Women’s Foodservice Forum
Women's Food Service Forum is a non-profit organization based in Dallas, TX who's mission is to Advance Women Leaders. They hold annual events to help organize and galvanize people at all levels of their profession to help push the needle towards gender equity in the workplace.
Team
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Lindsay Hertz - Marketing Director
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Anita Hunt - Marketing Manager
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Ashley White - Marketing Manager
My Roles & Responsibilities
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UX Designer
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Visual Designer
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Primary and secondary research
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Designed the initial and refined visual components of the website and branding
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Creating style guides
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Low-fidelity wireframes
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High-fidelity designs and asset creation
During my time with them, I worked on branding and in-site signage for two of the most significant events: The 2017 Executive Summit and The 2018 Annual Leadership Development Conference (ALDC). The Executive Summit is a small event (100 participants) only open to Vice President and above roles. During the Summit, participants discuss creating vision, strategy, and solutions to help move the needle in gender equity in the workplace. For four days in Dallas, TX, the Annual Leadership Development Conference is a huge event where professionals at all levels gather to hear multiple sessions on leadership development, gender equity, and more.
Goals
The goals for both events were to upgrade last year's branding slightly and refresh the look to be more modern. With the Executive Summit, I used the logo to inspire the creative, moving towards geometric shapes to add dimension to the 2D signage without overwhelming the attendees and our location with garish signage. With ALDC, we had an overall theme of "Breakthrough," where the central theme was breaking through the "glass ceiling" and shattering other barriers. The logos for both events were created and approved before I joined the project.
Challenges
Executive Summit
The main challenge we faced was working with an event space outside of Dallas, TX. We could only see photos and schematics to help us visualize where our signage would be in the location. We had a lot of calls and even asked for pictures of other event signage so we could see an example of what we could do with the space. Another challenge was the limited color palette: red, grey, and white. We had to use red enough to stand out but not too much so that it became a negative space. The grey had to balance things without making the event dark. Finally, the white had to be in places that would stay clean and stay the crisp white we needed it to be. For the Summit, we only had three colors to use and work with for the entire event.
Annual Leadership Development Conference
Our main challenge was using our budget and limited signage widely enough so that it felt like we covered the entire event space with our brand. We had our event at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, TX, which is a massive space, but our signage budget was modest at best. With those constraints, we had to look at where to maximize visuals for the best effect and wow factor. We had people coming in from all over. Along with the workshops and events, we also wanted the visuals to wow the participants.
Solution
Executive Summit
The event space was the main highlight, so we let that shine. While working with executive suite professionals, we didn't want to be too loud and forceful with signage, so we kept things calm with meter boards, wall clings, and directional signage. We ensured everything they received matched the event's branding, like the program, fountain pens, travel mugs, and leather-bound notebooks. Our primary "wow factors" were large 4'x4' cubes with statistics and the event logo throughout the space.
Annual Leadership Development Conference
Our main challenge was using our budget and limited signage widely enough so that it felt like we covered the entire event space with our brand. We had our event at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, TX, which is a massive space, but our signage budget was modest at best. With those constraints, we had to look at where to maximize visuals for the best effect and wow factor. We had people coming in from all over. Along with the workshops and events, we also wanted the visuals to wow the participants.
