FABTECH EXPO

2019 Event | Chicago, Illinois

ROLE
Art Director | Karin Schroeder

Logo design + corporate brand guide, three year (2018-2020) show look + feel journey, show style guide + deliverables, VIP direct mail and corporate brochures.

STORY
You might be asking yourself, what is FABTECH? It is North America’s Largest Metal Forming, Fabricating, Welding and Finishing Event and engineers LIVE for it because they can touch and demo all the cool stuff. There were over 1,900 exhibitors and a record 48,000 attendees in Chicago, IL for the 2019 event – and that was with a blizzard on opening day!

My initial role was to design a new FABTECH logo – followed by writing, designing and producing a corporate brand guide and providing several logo file deliverables.

Each year we hold an in-person client meeting in Chicago to kick off the show look almost a year in advance. It’s great to debrief the previous year as a team and get a grasp on what we can do better or build off what we did well.

The show look + feel concept process begins with brainstorming, researching and designing three unique approaches. All graphic assets are designed cohesively for industry print ads, email blasts, digital banner ads, registration site banners, mobile device + screen pages, show aisle signs, show directionals, exterior banners, kick panels and a VIP printed self mailer brochure for past attendees. The event style guide includes active links to each graphic asset to assist the association’s internal designers with production needs and Freeman’s graphic layout team on the show floor branding.

Did I mention 3/5 in my immediate family are engineers? I use them as my personal focus group when designing concepts. This also helps my being able to interpret engineering brains (literally) to make this event branding successful.

TEAM
Creative Director | Brian Teplitzky
Photography | Butler Photography
Producer | Jessica Ravenesi
Account Rep | John Postelnik