Graphic designer Boomtown makes it a trifecta of branding and branding

We asked Conway Cleaves to share her journey with the annual magazine, her inspiration and what she’s learned along the way.

Tell us about you Trademarks and trademarks The story in your own words. How were you chosen to design the cover for the 2021 book, how were you chosen for the 2022 book, and again for the 2023 book?

First worked on Trademarks and trademarks In my internship year at Boomtown. I’ve been working with Boomtown for a few months and was thrilled when I was given the opportunity to work on a project that included this open design brief. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of conceptualizing ideas around a given topic and exploring how to visually translate the idea into design.

Boomtown typically mentors two designers to create individual concepts and creative expressions that align with the given theme. These concepts, along with cover possibilities, are presented to the client, and the final design brief is implemented by the designer whose idea has been selected. This is the process through which I came to design Trademarks and trademarks in 2021. In 2022, I was directly asked to create the publication based on the success of the previous edition. This year, 2023, we again follow the usual process.

Was the assignment the cover or was it to develop the look, feel, pagination, and layout of the manuscript?

Each year, Boomtown is tasked with developing an overall concept, look and feel Trademarks and trademarks Based on the annual theme given to us by the client. The brief involves bringing this concept to life through visual elements and typography that weave seamlessly throughout the publication, from cover to contents, introduction, subject matter and split pages. This approach aims to formulate a strong conceptual work that speaks to the industry through the chosen topic.

What are the summaries for 2021, 2022 and 2023? Can you tell us what inspired you, what your references were, etc. for the design?

In 2021, we were given the theme “Resilience”, especially in the context of companies adapting to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. I was inspired by the phenomenon of “hyperglycemia,” which is a fascinating discovery regarding the cognitive processes involved in reading text. This shows that readers can understand text even when it contains misspellings and misplaced letters.

Our creative expression of this concept appeared in the post titles, where we deliberately played with the letters. This demonstrated the remarkable flexibility of the human mind – the ability not only to overcome unexpected challenges, but also to adapt to them.

In 2022, the theme is “Print vs. Digital Media”. I have explored the often perceived rivalry between these two mediums while highlighting their potential when used together. This gave rise to our concept “Synergy between print and digital media”. To communicate this idea visually, we used contrasting elements to symbolize each medium. Solid, bold shapes represent printed media, while complex fonts consist of binary digital codes. These contrasting elements were combined to create compositions that visually conveyed the beauty of their coexistence and revealed objects such as a fountain pen nib and an elegant cell phone to further enhance our concept.

This concept is already embodied on the cover through a QR code that, when scanned with the phone, beautifully animates the elements on the cover. This ultimately showed the synergy between print and digital media in action.

This year, we were asked to explore the topic of ‘Artificial Intelligence’, a prominent topic in our industry today. Our inspiration came from the discovery that Martin Luther King Jr. improvised his famous speech, with the famous phrase “I have a dream” not originally appearing in his prepared remarks. Feeling the palpable energy of the audience, he instinctively deviated from his written conclusion to share his honest vision of the people of his country. We realized that no matter how advanced AI became, it would never be able to replicate what King did at that moment – ​​follow his human instinct. This insight inspired our topic “Artificial Intelligence vs. Human Instinct.”

Across the pages of the book, we tell similar stories of those pivotal moments when individuals, in the face of resistance, trusted their instincts and changed history. Visually, we showed this by creating the post with a distinctly human touch. We achieve this through handwritten preprints, evocative textures and pen illustrations. These elements evoke a sense of urgency and authenticity, as if these profound moments had been hastily written down in the heat of inspiration. Our hope is that this edition of Trademarks and trademarks This serves as a reminder to those in various industries who may fear the advancement of AI that our humanity will always be needed and necessary to uncover great insights.

He has this journey with Trademarks and trademarks Did it teach you anything about yourself and/or design in general?

My three-year involvement in this project has taught me the importance of constantly digging deeper. This entails going beyond the surface and digging deeper to create stronger concepts and execute them visually through typography, color, texture, and more. I learned that I not only loved design, but I loved the conceptual thinking that goes into creating a great design and idea.

Having worked on three consecutive editions, it’s interesting to see them side by side, as I can clearly see my evolution as a designer from the 26th edition to the 27th edition, and I can see the wide range of styles I’ve been able to explore. This year’s 28th edition is significantly different from last year’s 27th edition. The previous version was very organized and clean with a classic feel, using mostly black and white. In contrast, this year’s edition is very loose, using textures, bright colours, hand-lettered typography and illustrations.

Do you work as part of a team or alone for that matter?

Even though I’m the only designer, I’m guided by the visions of amazing creatives. Jesse Sharkey, Design Director at Boomtown, plays an important role by providing valuable design input and collaborating closely with me to ensure we are visually creating the right feel to effectively convey the concept. Ahmed Tilly, Early Childhood Development Consultant, helped reinforce our concepts, providing valuable insights and guidance.

Caitlin Morgan, copywriter, and Saskia Smith, intern copywriter, contributed their skills. Trademarks and trademarks, which helps us express our thoughts beautifully. Finally, Anina Pienaar, Group Account Manager, works alongside the client and ensures that we have the necessary time to explore ideas and execute our work effectively. I consider myself lucky to work alongside such a talented group of creatives at Boomtown.