WordCamp U.S. 2018

Event branding & materials

Logo & brand identity
Digital graphics 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 2018 conference was held at Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Attendees checking in to WordCamp U.S. 2018 — Photo by Jen Hooks, licensed CC-by-sa.

Project to-do list

Work with the core WordCamp organizing team and the design team to strategize, collaborate and manage the design needs for the large-scale event
Iterate on our 2017 logo to create a cohesive, recognizable visual look for the continet-wide event
Design pre-event promotional and advertising materials
Set the vibe and give attendees needed information with clear wayfinding signage in both print and digital formats
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
Create a variety of digital graphics, including banner ads, video end-caps, speaker graphics, and social media templates

The stripes, colors and imagery could be extended to many uses.

Project milestone

A joyful, colorful visual identity

We had designed a route road sign-style logo for 2017’s conference, and for 2018 we added a fun new palette of additional colors. Then we developed some overlapping strips of color as a design element that could be carried throughout pre-event and day-of materials. This created a recognizable look that tied the event to past conferences, plus fresh new elements for this continent-wide event.

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.

We also color-coded the badges so volunteers, organizers, speakers and sponsors could have different variations of the color palette.

Colorful name badges lie on a table for attendees to pick up.

Volunteer and organizer badges show the varying color palettes.

Digital signage designating the Hallway Track

Attendees line up to go into a presentation near a "State of the Word" sign

Digital signage in the Music City Center

Project milestone

Day-of signage

We then extended the branding to print & digital signage. Instead of doing cookie cutter, plain designs, we used this opportunity to bring a bit of personality and whimsy to each sign. We focused on legible, helpful wayfinding that ensured attendees never felt lost or confused.

Spotlight on

Digital graphics & templates

A big part of any tech-related conference is the online conversation and digital event presence. We designed a wide variety of digital templates that could be utilized before and during the event. For instance, a standardized speaker graphic template could be used to promote the talk beforehand on social media as well as on the large-scale screen slides day-of. Other graphics included sponsor slides, video branding for the recorded talks, and banner ads promoting the event.

Folded shirts: navy attendee shirt with yellow ink; dark red volunteer shirt with mint ink.

Three smiling volunteers wear the dark red with mint ink tee shirt. — Photo by Steve Shankman, licensed cc-by-sa.

Project milestone

Event t-shirts

For the t-shirts, we drew a simple and classic vinyl record design to reference the conference’s Nashville location in 2018. We then chose particular colored inks to elevate the shirts from a standard white-ink treatment. For the navy shirts all attendees received, we chose a gold ink, and for the wine-colored shirts all volunteers wore during the conference, a mint green ink provided a pop of unexpected color.

Project milestone

Attendee swag

We knew that the event needed appealing designs for the swag that attendees receive. The sticker sheets feature the rock-star Wapuu we had drawn, adapted from our designs for previous WordCamps. Additionally, we added a variety of fun stickers in colors to match all of our conference branding as well as the WordPress project.

For the slate coasters, we paired a gold ink with a stylized catchphrase of the WordPress project.

Sticker sheet is bright and colorful with Nashville-themed stickers.

Slate coaster says "democratize publishing" in a stylized text treatment.

Project milestone

Speaker gifts

In addition to receiving the other items, conference speakers received a special speaker gift. They were given a bamboo cutting board branded with the conference logo. On-brand, useful & fun.