2019 Swell by Ripple Conference
Role: Creative Director and Lead Designer
Production: Manifold
Video: FWI Media
Company: Ripple
Award: Ex Awards 2020 Winner in Best Small B2B Event Category
About the Project
The third annual Swell by Ripple conference was hosted in Singapore and brought together over 500 of the world’s most trusted voices across financial services, payments, technology and policy to share the reality of what’s unfolding in global payments today.
Watch recap video by FWI Media
Concept
My inspiration for this year’s theme came from the idea of the kaleidoscope. A kaleidoscope is made of two or more mirrors positioned at an angle to each other. A small shift in tilting the kaleidoscope can show you a different perspective and can change the picture entirely.
From the outside looking in, blockchain technology feels like a farfetched reality. Swell was an opportunity to educate and change the perception on blockchain, like how a kaleidoscope would transform your perspective and reveal entirely different possibilities.
In addition to the kaleidoscope I wanted to add another transformative element to the concept. Being Japanese, I included origami in the design as the goal of an origami is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a finished sculpture.
Based on the narrative above, Ripple’s Events Marketing team came up with A New Reality Unfolds as the tagline. The tagline married well with the design and the fintech landscape which is transforming exponentially in front of our very eyes.
Visual Design
Swell was hosted in Singapore this year and it is a country known for its large Chinese influence. The visual theme was inspired by the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In the film I noticed Chinese designs use a lot of patterns, which showed up in places like their clothing and architecture.
For colors, I began by choosing two of the most traditional Chinese colors. Red is a symbol for good luck and jade is the most highly esteemed stone for its value in healing and protection. In addition, I added blue and purple to expand the palette as it was needed for delineation of attendee types and visual materials.
I developed a unique pattern library for the event by rotating and pulling apart the Swell by Ripple logo. The logo itself is geometric, angular and transformative by nature like the inside of a kaleidoscope.
The visual identity for Swell by Ripple 2019 conference.
To promote the event I created an animated GIF using the two main colors and pattern of the event as well as printed invitations to send to our VIP customers.
Invitation for Swell inspired by the origami.
Invitation unfolding.
Environmental Design
We worked with the production team at Manifold to bring our vision to life. Myself, Ripple’s Head of Design and the Events Marketing team outlined the experience. I then designed and mocked assets in 2D and sent it over to Manifold to render it in 3D. This process works well for us as we can show exactly what we want our vendor to produce.
Entrance green wall using the kaleidoscope Swell pattern.
“Swell” turns into Hello.
I was inspired by Google’s anamorphic sign for its transformative nature.
Registration desk using main kaleidoscopic pattern.
Attendee: Jade, Press: Amethyst, Ripple: Sapphire, Speaker: Ruby.
Kaleidoscope tunnel with the Swell pattern.
Floor to ceiling windows covered in full Swell tessellation decal. I wanted the Swell logo to reflect on the floor when the sun shines through the windows.
Main stage featuring one thousand origami cranes to tie it back to the A New Reality Unfolds theme.
Swell logo in origami form.
Pattern work applied to all digital screens.
Inspired by the folds in origami, all of the standing structures have a folded edge featuring patterns made from the Swell logo.
