Phoenix Design Week 2016
Phoenix Design Week is an annual, week-long series of events to bring together the Phoenix Design Community.
After tackling the role of Design Chair for Phoenix Design Week 2015, we were excited to take on the Creative Director role for 2016. In leading the creative direction for the event, we were excited to see how much further we could push things this year. The theme for 2016 was FLUX, and we sought to explore the ideas of constant change in the design industry and trying to create order from chaos. We developed the brand direction from the ground up and extrapolated it throughout the website design, promotional campaigns, and event materials. We developed a flexible “anti-logo” system from mixed-up type and color. This treatment reflects how change forces us to regularly reinvent our role as designers. The colors were selected to reflect the energy and vitality that change brings, and the typography and color were complemented with a series of energetic and structural patterns and a vibrant photography treatment.
With the brand in place, we worked with Factor1 Studios to create a robust website for the event, complete with information about the weekly events, the conference, conference speakers, sponsorship, volunteering, and how attendees can convince their boss to allow them to attend. Hundreds of image assets were created to promote the event, and they were distributed on social media and through many email campaigns. In addition to social promotion, we developed multiple direct mail pieces, along with handout cards that were distributed at AIGA events leading up to Phoenix Design Week.
The two-day conference event that closed out the week was one of the areas where the design system shined the brightest. The event program was one of the key elements of the Method + Madness Conference experience, and the 2016 program clocked in at over 50 pages and featured plenty of lively color and patterns designed to reinforce the FLUX theme. If you look close, you might even decode a hidden message on the cover! The brand system was applied to additional conference swag, such as the badges, fun buttons, temporary tattoos, t-shirts, and poster designs. Finally, four designers from the Phoenix Design Community were commissioned to create a poster for the event that reflected the theme in their own style, which were all tied together using the core brand colors and typefaces. To finish everything off, our months of hard work was awarded with a Silver Addy award the following year.
Services Provided
Creative Direction
Brand Strategy Design
Website Design
Marketing Collateral Design
Signage Design
Collaborators
Factor1 Studios, Web Development
Jessie Gould, Copywriting
Kathy Morgan, Copy editing
Shaina Rozen, Copy editing
Tara Anderson, Design Support
Allison Perlis, Design Support
Steffan Stewart, Design Support
Kitchen Sink Studios, Motion Design
Brock Lefferts, Poster Design
Scott Biersack, Poster Design
Kelsey Dake, Poster Design
Amy Lamp, Product Photography
O'Neil Printing, Printing
