Brief: Design a special, one-day conference hosted by The Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
Solution: Create an identity system, event schedule, and promotional pieces based on the theme of storytelling in audio formats.
Inspired by oral tradition and sound design
I took two online courses in the summer of 2021; one of these courses, entitled "The Art of Storytelling," explored how stories are structured in different cultures. This course also placed great emphasis on oral storytelling as a cross-cultural human activity, and I researched the history of the oral tradition in Irish culture. For my final project, I delivered a humorous, personal story through a video monologue.
The second course I completed that summer was an introduction to sound design—a medium that has interested me for quite a while as a frequent consumer of podcasts and audiobooks. These two courses blended perfectly to remind me of something I had taken for granted: the richness and innate humanity of audio as storytelling medium.
When tasked with establishing a theme, schedule, and visual system for this conference, I found immediate inspiration.
I developed a visual language for this conference that I could take from the promotional poster and expand to the session posters, printed program, and other brand collateral. Part of that visual identity is an adaptable, shifted grid system that balances engaging angles with legibility through hierarchy and visual flow. If I'm taking stories beyond the page, why not take the layout beyond a traditional 90° grid?
