CONDUITS 2022 Conference: 'Contested Freedoms'

From-scratch brand design including website, motion graphics, printed materials, and custom laser-cut plaques.

The Simon Fraser University School of Communication graduate students organize a yearly conference that convenes students and professors from across North America. In 2022, I had the privilege of working alongside six other talented graduate students on the Organizing Committee. Working as a team, we reconceptualized the conference, naming it CONDUITS (previously "SFU Communication Graduate Conference"). I spearheaded the design process throughout.

The focal point of the conference website was the Contested Freedoms gif. This experiment in formation mimics the conference's central themes: freedom, media, transformation, and discipline. I made it using Adobe After Effects and Illustrator.

Initial logo design was created by Cat Jeffery, Melanie Vidakis, and myself (a team lovingly referred to as the Best Conference Ever Design Subcommittee).

New and improved!

The CONDUITS brand is ✨brand new✨. The name references the ever-changing and transitory nature of communication research topics while matching the School of Communication's other water-inspired names, like Stream (peer-reviewed publication) and Intellectual Currents (seminar series).

The Best Conference Ever Design Subcommittee set out to create a logo and brand for CONDUITS that could be indefinitely handed down to the next conference organizers. The CONDUITS branding, which consists of a series of lines bent and deformed to flow like water. The lines can be interpreted as being similar to those of a topographical map, which references the macro-level data processes that are emblematic of the field of communication. CONDUITS branding is dispersed throughout this page and on the conference website, conduits.ca.

Goodies and gifts

For in-person conference attendees, we designed paper programmes from scratch, as well as a series of stickers based on the logo formations from the Contested Freedoms gif. Additionally, I designed a gift for our conference keynote speaker, Dr. Vincent Mosco. The plaque was laser-cut and engraved from oak wood and transparent acrylic.

The acrylic sheet is sandwiched between two stained sheets of oak, fastened to eachother using adhesive. The acrylic is engraved with the CONDUITS logo, the theme (Contested Freedoms), and the year (2022). The engraving gives texture to both the acrylic and the wood.

Acrylic-cut legs can be inserted into the bottom of the plaque to stand on its own. This was the most challenging part of the design process. I had to figure out a way to leave the inside of the plaque hollow, for the most economical use of acrylic, while maintaining its structural integrity and the sturdiness of the legs. I solved this by cutting out the acrylic between the pieces of oak, but leaving a 'frame' against which the legs could rest. The leftover acrylic was used to cut out the legs.

I cut an additional plaque for our amazing Organizing Committee Chair, Mark Dunn.

Tools used: Adobe Illustrator, Trotec Laser Engraver, hand tools provided by SFU Media & Maker Commons

The wonderful CONDUITS Conference Organizing Committee! From left: Me, Mark Dunn (Chair), Thomas Dickson, Melanie Vidakis, Prem Sylvester, Cat Jeffery