HARNESSING MOMENTUM: MIRON SUMMIT 2023
Every year for Summit Miron creates a logo and branding system around the summit's theme. We're given a lot of leeway with the look, but typically we've stuck to the red, white, and blue brand color palette. This year I added some gradients with a brighter red and blue to give some lighting and texture to the pieces as well.
We knew early on that momentum would be in the theme, so movement would be more crucial to the look and feel. At first, we experimented with some animations and logos around "Gathering Momentum." My own first tries were a lot more 3D than things ultimately turned out, but the swirling circle motif remained. Once the theme changed to "Harnessing Momentum," I started over with a lot of the logo ideas.
With this year's logo, I really wanted to fit in an upward trajectory. That's where our momentum would take us. I was inspired by the pointed architecture of many buildings Miron had constructed, and emphasized by much of our photography. The H and M fold together almost like perspective of many buildings. A bar element from Miron's main logo pushes forward to complete the H and tie everything together while the circle continuously swirls around it. I also took some elements and playfulness from a Frank Lloyd Wright typography I found as I searched for inspiration. Much of it is heavily modified, but I almost used it for the "Harnessing Momentum" text before moving to something more subdued, taking some of the elements I really loved from the type and marrying it with my logo treatment.
Last year we did things in segments. The logo came first, done by my colleague, then the branding, then the motion, which I worked on. This year I wanted to work on everything all at once, at least partially because I viewed movement as so important to the theme. With a logo concept starting to emerge, I started with some presentation sketches and then animated the logo before our design approval meeting early on. The final logo animation doesn't stray far from this first iteration.
Overall, I wanted the motion branding to feel like there was so much going on at once, but it all crescendos together. It's almost like when I walk around a construction site it can feel like organized chaos. There's so much work to be done and things are happening everywhere, but it's all on this deliberate schedule. Every piece slides into place just when it needs to be.
One theme I was really insistent on keeping was that the logo wouldn't stop during the motion graphics. Of course it would be used on paper and during presentations, but this would look like it was frozen mid-motion. I never wanted the animation to settle into that, however. I felt like this really reinforced the theme.
THE SPEAKER INTROS
The main piece of motion graphics needed for Summit would be the speaker intros. I needed to create a template that was dynamic enough to work for a number of arrangements of speakers from just a single person to up to nine. I started with one and made my template. Then, I built things out for four people, which would consist of two sets of two. I could use a piece of that for two speakers, and then for three I would need another custom set of three individual speakers. After that, I pieced together singles and doubles to get my numbers. For nine, however, I needed to upend things quite a bit to fit three on each screen.
The biggest challenge for this was making things short and snappy. Our last Summit was the first to use motion graphics of this type and I noticed speakers getting a bit antsy to start, so I had a pretty hard limit of about 30 seconds to get anything across. It basically had to fill up walking to the stage. No more. No less.
Like last Summit, I wanted the last piece to be the intro slide for each speaker. This way they would land smoothly in the correct spot and then advance into the prepared presentations. Throughout the presentations, I really wanted everything to flow together nicely.
I also wanted to incorporate an intro to the event itself, and this needed to be appended to two of the speaker intros, one for each day. Since the speaker counts were different on these days, that also needed some flexibility for music cues.
I also wanted to incorporate an intro to the event itself, and this needed to be appended to two of the speaker intros, one for each day. Since the speaker counts were different on these days, that also needed some flexibility for music cues.
POWERPOINT TEMPLATES
One of the biggest needs for branding at our Summit event would be PowerPoint templates. I took in requests from the teams and looked through the prior years usage to create a multitude of different options for speakers and coordinators to use. I kept the overall angled look of the branding by cutting off pieces of the photos and adding in other shapes and pieces. I also created a custom arrow bullet point as well.
OTHER COLLATERAL
Of course, we needed plenty of additional pieces from signs to nametags, letterheads and stickers of many sizes.
THE STAGE
With the stage, we really wanted to emphasize the size and shape of those color blocks. The logo's large color blocks would land right behind one speaker, and the Miron Summit 23 was placed strategically behind the second podium. Two massive screens flanked the stage setup, showing the motion graphics and presentations. It was an awe-worthy sight watching everything unfold on the screens. Our speakers felt larger than life.
THE NOTEBOOK
Every year we gift a notebook to attendees, and we get some fun stamps and accents at times. This year when thinking about the notebook I really wanted to figure out how to incorporate all the movement I had been working on up until that point. I was inspired somewhat by the 2022 Brand New Conference items. They were able to incorporate the bounciness of their own logos and branding with custom rubbery bag straps. That's exaclty the sort of energy I wanted.
So, I inquired about lenticular covers. I had never done something like that before, and neither had our vendor. After some searching, we put 2 and 2 together to source our notebooks with a custom lenticular insert. The front was stamped with the branding and a circular cutout revealed the logo spinning as the reader moved it around. When you opened it up, you'd see the full Summit branding.
THE CONCLUSION
I consider this year's branding to be an extreme success. Countless colleagues came up and complimented our marketing team on the event and were amazed at how it felt like a big-time presentation.
