Visual Communication Design 2023 University of Alberta
The FurniFuture Conference is an event hosted for the next generation of furniture designers. This gathering will allow attendees to learn, inspire and expand their drive to create furniture and connect with people of common interests. With this brief, I was to make the visual identity system to visualize and promote the conference.
The deliverables for the identity suite included the logo and branding graphics for FurniFuture and the physical conference merchandise, such as mailout posters, the conference booklet, and commemorative pins.
The conference booklet features a geometric arrangement of FurniFuture's iconic chairs while placing emphasis on the tagline (Next Gen Furniture). The spreads feature a minimal or modernist arrangement of type in combination with the graphics. Important considerations that were made include utilizing the identity in a variety of scales while sticking to a simple and accessible layout.
The mail-out poster is one of the first experiences that the attendees will have with the FuniFuture conference identity, therefore, a strong representation of the critical icons and the logo is a priority. Additionally, a key feature of this deliverable was the requirement for it to fold into a quarter of a tabloid sheet of paper.
The front of the piece features an abstract overlaying of the iconic chair silhouettes. Turning to the back of the design, the conference's tagline was highlighted. Turning to the back since this layout is more text-heavy, the chairs were neatly 'stacked' along the right edge of the page.
The conference lanyard is one of the artifacts that the attendees will find within their welcome packages. Each tag, except for the volunteer tag, features a unique combination of the chair silhouettes that are colour coded to delineate the number of days the attendee will be attending.
As for the back of the lanyard, continuing the minimal nature of the layouts, the event's main sponsors and the conference's social media handles were featured along the top and bottom margins.
Another deliverable for the FurniFuture Conference was the pin design. The pins were designed with a backing card which provided instructions for the attendee to, using provided markers, colour in the silhouette of the chair in any way they would like. This invites more personal conversations and a commemoratory pieces to be used and worn after the event.
For the construction of the pins, with a clear connection to the genre of the event, the chair silhouettes were printed on small plywood tiles with a simple magnet fastener on the back.
The conference bag was designed in a very minimalist fashion to promote the conference's brand while simultaneously promoting the extended use of the tote long after the meeting finished. The arrangement features a solid silhouette of the brand's icons placed quietly in the bottom left corner of the bag, which allows for the highest visibility of the chair while keeping the design simple.
The logo manual ensures the identity will be used and manipulated correctly following the designing of the visual system. This guide presents the conference's planners and leaders with the necessary information to use the work to provide the most accurate outcome possible.
As part of the visual system, the business cards for the organizers of the event were also designed. The typography is grouped according to similar pieces of information, and the conference's iconic chair silhouettes were used as symbolic avatars for the members.
