REDWOOD CAMPUS

BUILDING X OPENING

BRANDING / EVENT DESIGN

The grand opening of Redwood’s 20th building, Building X, is a week-long celebration with multiple surprise and delight activations scheduled for campus employees. Affirma Consulting developed the core branding and art direction, while collaborating with several other event planning organizations to provide full event design support. The event needed everything from digital collateral to share on social media, to in-person event support and everything in between. My team met the initial standards and elevated the quality of work to create an atmosphere that was unmatched by previous campus events.

The Affirma team is responsible for the design work on the Redwood Campus, as well as its events and activities. This creates a homogeneous wayfinding package that has scalability and flex. Eventgoers are familiar with the aubergine framing element that remains consistent across all a-frame signage. This only strengthens wayfinding on campus. All large-format on-site signage features an interactive QR code element redirecting to the event’s microsite.

Affirma collaborated with the event team to create a sticker sheet that could be handed out as swag during Building X’s first week of business. Once content and conceptual direction were established, the design team illustrated each individual sticker within an environment that interacted with the content. The client also requested ‘merit badge’ stickers and pins that represented each of the surprise & delight activations taking place during the week-long event.

Illustrations used for the Redwood Trail Maps match the stylistic cues pulled from the Building X sticker sheet. To differentiate the pieces of collateral, the trail maps were colored in a magenta-leaning palette. The figure in the foreground is rendered in high fidelity with shading, texture, and intricate detail. Figures on the birds-eye map are rendered in a lower level of detail with a sketchy appearance as they’re pushed to the background and viewed at a distance.

This large-format signage installation was originally based on the hand-drawn trail maps created for the event. A series of nature trails underpin the wooded area surrounding Redwood’s 20th building. We created a whimsical/picturesque map that illustrates the trails that sprout from the northern end of the campus. The design was mounted to a weatherproof frame and post sign with an attached awning to reduce glare and prevent bleeding from rain.

A tight-knit dream team of 5 visual designers worked to develop a multifaceted design system for an office grand opening. From signage/wayfinding and print collateral to digital, animation, and web design, this team ensured every touchpoint of the event felt curated.

Illustrated journals are a staple for the parent company. This design features a scene plucked from the PNW with a subtle nod to the launch of Building X. The color story leans evergreen.

My team designed a series of diecut, monochrome bamboo keychains as swag for the event. It depicts a simplified version of the journal design in various colors.

One of the event activities was screen printing your own tote design! We created 4 variant single-color designs based on the different approaches to collateral within the visual system.

This project was an excellent demonstration of the skills we are capable of. We created a design system that was so versatile it covered over 30 individual assets, while maintaining purpose and intrigue. We worked closely with event planners to deliver full design coverage and day-of support—ensuring the event ran smoothly and looked beautiful. Despite working in a condensed timeline, our project management maintained a steady pace.

One of the major challenges of this engagement was that we were not able to go on-site to ensure quality ahead of time. Affirma is a global consultancy. This means the designers had to develop and deliver all collateral while working remote from the client and each other. Our team kept up consistent contact with our stakeholders, vendors, and print/production contacts to ensure all items met our high-quality standards, despite the distance we had to overcome.

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If you have a vision, let’s pair it with my flair for design! Feel free to send me an email to learn more about my experience, freelance rates, and availability.