WordCamp U.S. 2017

Event branding & materials

Logo & brand identity
Website design
Print & merchandise design

About the event

WordCamp is the official organization that helps members of the WordPress community host low-cost conferences across the world, hoping to democratize publishing and give back to people of all backgrounds who work with WordPress. Their primary national/regional conference for North and South America is WordCamp U.S. The 2017 conference was held at Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Attendees mill about near a sign that says "Happiness Lounge"

Project to-do list

Design a cohesive, recognizable visual look for the continet-wide event
Design an inviting website experience for interested event attendees
Design pre-event promotional and advertising materials
Set the vibe and give attendees needed information with clear wayfinding signage
Design colorful name badges, then process and mail-merge all event attendee data into the design and output for print
Brainstorm & design fun attendee swag, including a t-shirt, sticker sheet, and custom gift

Project milestone

A visual identity based on the music

For a big, continent-wide event like WordCamp U.S. it’s important to make sure everything put out about the conference (both pre-event and day-of) presents a cohesive, unified, recognizable look.

We started by creating a quintessential United States identity, featuring a route road sign-style logo. Its thin lines and legible identity is clear at a glance, and can be used in a black or white version. We also created a Music City color palette to carry through all of the needed items.

Project milestone

Name badges

Many WordCamp attendees hang on to their attendee badges & lanyards as souvenirs of the event, so we knew they had to look great. Blustery Day Design created a themed badge that we could data-merge with attendee data to create personalized, beautiful name badges for each person who attended.

Each badge lists the name and twitter handle of attendees.

Badges arranged by letter for attendees to grab off the table.

Large sign giving a room's schedule of conference talks.

Project milestone

Day-of signage

We then extended the branding to signage. Instead of doing cookie cutter, plain designs, we used this opportunity to bring a bit of personality and whimsy to each sign.

Spotlight on

Cut-out board for photos

As a bonus, we created a fun, large face-in-the-hole board with various community mascots (“wapuus”) for attendees to enjoy snapping pictures with. A variety of face cut-out heights allowed for people of all sizes and abilities to pose for a picture. Ample space behind the board ensured those in wheelchairs could participate as well.

Colorful printed board with face-sized cutouts for photo taking.

Project milestone

Attendee t-shirts

Christina worked with the rest of the WCUS organizer team to choose classic, wearable t-shirt colors, and then we designed a neat line-based artwork for the screen-print. Expanding on the logo identity we had designed, we incorporated classic local motifs and landmarks to create a look that was uniquely Nashville.

Project milestone

Bandanas

Then we expanded the t-shirt illustration to create a red bandana as the custom gift for all attendees, incorporating even more Nashville-themed art and combining it with the WordPress imagery to create a one-of-a-kind, unforgettable piece of swag.

At first glance just a classic red bandana, the design reveals itself upon closer inspection to feature guitars, boots, banjos, the Tennessee seal, the WordPress logo, the cornflower and the Parthenon: all Nashville badges of honor.

Stack of bright-red bandanas with Nashville-themed illustrations

Stack of bandanas sitting in a black wire bin.

Project milestone

Sticker sheets

Pieces of all our designs were then integrated into the sticker sheet, featuring a lady rocker Wapuu (drawn by Christina), a mini-bandana sticker, and other purely Nashville artworks. Sticker sheet designs were repurposed and enlarged as afterparty photo booth props too!