I finally received some samples of the Forrester projects I’ve been so busy designing since September!

I was awarded the freelance graphic design position around September of last year by Forrester Events, a corporate research and events company serving Fortune 500 companies around the world. I create theme images for them based on the forum titles and descriptions the marketing team comes up with, and then build postcards and brochures around the theme image to advertise the upcoming forum.

They already had a corporate style guide as well as some brand-recognition established among their loyal following, however, they were looking to update their design aesthetic to be more contemporary and wanted a simplified, more succinct image than the collaging that had been done previously. In addition to this, my personal goal was to also make their publishings more visually consistent to solidify brand recognition.

While the postcards and brochures continue to evolve according to amount of particular content, sponsors, etc. that fluctuate greatly from forum to forum, I thought it worthwhile to show the direction and designs created thus far:

The theme image, brochure cover, and front and back of the corresponding postcard design for the 2010 Infrastructure & Operations forum. This theme image was such a hit that the Amsterdam division of Forrester Events asked me to adapt it for their forum as well, replacing the dollar sign with a pound sign*.

First page of the brochure, with the welcome letter on the left and the introduction to the forum on the right.

Spread of the keynote sessions and the forum agenda. I tried to make every section of the brochure visually different and therefore memorable to the reader, while keeping with the overall feel of Forrester and its particular forum theme.

Track sessions carry on for several pages and include a lot of information. In order to fit all the content within the allotted pages while maintaining legibility and preventing reader fatigue, I devised a way to separate each track visually from the next using both image, type, and background cues. I also put bulleted information to the side for the reader to quickly skim the major points of each session.

And, just for sake of comparison, the track session designs pre-d*ro:

It’s corporate, so some of the design preferences or rules that I was taught in school had to be overridden by corporate design preferences or Forrester type rules (for example, the general dislike of white space, or em dashes surrounded by actual spaces instead of kerning). I also often had to find that balance between business and design priorities. For example, sponsor sections were in fact a sidebar-level of information, however, paying sponsors would obviously want their logos to be as attention-grabbing as the main text and not side-lined. Thus, there was a necessary compositional tension despite my love for hierarchy and order.

The great thing about all this is, I’ve been able to flex my conceptual muscles, develop my Photoshop skills, and stay sharp in my InDesign.

A learning experience indeed!

Obviously these things will continue to evolve, but so far, what do you think?

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