The Art of Crafting the Ultimate Brand Experience: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at TEDx Georgia Tech Salon
Part 1: Branding
During the previous college year, I had the pleasure of designing and planning an event for TEDx Georgia Tech. I started my journey as a Media coordinator, where I designed the branding for their fall and spring semesters and expanded my design knowledge.
Let me take you behind the scenes. We brainstormed themes for the year and semesters in the first few meetings. We sent out a survey to all members for theme names, held a voting session in one of our meetings, and finally selected the theme for 2022–2023: Kinetic and Potential energy.
The Theme:
The fall and spring salons hosted by TEDxGeorgiaTech revolved around Potential and Kinetic themes, respectively. Rather than solely focusing on outcomes, the events encouraged attendees to embrace the journey and appreciate the starting point. Just as a ball must first be on a hill to roll down it, individuals must recognize their potential to make progress.
The Potential theme highlighted that everyone can improve their skills, connections, and intelligence. Speakers shared their stories of finding potential energy within themselves, society, and the world and offered advice for others looking to do the same.
On the other hand, the Kinetic theme emphasized the energy of motion and the importance of actively working towards one’s goals. Building on the potential explored in the fall, speakers shared examples of how they took action to create the change they wanted to see and encouraged others to do the same.
After selecting the themes, the media team explored color palettes, fonts, and logos. We suggested and voted on color palettes and fonts.
Colors:
Potential ~Deep blue: 3c557b, Teal: 3a8283
Kinetic ~ Light orange: f89b5e, Dark orange: f2634b
Fonts:
Selected Font:
Potential ~ Avenir Next Ultra Light
Kinetic ~ Bright Side
At that time, I began brainstorming possible choices. Initially, I searched the internet for ideas and often visited sites like Pinterest to create a mood board to inspire discussion. After sharing the mood board, we had discussions and voted on ideas. From there, I went back to the drawing board and refined the design, considering all the feedback from the meeting.
Logo:
Explorations
During one of our bi-weekly team meetings, we presented the explorations mentioned above and gathered feedback from everyone. Taking their thoughts and ideas into consideration, I used the above as an inspiration board and created additional concepts shown below.
After careful consideration, we ultimately agreed on the third option for our concept. Our attention then turned to the selection of various color schemes for the logo. We wanted to ensure that the colors chosen conveyed the appropriate message and tone for our brand. Therefore, we spent a significant amount of time experimenting with different color palettes until we found the perfect match.
To ensure their applicability for both the overarching theme and the individual Kinetic and Potential events, we selected three combinations from the options provided above.
Selected Logo
Part 2: Marketing Materials
After designing the branding for this year's salons, it was time to implement it.
In addition to branding, I was assigned to create the poster for the past year’s fall event, which centers around the theme "Potential." To effectively convey the message, I chose a simple and quirky design. The poster displays speakers on roller coasters, playfully and directly delivering the conference theme.
Here's a copy of the poster that was circulated for the event.
In the spring semester, I was appointed as the Production Director, but I still had to oversee the creation of marketing materials. My first task was to develop all the marketing materials for Open Mic Night, which is an event organized by TEDx Georgia Tech. As the name implies, this is an open event where anyone can take the stage and talk about anything.
In order to advertise the open mic event, I designed an email banner, an Instagram post, and a poster that was printed and distributed on walls. Additionally, I created a lobby screen display shown on television during the event itself.
I created promotional materials using Canva's pre-existing assets for the event. While there was no specific theme for the occasion, we incorporated the yearly theme into our advertising efforts. I used the same assets and theme in all collaterals to maintain consistency. For the design, I chose bold brand colors to create a striking impact and a memorable experience.
Following the event, we produced some event merchandise, such as mugs and stickers. Upon reviewing the current cups, I found them appealing, and consequently, I opted to utilize the existing designs.
Finally, the last marketing material I designed was stickers. I created multiple options that incorporated the rollercoaster theme and represented potential and kinetic energy, using a predetermined multicolored palette. I chose a transitional background because the palette included both warm and cool colors and the logo had a gradient. I explored different rollercoaster styles and created a cartoon-style representation of the speakers at the conference in one of the designs.
The picture below displays the stickers that were chosen and printed for sale during the spring salon event of TEDx Georgia Tech.
Part 3: Event Design
During the spring semester, I took on the role of Production Director and led a team of five creatives. Working together, we focused our event decisions, prop choices, and installations on the branding story.
During our initial meetings, we brainstormed various ideas. At first, we were receptive to all suggestions, but eventually narrowed them down based on cost constraints due to limited event funding. Below are some of the proposed concepts we considered implementing.
After careful consideration of various ideas, we have narrowed down our options to three potential concepts. The first idea involves using either balloons with "TEDx" written on them or 2D red discs to create a Newton's Cradle. The second option is to use board pins and threads to make an X on a soft board. Lastly, we are considering using paper cranes in different colors to represent our theme and create a native design of our theme logo. This design would showcase movement through the use of paper cranes and gradients. To make it interactive, we plan to allow the audience to create some cranes in the empty spaces to fill in the gaps.
Due to limited funding and the need for pre-budget approval, we had to make adjustments to our event plans. As a result, we modified our third concept and reduced our budget. Instead of showcasing moving cranes, we utilized sticky notes to create a prompt that asked attendees, "What motivates you every day?" The sticky notes were placed on a poster, and once the desired pattern was completed, it revealed our event's theme and logo. Attendees were encouraged to pick a sticky note of their favorite color, answer the question, and place it on the color matching the number on both. This interactive and fun activity allowed us to engage the audience beyond speaker talks.
I had an amazing experience this year working on the branding, marketing materials, and event items for TEDx Georgia Tech. It was an opportunity to dive into brand and identity design beyond the classroom and into the real world.
I want to share some backstage images from the show that capture the enchanting process in action.



