted from the existing Think Summit brand. Finally, a series of freeform gradients had been identified along with a range of gradient mesh compositions.
THE RESULT:
APPLICATION
The application of the brand system encompassed everything from custom elevator buttons to 3D signage, lightboxes, giant gradient walls, and pronoun pins, allowing for a fully cohesive event experience.
. . .
THE OUTCOME
‘Amazing! Completely exceeded my expectations.’ — Senior Manager, Retail Industry, Apparel
With over 750+ attendees, 40+ speakers, and multiple content tracks hosted over 2 days in New York City, our 2019 Think Summit has been the most successful event to date driving brand engagement while showcasing product innovation and connecting leading marketers across all industries.
“I attend 5+ MarTech conferences every year. Think Summit is hands-down THE BEST conference I’ve ever attended.” — Senior Director, Technology Solutions Industry
. . .
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
AKA a stellar team of designers, event managers, directors and coordinators, engineers, marketers, content producers, presenters, and production crew (and a little magic).
CHALLENGES & LEARNS
Adopting a previously-established event identity with the aim to evolve it to become one of Movable Ink’s sub-brands while maintaining the traction gained from past events, proved to be quite challenging especially when taking stock of what to keep and what to retire. The research and audit phase had taken up the majority of the project lead-time to ensure brand relevance and validate the design output at every stage of the development.
The color exploration phase offered many learns and surprises as we discovered that gradient mesh compositions, although aesthetically pleasing, does not translate well as fill elements and can therefor only be used as predefined shapes. It is for this reason that we decided to keep all of the work executed in the creation of the gradient mesh library and to create a complimentary library consisting of gradient fills that could act as fill elements.
The venue, as in the production of any event, plays a key role in the execution and implementation strategy of the experiential design of the event. Logistical challenges, timing, setup & striking, restrictions & allocations, was, and is a major factor in the ongoing execution and planning of the 2019 event.
