How can you create unforgettable event branding using graphics?

1 Define your goals and audience

Before you start designing your graphics, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your event branding and who you want to reach. Your goals and audience will guide your creative decisions and help you craft a coherent and relevant visual identity. Some questions you can ask yourself are: What is the purpose of your event? What are the main benefits for your attendees? What are the values and emotions you want to convey? Who are your ideal attendees and what are their preferences, needs, and challenges?

2 Choose your graphics style and elements

Once you have defined your goals and audience, you can start choosing your graphics style and elements. Your graphics style is the overall look and feel of your event branding, which should reflect your event's personality and message. Your graphics elements are the specific components that make up your graphics style, such as logos, icons, fonts, colors, images, patterns, and more. You can use online tools, such as Canva, Adobe Spark, or PicMonkey, to create your graphics elements or hire a professional designer if you have the budget.

3 Create a graphics style guide

A graphics style guide is a document that outlines the rules and guidelines for using your graphics elements consistently and effectively. It helps you maintain a unified and recognizable event branding across different platforms and formats. Your graphics style guide should include the following sections: Logo: how to use your logo, including size, spacing, color, and variations. Icons: how to use your icons, including size, color, and alignment. Fonts: what fonts to use for your headlines, subheadlines, body text, and captions, including size, weight, color, and spacing. Colors: what colors to use for your background, text, accents, and buttons, including the hex codes and color meanings. Images: what types of images to use, such as photos, illustrations, or graphics, including style, quality, and size. Patterns: what patterns to use for your background or accents, including style, color, and size.

4 Design your graphics for different platforms and formats

Now that you have your graphics style guide, you can start designing your graphics for different platforms and formats. Depending on the type and scale of your event, you may need to create graphics for your website, social media, email marketing, flyers, posters, banners, slides, badges, and more. You should follow your graphics style guide and adapt your graphics to the specific requirements and best practices of each platform and format. For example, you should use high-resolution images for print materials, optimize your graphics for mobile devices, and use catchy and clear headlines for social media.

5 Apply your graphics consistently and strategically

The final step to create unforgettable event branding using graphics is to apply your graphics consistently and strategically. This means that you should use your graphics elements in a coherent and harmonious way throughout your event, from the pre-event promotion to the post-event follow-up. You should also use your graphics strategically to highlight your event's key features, benefits, and calls to action. For example, you can use your logo to reinforce your event's identity, use your icons to illustrate your event's agenda, use your fonts to emphasize your event's headline speakers, use your colors to create contrast and interest, use your images to showcase your event's atmosphere, and use your patterns to add texture and depth.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?