Following the tensions felt by everyone in the Church during the pandemic—social, political, and otherwise—Orange wanted to use their platform to be a voice of unity with their 2022 conference and chose a theme aimed at healing: "Be Human." I had the honor of working closely with Ashley Shugart, Orange's brand director, to make sense of how we could convey the theme as faithfully as possible. From our strategy conversations, it was clear that while this event needed a logical system to function, Orange also wanted a strong conceptual foundation. We set out to create a set of visual tools that would create a sense of the beauty and messiness of humanity.

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Because the human face is so unique and expressive, we started there. I began a series of contoured face illustrations that we refined until we were confident we were capturing the emotion and diversity of the event. From there, Ashley added a couple of faces that broadened emotional expression, and we explored bringing in further artistic elements. I adapted shapes, lines, and textures from earlier illustration explorations by Evan Blackwell Helgeson, lending extra dimensionality to the faces.

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Ashley had already chosen Recoleta by Latinotype for early brand explorations, and it set an approachable tone for the brand. I built a type system around it to emphasize personality and human expression while being restrained enough to work in the many touchpoints of the conference experience. I chose various weights and widths of URW's cut of Antique Olive as the workhorse of the brand, with support from Raph Levien's mono, Inconsolata, and some of my own hand-drawn elements for extra fun throughout. We developed an extensive palette of over 20 colors, and in keeping with the "humanity" of the brand we tried to put as few rules on it as possible, treating the illustrations, textures, type, and color as a broad set that could be used interchangeably. This approach was quite successful—for many months, Ashley and I were the only ones working with the brand and we could control most aspects without needing to institute a formal style guide.

Over time, we brightened the color palette and it, along with the textures and type, took center stage in functional brand expressions. In the final months leading up to the conference, I turned my attention to on-site signage and developed a modular system for directing attendees around the main arena and three additional venues where Orange hosted breakout sessions throughout the week. This presented unique challenges that were fun to solve with the on-site team and involved dozens of signs.

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The design process culminated with the conference itself, where all the elements gained further expression as other hands became involved with the system in creating stage design, a livestreaming set, life-size photo booth elements, and large-scale interactive canvas walls outside the venue where attendees could add to the conference's theme. In all, the conference brand helped to facilitate a cohesive experience for thousands of people in Orange's network at a pivotal point in their history as an organization, and I'm honored to have played a part in this one.

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Brand direction by Ashley Shugart. Conference photos by Roxy Moure, Garrett Lobaugh, Chaise Tinsley, Hannah Morgan, and RVRB.