In all previous retreats, including my first with the firm a year prior, a single banner was designed and then placed on all collateral. This year I decided to take a different approach. I intended to develop the retreat’s branding as complete design system with a lot of variance in the application.

Theme 1: Communication

Bold ideas, forward movement, progress, development and growth, creativity, collaboration.

Theme 2: Connections + Movement

Seamless collaboration, connections, overlapping moments, intersecting and coming together, transitioning.

At our first retreat branding team meeting, I presented the above four visual identity concepts and we discussed the pros and cons of each as well as which ideas would be the best fit under the Loeb brand. Theme one garnered a unanimously positive and excited reaction, however we all agreed that within the confines of a law firm event it pushed the envelope a bit too far. In the end, the consensus was to find a middle ground between themes three and four with a strong connection to the new website. One of the ways we wanted to do that was to incorporate the sketches done for us by Nicholas Bleckman.

Digital Exploration

I presented a wide range of exploration via name badge and masthead designs based on our discussion.

Final Digital Concepts

I then finalized the below three concepts based off of the previous week’s group discussion and critique. These three final concepts were then presented at the managers team meeting and to the firm chair.

Retreat Assets

The second design was chosen and it was time to begin applying the identity across all event collateral. My concern with the second design was that we had drifted back into what we knew - a single banner design simply dropped on everything - so I decided to work backwards. Instead of creating a collection of elements that together made up a visual system, I dissected the line drawing by Nicholas Blechman to create pieces of a design system. Some elements still used the full banner illustration but I was successful in pushing Loeb out of it’s comfort zone with other items, including pulling the figure illustration and computer illustration out Blechman’s work as individual elements and creating new illustrations in the same style.

Retreat Signs

I was responsible for a system of about 72 signs. A few signs were simple 24x36 inch posters, like the below four communication style markers and the tech signs. The majority of the signs were a collection of smaller signs specifying an event or meeting with the time. These smaller signs would then be adhered in pairs, or with an arrow, to one of the eight 24x36 inch poster bases via Velcro. My responsibility this year, in addition to applying the content for all signage as usual, was to work closely with our printing vendor to increase the size of all small covers as much as possible while staying within a certain budget. I also used color, typeface, and kerning to increase legibility.

Retreat app

For the first time since the inception of the partners’ retreat app, management decided it was time to rebuild it from the ground up to create a more fluid and sleek user experience. I was given the opportunity to work closely with our developer through all stages from wireframes to frontend visual design.

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