Duration: 4 months | Methods: Design strategy, editorial design, motion graphics | Tools: Figma, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Illustrator | Team Size: 2
Bringing tech in person again.
IBM's annual industry-leading technology conference, CASCON (Center of Advanced Studies' Conference) returned in person for its 32nd year.
For its post-pandemic in-person revival, it was rebranded to WeaveSphere, marking a shift towards broader content to attract a more diverse audience and to encourage cross-industry collaboration.
The problem
Especially after its drastic rebrand, WeaveSphere suffered from low visibility both within IBM and externally. As the IBM department responsible for organizing WeaveSphere, we needed a way to succinctly show key stakeholders (students, industry professionals, and educators) the value in attending our event.
WeaveSphere's communication channels needed to be streamlined and revitalized to increase engagement and visibility.
My role:
As a part of my 12 month UX/UI internship at IBM, I was responsible for redesigning the communication channels belonging to our department to align with the new art direction created by the senior designer. Guided by the EDT Design framework, I conducted design thinking workshops with my team to distill key outcomes for the redesign:
The building blocks: WeaveSphere's new design system (led by Michael James Clarke)
Streamlined: Incorporating our values and branding
The new art direction was centred on giving the 32 year old conference a new identity that embodied both its history and an embrace of change and disruption. I shifted the department newsletter to incorporate the new design system, away from the corporate blues of IBM's Carbon, to ensure all communications related to WeaveSphere felt cohesive.
Additionally, to effectively communicate WeaveSphere's value proposition, I worked with the head of the organizing committee to create a unique attendee identity, "Weavers", that would unify the members of our diverse community.
We identified 4 key characteristics: disruptive, multidisciplinary, action-oriented, and collaborative. We used these characteristics to guide our messaging and copywriting.
Relevant: Audience Segmentation
In preparation for WeaveSphere, the department newsletter needed a dramatic transformation to become an effective medium to communicate messaging surrounding WeaveSphere and to encourage attendance. To tackle historically low engagement, we split our audience into 3 main user personas: academics, industry, students.
Leading up to WeaveSphere, we released different editions of the newsletter targeting each group, with tailored graphics and copy, to ensure the right information got to the right people.
Different editions of the newsletter: deviating from IBM's company-wide brand.
Visual: Expressive + Fresh
Using graphic design and motion graphics, I wanted to infuse motion and energy into our comms to represent the movement made by WeaveSphere's change-making attendees. I created promotional videos for before and after the conference, and designed t-shirts for our volunteers to wear to represent our team.
Post-conference video for social media + the IBM Markham Lab Town Hall (Premiere Pro + After Effects)
More newsletter pages below:
