Brand New Conference

As we put the final touches on this year’s Brand New Conference website to announce speakers and introduce our extra fun identity, the deadline to register for pre-sale at the lowest price possible will be May 17. Register at bnconf.com

2025 Brand New Conference | Pittsburgh 🫟 Branding Materials — The moment we started negotiating with the venue we knew steel was in our future if we moved forward. Few cities have such a strong iconic legacy attached to it as Pittsburgh — also known as the “City of Bridges” — does with steel. As we researched options on how to incorporate steel (as plates or sliced up I-Beams) we stumbled upon a trove of scrumptious typographic inspirations that deeply inspired our choices moving forward.   We worked with @ordertypefoundry to create a stencil version of Stringer in a way that allowed us to use different sizes with equal 👁️ weights — so glad they were up for the challenge that allowed us to create a variety of logos inspired by bridges and steel structures that we then incorporated to the many materials. Especially challenging for the stage set (see Tuesday’s post for pictures) but 💕 to work with.   And while the more obvious color palette would have incorporated ⚫️ and 🟡 we could see how it would clash with the venue when every inch is covered in red, gold, cream, crystals, rugs, patterns… you name it. So, honoring the other element we had initially considered incorporating which was ketchup — Heinz is headquartered in Pittsburgh — we chose to use the venue’s color scheme for our identity.   While we tried to work with a local steel company, the distance and the shipping costs quickly had us retracting and working with someone closer to us who created all the plates with die cuts with a massive laser that we were all googly-eyed for. We used these for the program which had 2 extra things going for it: one, gold ink; and two, the heavy use of red that gave us an accidental colorful fore-edge. And for the name badges that once again featured seamless lanyards and a DIY assembly.   The tote bags where a bit more fun in that we added a custom selection of cut-out B/N/C metal plates available in 3 sizes and the use of magnets to customize each bag. It was tricky to manage having magnets and steel everywhere and we provided some tools to do so, and everyone took the “magnet panic” moments of snapping with grace and laughter — at least as far as we could tell!

2025 | Pittsburgh | October 23 – 24 | Heinz Hall 👉 speaker list in first comment — Going into our 2nd year without sponsors we felt a bit more secure in our choices and in our offerings. It was somewhat easier to determine what to do with each space in the venue which, by the way, was an assortment of spaces and rooms in every which way, shape, and decor! Finding the balance between standing out without clashing within the environment was a challenge, but we think we managed to create an inspiring and cohesive experience by fully embracing the color scheme provided by the venue and adopting it as our identity’s color palette. Needing to cover some large spaces with very little $ we sourced 📦📦 that we painted and stenciled which turned out better than we expected—even when the provided dimensions were off by 2” and we had to restructure on the fly. This was our most extensive lobby “take over” to date and we were very pleased with how the various elements of The Fan Zone! worked out, especially the magnetic poetry stations utilizing leftover cover plates and the photo booth which took many hours of hand painting to make but was totally worth the effort given how much use it got and the delight it gave attendees. But let’s talk about the one big issue we had with our ☕️ vendor who has an exclusive contract with the venue. They were VERY unresponsive and in 9 months would not provide us with an estimate/contract. One week before the conference they asked for $48k which is 3-4 times what we normally 💵. They tried to corner and bully us into the one option and let’s just say they were VERY surprised when we replied with a “no, thank you”. While they 👻 us for 4 days we ordered a custom stamp to brand a $10 bill for each attendee to purchase ☕️ during the conference at a local shop. We explained the whole thing during the opening and as expected 🤦 were understanding and appreciative of the transparency and the quick thinking that did not succumb to corporate greed. From day 1 we have done things differently than most conferences, and after this experience it is clear to us that we will continue to do so moving forward.

2024 Brand New Conference | Salt Lake City 🫟 Branding Materials — Oh my… We can’t decide if the hardest part of this year was the amount of very slow experimentation that took place to find the right materials and processes or the actual production—each hard in its own way, we were in the thick of it for many months, hours, and minutes! We really wanted to capture the essence of the ⛰️ range that surrounds Salt Lake City in a way that was not static, truly evoking how it changes based on the street corner you are occupying, the time of day, and the direction of your view.   The paper for the program was dipped in layers of liquid fabric dye before giving them a pass in the heat press to fully flatten them out and handing them over to the printer to letterpress and bind. The 🛍️and the 👕were dipped in powdered fabric dye that is an entirely different process that involves additional chemicals and the consequential 🧪reactions that only worked for a handful of hours — speed was of the essence.   Because the work was wet and messy, requiring bats of 💦and lots of hanging space we turned our moving truck into a workshop that could stay messy for weeks, and our garden and garage into drying areas. Depending on the material and how quickly the deadline was approaching we invested between 3 and 7 hours each day of the week to get it done. Most of it through the summer which made the inside of the truck reach temperatures averaging 110°F 🥵.   Having incorporated the typography found on a street cart at The Pioneer Memorial Museum we had @xyz_type develop a typeface that we then applied using the unique and very structured city street grid. With a variety of “logo” arrangements we then set out to find a different way in which to create the mountains for the name badges that were individually assembled by attendees who chose different die-cuts to create their own version.   In the end we were very satisfied with the overall outcome and how each piece is truly unique (like every viewpoint) yet part of a large whole (the full ⛰️range) and each attendee got to walk away with their own glimpse.

2024 | Salt Lake City | October 10 – 11 | Abravanel Hall 👉 speaker list in first comment — Year after year we try to host in the West Coast but logistically it has not worked. We took a chance on booking Salt Lake City which took us closer but also risked ❄️ weather and attendance in lieu of a beautiful venue with great staff.   Once committed we got to work on the branded materials that took many months to produce (details on Thursday) and in figuring out how we would activate the lobby spaces since we decided to work without sponsors — it was also necessary to figure out how to fund the lobbies having lost a large portion of our operating budget. We introduced two main areas: 🟤 The Branding Gallery: A showcase of physical samples of work posted on Brand New, the blog, in a way that would enable interacting with the available samples. Also included a showcase of the conference branding from its inception in 2010 to the year prior to show our own evolution. 🟤 The Fan Zone!: A space that would use interactive stations and displays to allow for personal connections to take place in a way that reduced or removed the awkwardness of meeting new people and the pressure that comes with it. We introduced serious and humorous insights and ideas to keep things light while also insightful.   The final logistical change was the purchase of a moving 🚚 because all of the things that filled the lobbies by sponsors now needed to come from us directly and we had a lot more to bring. We hired two drivers from a small moving company in our town to drive 25 hours each way through the mountains stopping for ⛽️ more often than any of us anticipated (or wanted) 😳. And thus Truck became an important team member moving forward and a reliable storage unit, workshop space, photo booth, and moving truck all in one.   In short, we ❤️ reclaiming the lobbies to better match the auditorium experience with the activities taking place during the breaks. We did ❌ ❤️ the loss of income but we are ok with the tradeoff, we see and feel the value increase. And having a moving truck is way more fun than we anticipated. — #BNConf #Lookingback #Event #DesigningForDesigners #Speakers

2023 Brand New Conference | Chicago 🫟 Branding Materials — We took Chicago’s legendary association with tavern style pizza — which came before deep-dish pizza — served at unpretentious, no-frills, low-cost, craft-driven, family-owned establishments as the foundation for the identity. Most of these sport exterior signs of what we might traditionally regard as “bad” design that thrive in their use of a green, red, and white color palette. We decided to create a dozen BNConf pizza joints using 20+ typefaces and every cliché and motif that usually makes designers sigh with despair.   It was important to incorporate the low quality printing and the rough kraft cardboard elements into both physical and digital applications. First order of business after all the digital work was sorted out was to print the pizza boxes that would package the program, which we would also be cutting up to make the name badges and podium. The programs were printed by Classic Color who then sent them to us so that we could adhere the months-long production of pizza crusts we made out of recycled kraft paper and proceeded to letterpress with the title. Each box came with a food-grade liner, the program/pizza, kraft toppings, and the t-shirt.   While making the pizzas was very labour intensive and required hours of sun drying on our driveway for weeks on end to the amusement of every delivery person and neighbor walking their dog, the rest of the materials were easier; except for painting the giant stage letters, which was no surprise. Yet the volunteers were surprised with just how long it takes to assemble 800 pizza boxes for distribution…   Living, breathing, and dreaming kraft paper, red, and green spilled over to every element of the identity all the way to a hand painted dress for @bryonygp courtesy of the IU Theater department staff. Without a doubt the outfit coordination we started back in 2011 has taken a life of its own and it is officially a line item on our to-do list that requires more hours online than we will ever publicly admit. — #BNConf #Lookingback #BrandingMaterials #DesigningForDesigners #AboutTheIdentity

2023 | Chicago | September 21 – 22 | Harris Theater at Millennium Park 👉 speaker list in first comment — It takes 18 to 24 months to produce each conference; from the moment we start searching for a city/venue to the last detail a month after the event. We went into 2023 expecting some of the post-pandemic challenges to remain in place so we started as early as we possible could. Good thing we did because the production quickly got out of hand… Going back to the venue for the third time simplified much of the planning process. But with the growth of the event, the ambition of the materials, and the sponsor presence we soon realized we were in trouble as these venues are set-up for artistic companies to load-in and out via trailers backstage, unlike convention centers or hotels who expect shipments that need to be stored for an event. The number of packages coming in far exceeded their delivery office… Our long-standing partner Classic Color is based out of Chicago and offered to hold all the deliveries for us at their warehouse and help with a truck to transport everything into the city for load-in. For this we are forever grateful! Adding more to the pile we drove a mini-van and a large moving truck we rented from our office 5 hours away with all the stuff we had produced. That is the truck that inspired us to purchase our own truck soon after… but that is another post! The event itself was electric, high energy, insightful, fun, rewarding, all the good things wrapped into a two-day package we absolutely loved. But getting there, being there, and putting it all away further cemented the ongoing notion that the lobby experience was not matching the auditorium experience — in a way it was a holding pen defined by transactional interactions that were not as memorable or insightful as we wished it to be. On Saturday morning we made the BIG decision to stop having sponsors. To walk away from the nice financial boost in lieu of reclaiming that footprint to provide an alternative that would enable more human interactions and more memorable moments (and fewer boxes). We had a year to figure out exactly how…

2022 Brand New Conference | Austin 🫟 Branding Materials — “Keep Austin Weird” was a clear driver for the identity this year but we, as designers, struggle with making things weird so we brought in Sultan Jum @geo.graphicdesigner whose letter explorations on Instagram captured our attention. A second driver was the “i love you so much” mural in South Austin that dominates Instagram — this inspired the use of Candy Darling by @commercialtype as well as the color palette.   With Geo’s work in place for the website and the wonderful animations that went with it we were stumped for a while (and distracted with First Round) on how to bridge the concept into the physical materials. After much R&D we eventually settled on making the letters out of a rubber compound that we could pour into molds that would stretch to a degree and be distorted by hand while bouncing back to its original shape. Bonus detail was the tackiness that enabled the pieces to adhere to paper.   The making of the rubber letters consumed us on the daily and took care of the program and the name badges. The latter also received a custom-ordered giant rubber band to use as the lanyard to bring in more motion and bounce to the experience. We found the mint colored bags online which were a nightmare to silkscreen… but the fun came in removing all the ugly cord handles that came with them and replacing them with strips of latex (like the ones you are given by your PT therapist when you are injured). This made the bags bounce around all day long which was playful and amusing for all, hitting Instagram especially hard. As an extra item we added a bandana because, well, Texas.   To say that making all of this nearly killed us in an understatement, but we were thrilled with the results and the amusement and joy they brought to attendees at the event at a time when we all needed something a little bit different, a little weird and out of the ordinary, and a little joy and amusement. — #BNConf #Lookingback #BrandingMaterials #DesigningForDesigners #AboutTheIdentity

2022 | Austin | October 3 – 4 | The Long Center for the Performing Arts 👉 speaker list in first comment — There was so much working against us coming back from the pandemic… First the only way we could rebook the venue was by having the conference on a Monday and Tuesday which we dreaded but had no choice (we were surely the underdog against all the other companies rebooking). Second, every vendor was stretched thin and getting a hold of anyone, let alone get a response, or actual product or service was nearly impossible — this is something we still deal with to a lesser extent but the pandemic definitely had a long-lasting side-effect of inconsistent customer service.   Since we strive to have timely stories on stage we decided to scrap our speaker roster from 2020 (which was PAINFUL) and start over. Once we had that in place we had to shift our attention to our rebooking of First Round in London, Berlin, and Amsterdam which had also been paused by Covid. We mention that only because it heavily impacted our design exploration and eventual production of the branding materials which we finished with what felt like 30 seconds to spare.   On the one hand it was hard to start logistically since we were focused on the other events, yet the hardest part was getting the creative ideas flowing not only in the look and feel (easier) but in how to bring it all into existence physically. The last month was comprised of 17-hour days that were physically draining and left no room for error, let alone procrastination!   It was brutal! Out of all the conferences we have hosted this is the one that had us starting the event at our most depleted physically, mentally, and emotionally. It felt like we were flying by the seat of our pants, stumbling from one roadblock to the next. In reality we were using every resource, lesson learned, and built on experiences since 2010 to give everyone the seamless and amazing experience we all needed as we ventured back into live events and the energy and inspiration they offer. — #BNConf #Lookingback #Event #DesigningForDesigners #Speakers

2019 Brand New Conference | Las Vegas 🫟 Branding Materials — Given that the venue for the conference was in Downtown Las Vegas, the original townsite and gambling district prior to the Strip, we were attracted to the 1940-50s version of the city — we were equally drawn to the unsung marquee signs that announced the various acts that were playing at hotels and casinos. The book, Vegas Gold by David Willis, and the Instagram hashtag #VintageVegas, became our guiding beacons.   Not finding exactly what we wanted online for the utilitarian and legible needs of the identity we turned to eBay where were able to locate a full package of vintage marquee letters that we used to create our own typeface. On top of that, what we really wanted to capture was the visual and sensory overload of being in Las Vegas and specifically of walking along Fremont Street with its frenetic on-off-on-off flickering of neon signs, light bulbs, and letters. We took a special trip to Las Vegas, armed with a telephoto lens, and photographed every possible neon sign that we could stand under and photograph in bursts so that we could capture as many “On” and “Off” states as possible.   By placing images inside images inside letters for each character we started to create that visual stimulation. Digitally this is all fairly easy through animation, the challenge was in taking this idea into the physical applications. Enter… lenticular printing! While these sheets provided the movement between on/off of the images we had selected we still needed to “insert” the letters which were die-cut and had an adhesive backing. We spent many hours separating stickers and reassembling collages on to the program and the name badges creating thousands upon thousands of combinations when all was said and done.   Another key highlight was the stage which we made using black acrylic to create the shapes with a ledge so they would stand with the addition of an LED neon-like bendable strip that comes in various colors. We learned enough about working with electricity to make them come to life by turning on/off at a slower pace to minimize distraction on stage.

2019 | Las Vegas | October 17 – 18 | The Smith Center for the Performing Arts 👉 speaker list in first comment — With our 10-year anniversary 🥳 we wanted to step out of our comfort zone which is how we ended up in old Las Vegas — it also gave us an opportunity to host the conference in the West Coast which has always proven to be a challenge due to cost. We approached this installment with a combination of our normal approach of simply improving on years past, with some celebratory additions sprinkled in due to the anniversary.   The venue is undoubtedly one of our favorites to date in terms of functionality and internal team 🤍, but it came with the challenge of being harder to reach requiring a less-than-scenic walk or a car ride from most hotels. This was not ideal and we brought in food trucks for the lunch break which proved to be a bit slower than we had hoped, so not ideal either. Luckily the nice weather and good conversations helped as people stood in line 🌞. For anyone considering food trucks, each one has a minimum spend requirement that if it is not met in orders the team booking them must pay the balance. Too many trucks, and you surely have big bills to cover…   We also introduced a new idea. During the 15-min flings of each day one of those slots was designated for a non-profit needing branding work in hopes of creating relationships within the audience. They also had a booth in the lobby to chat with attendees and connect. The logistical process was much harder to implement than we expected, and the experiment failed in that nothing came of it after the conference. This is one where we still like the idea but realized that perhaps we are not the ones to foster it and have not repeated the effort.   We always end the conference on an adrenaline and energy high that drives us well into the next year ⚡️⚡️⚡️. Little did we know as we turned off the lights of the beautiful stage letters we built that we would be going dark until 2022 as everyone’s 🌎 turned upside down 🙃. — #BNConf #Lookingback #Event #DesigningForDesigners #Speakers

2018 Brand New Conference | New York City 🫟 Branding Materials — The day after BNConf 2017, on the drive home, we settled on using concrete for New York. We didn’t know the details but the excitement over the general idea ran deep and we hit the ground running with research and experimentation. The first items to solve were a) how thin we could cast the concrete, b) how to get molds made, and c) how much fine detail we could extract from the process. With about 80% of the answers on hand we got to designing.   Focused on the “Concrete Jungle” created by New York buildings we grabbed on to the varied inscriptions using a multitude of typefaces and lettering as a key element (will include details on the selection in the comments for anyone interested). We also decided to only use shades of gray with no accent color to further hone in on the material.   So, the molds. We found a vendor who made the program and badge molds but in the end we found them lacking and we learned how to make them ourselves and got to work. For the paper weights we were told it was an impossible ask, and you probably know by now that we always push back on this notion. With 2,000 pounds of concrete piled in our garage and dozens of molds we got to casting over 3,000 pieces needed for the swag. It took the better part of 6 months, 6 days a week, 3 hours a day to get it done. Because of this, each batch was on a different stage and we needed to unmold, soak, dry, box, mix, pour, shake, sprinkle… day in and day out. Except for Sundays when everything got scrubbed to start over.   We had to drive two minivans due to the overall weight but individually it was not too much to carry a program and paper weight in the concrete-looking paper bag with the schedule printed on it, and a small piece on the name badge with its seamless lanyard. And thus, a new level of “crazy” was dutifully unlocked and we could not be happier with the result and the fact that the world now has books with concrete covers the likes to (probably) never be seen again.   — #BNConf #Lookingback #BrandingMaterials #DesigningForDesigners #AboutTheIdentity