ISTE
Event branding
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) hosts an annual conference that fills large convention centers and typically brings in 20k+ people each year.
As the in-house ISTE Art Director, I had the pleasure of designing a bespoke brand system for each annual conference between 2015-2019, my favorite of which was ISTE 2018 in Chicago, IL.
ISTE partnered with an events team to produce the onsite event branding – so my challenge each year was to design a brand system so robust and clear that a team of external partners could carry out a cohesive design across the in-person experience that matched the large array of print and digital touchpoints that were managed in house. This process – year over year – helped develop my skills for forecasting how a brand system could manifest (and scale) as the brand was implemented over time. It also helped me hone my communication skills in articulating brand guidelines for non-designers.
For the ISTE 2018 Chicago event, I pitched the theme of a ripple effect: reflecting the ISTE conference as a launch point to accelerate educators toward achieving their goals, and also the cumulative effect that an educator’s efforts have on the learners that they serve. The ripple effect also had ties to the conference location – the waterfront city of Chicago. The bold color palette was chosen to represent the modern city setting, and the purple offered a striking contrast to previous ISTE conference branding, providing a fresh onsite look for repeating attendees.
ISTE 2018 Chicago
The design support for each conference year included a broad array of digital marketing; print collateral; website design; sponsorship and presenter toolkits; apparel; large-format decor and wayfinding; photography/videography art direction; and presentation design.
To date, it is still some of my favorite work to look back on – building a brand over an 18-month conference cycle that magically comes to life in physical form over the course of one week. And those educators were sure excited to be there each year!
Note: Work conducted as an employee of ISTE.
