Designer
Sarah Price
Art Director
Paul Bailes
Client
Personal Finance Society
Date
November 2019
Deliverables
Event Identity
Print Design
Digital Design
Brief
Cohesion were tasked with creating the overarching branding for The Personal Finance Society’s 2019 Annual Conference, whilst the pre-event branding and promotion was critical and needed to attract a sufficient number of exhibitor and attendees to not only cover costs, but also to ensure a vibrant and lively event atmosphere was generated on the day.
The whole concept needed to be versatile so as to work across all platforms both print and digital, from pre-event branding through to the event itself.
Think
We understood the importance creating a virtuous circle between the financial advisors and their clients but this conference wanted to explore the importance of doing so in the future. After discussions with the client project leader, we refined our ideas and developed two concepts: Futureproof and Ecology: The Futureproof concept needed to illustrate providing insights and guidance to individuals and firms to help them thrive in an unpredictable and ever changing world and by working together for a common cause, we will protect the future of their profession and continue to change people’s lives for the better. The Ecology concept needed to illustrate diversification and the ability to adapt to an evolving financial environment which is crucial to ensuring their clients’ ongoing financial stability. Every client has events in their life which may strain their finances; having a resilient and adaptable financial plan becomes imperative to ensure their life goals can still be realised.
Design
Futureproof was the favoured route, and the identity created depicted the perspective of a futuristic virtual person looking backwards with knowledge of the possible issues that need to be considered to futureproof the personal finance sector. These things are represented with icons, shown as digital facets of the figure. We refined the concept and included a different font and the neon ‘glow’ effect to give an added dimension to the concept. The icons look to represent the topic in the brief. Futureproof was a broad theme and translated into a strong visual event identity which was fluid enough to work across all disciplines from the initial promotional advertising through to and including a large amount of animated signage.
Create
Having agreed the subtle animation style for the digital assets, we applied this to create a number of pieces including a pre-event sting, digital press ads and directional signage throughout the venue. Additionally, we created some more traditional print collateral in the form of press adverts and directional signage, futuristic Z card, orientation map of the venue as well as branded giveaways and the artwork for the client’s main exhibition stand which had built in advertising screens which also played a series of promotional ads that featured subtle animations to give interest.
Outcome
The symposium was highly successful (with the the number of attendees up 47% on previous year), in addition 72% of attendees rated the signage navigation as excellent, and we received a wealth of positive feedback.
“I enjoyed working with Cohesion on the Futureproof conference concept – they understood what we were wanting to achieve and came up with some fantastic ideas to bring the event and marketing to life in a subtle yet engaging way. Their support and forward thinking attitude provided us with cost effective solutions and they were a valuable partner in making the event a success. The clever use of a mixture of printed and digital signage allowed us maximise our budget throughout a very large space.”
Mark Hutchinson
Member Marketing Director, Personal Finance Society