SYNERGY: CONNECTIONS & INTERSECTIONS

Creative Direction
Brand Identity
Social Media
Editorial + Print Design

Partners:
Eli Nino (Co-Creative Director)
Grace Korsmo (Set Designer)
Laurel Arnold (Set Designer)

As one of the Creative Directors for TEDxUF, I was tasked with managing a team of graphic designers, photographers, and videographers along with my wonderful Co-Director, Eli Nino. Working on a team of over 60 people, we put together a 3-day event that accommodated both an in-person pre-fest event as well as a virtual conference with 10 incredible speakers.

My main task was to create the brand identity for the conference. I created a flexible visual system that could translate to many mediums, both physical and digital. To stand out from previous themes, I used vibrant and bold colors to celebrate how lively and fun this year's conference would be. My branding guide was eventually used by our Set Designers, Grace Korsmo and Laurel Arnold, to create the stage design for the talks and engagement activites for our pre-fest.

Dress Rehearsals; Photo by Eli Nino

DESIGN GOAL:

Create a visual system that captures the concept of Synergy: the interaction of two or more parts to give rise to a single, stronger entity

BRANDING GUIDE

I wanted to create a sytem that would visualize the idea of collaboration and adaptability, while still being recognizable as TED.

Keeping TED's original red and black color palette, I complemented it with a vibrant purple and orange (secondary colors only created by ~combining~ primary colors) to make our theme as visually colorful as our speaker lineup. I also created an abstract, organic shape palette that could be used and rearranged to fit many different formats, from long horizontal banners to vertical pamhplets to square Instagram graphics.

Utilizing everything, I crafted a new 'X' logo for Synergy that illustrated the concept of several entities coming together to form a greater whole, making everything come full circle.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Keeping in mind a mostly college audience and the pandemic this year, showcasing our content on social media was especially important. While we had several series to post, such as the Speaker Highlights and Countdown Days, the flexibility of the color and shape palette allowed for many renditions of similar themed content to keep people engaged and keep our feed colorful!

Speaker Highlights

Facebook Event Banner

Countdown Days

HYPE VIDEO

(Edited by Eli Nino and Katrina Lee)

CONFERENCE PAMPHLET

PRE-FEST EVENT

Our pre-fest event included signage for our Engagement Activity and Lab tables and wayfinding throughout the venue. To create an immersive experience, the branding was expanded to T-shirt designs, stickers, and three color variations of name tags that, when worn by attendees, would create a myriad of colors!

(Photos by Eli Nino and Katrina Lee)