case study : Art direction, design
Google Economic Impact Report Event
Overview
During National Small Business Week in 2022, Grow with Google invited 94 small businesses from all over the U.S. to a meetup event in Washington DC, where they got to meet fellow small business owners, share their stories, and attend workshops on various google tools and products.
Team
Creative Direction - Diogo Montes
Art Direction - Diana Liu
Design - Kevin Whipple, Andrew Roberts, I-Nu Yeh, Diana Liu
Project Management - Khaliha Hawkins, Kyle McEwen
Task
As host, Google wanted to create visuals that celebrated the small businesses, and also serve as memorabilia from the event. Our team at M Booth was tasked to create graphic icons to represent each small business. Based on the icons, we created business cards for attendees to use at the event, and posters that tell the stories of their businesses. For the event space, we created a mural with all the icons, and invited the attendees to find their icons and color them.
Challenge
One challenge of the project was to come up with unique, visually interesting icons that represent the products and backgrounds of each business, and they have to adhere to a coherent visual style. We researched each business to learn about their business, the owners’ dreams and passions, and the “edge” that sets their business apart. We understand how hard these small business owners work to bring their dreams into reality, and we want to make sure that they feel seen and appreciated at the event. In each icon, we strive to combine the brand, product, and flair of each business into a balanced, witty visual message, packing the complicated brand stories into simple line art that could be understood right away.
Role
I worked on this project as both art director and designer. As art director, I oversaw icon concepts and designs. I also worked with project managers to manage timeline and production, and supervised team members. As designer, I created some of the icons, and designed templates for the the business card and the poster.
Business cards and posters designs based on the icons. The business cards were given to attendees at the event, and posters were displayed at the event to give each attendee a “celebrity moment”.
At the end of the event, every icon was color in by event attendees. The icon mural was not only an eye catching visual center piece, but also an interactive activity that made attendees feel valued.
Impact
The icons were a great hit at the event. Attendees were pleasantly surprised that Google presented them with an icon and business card so well represented their business and passion. Everyone was excited to find their own icon on the mural, and at the end of the event, all the icons were colored in. These visual elements helped boost social media impact of the event, helped advertise for the small businesses and generated traffic for Google.
