About the Identity
In 2016, when we first did the conference in Nashville, we exhausted pretty much all references to country music and woodtype, two of the primary sources of visual inspiration relevant to the city. Despite how rich they are as sources of inspiration, we knew we could not repeat the same two things again so we had to look elsewhere. Our first round of online research revealed one possible theme: Radio.
At the forefront of that idea was the Grand Ole Opry, a live country-music radio broadcast that, having started in 1927, is the longest-running radio broadcast in U.S. history. The show is made available to listeners by WSM (650 kHz), that, in 1941, made waves as the first U.S. commercial broadcaster to receive a commercial FM license.
Vintage radio-related graphics felt like a sure bet but we needed some actual reference sources so we headed down to Nashville to visit the Grand Ole Opry House and the modern-day WSM Radio station that sits directly in front of it that happens to feature a new permanent exhibit called “Behind The Airwaves: Discover The Radio Home Of The Opry”. We could not have asked for a more perfectly consolidated source of material. We took a hundred photos of cool radio-y stuff and left Opryland fairly satisfied.
We drove into Nashville, checked into our hotel, and headed out for a cup of coffee to reassess our findings and decide the next steps on how to activate our radio theme. Somewhat quickly, we had the disappointing realization that this was not it. Yes, vintage radio graphics and all kinds of 1960s typographic shenanigans would have been cool but we could not find the spin to make it special.
On the walk from the hotel to the coffee shop, somewhere around 3:00 pm on a Saturday, we walked past endless group of women ready to party… some for the sake of it, some for bachelorette parties, all in what seemed like a standard-issue uniform for the occasion that included denim shorts, cowboy boots, tops with fringe, and somewhere — anywhere — sparks of bedazzlement. Over the years, it turns out, Nashville has become one of the top destinations for bachelorette parties and a whole cottage industry has sprung around it to complement the already epic nightlife and picture-perfect backdrop of Broadway and its tireless honky tonk bars.
As we sat in the coffee shop somewhat defeated, we jokingly said that instead of a conference we should just throw a bachelorette party — probably more fun and less stressful. We laughed it off until we realized that that was it. That’s what we were going to hang our proverbial (cowboy) hat on as the theme of this year’s conference identity: A bachelorette party. Ideas for things we could do around that theme but applied to a conference immediately started flowing and while you will have to either come to the event or wait for the case study to find out what we actually followed through on, all we can say is that it’s going to be FUN.
To start, we did what any good bridesmaid in charge of a bachelorette party would do, which is to put together a Pinterest board. To our surprise and delight there is a whole online ecosystem devoted not just to bachelorette parties but bachelorette parties in Nashville that marries the obligatory pink hues and script lettering of the industry with the giddy-up clichés of the city, featuring more cowboy hats and rhinestones than you can shake feather boas at. The moodboard helped us define some starting points for the identity. One, it had to be pink. Two, it had to use a cheesy script font. And three, it had to integrate something cowboy-y.
Satisfying all three priorities is — in that order — the combination of PMS 211, Gratitude Smooth Script from Sudtipos, and F37 Roy as the core elements. To go slightly deeper into our choices, we wanted a pink that was bright and happy but that didn’t steer into either baby pink or hot magenta territories. Gratitude Script is the perfect balance of penmanship and exuberance without being generic nor overly Live-Laugh-Love-y. F37 Roy, drawn by Alec Tear, presents as effortlessly Western but with a contemporary flair that separates it from more commonplace woodtype fonts.
Rounding out the typographic palette in supporting roles we have Stilson because no bachelorette party invitation or party favor can exist without a Didone serif and given so many of these exist we narrowed it down to one where the thicks and thins match as closely as possible those of Gratitude Script. For body copy we are using Balto, an American Gothic that would not have been out of place in the good old days of woodtype yet has the crispness needed for large bodies of text in digital and print form.
To complement and contrast the pink, we are keeping things simple with black and white while adding sparks of metallics and other shiny materials through actual objects and ornaments relevant to the theme, whether it is the mylar balloons in the header, the rhinestone pearl letters in the footer, or a few other physical elements we are toying with at the moment. There is also a dark denim texture in play at the footer which, all we can say at the moment, is that it is not gratuitous.
Sprucing up the layouts is a collection of repeatable patterns inspired by bachelorette party invitations, starting with a “scallop” pattern that helps frame content. A strip of fringe that can be used to transition from pink to white. A squiggly line with thicks and thins matching Gratitude Script that makes recurring appearances as an underline. Lastly, a simple diamond-esque shape that can be repeated in small sizes for a sparkly effect.
One of our favorite pieces of bachelorette party ornamentation turned out to be the rhinestone pearl letters used in the very popular “Bride” cowboy hat, which you can buy on their own so we got “BNCONF”, “2026”, and a couple of hearts to use on the website. (They will also make an appearance later on in physical applications.)
Another recurring element in our Pinterest board was the various sentences spelled out using mylar balloons, a staple of any celebration but a particularly kitschy one for bachelorette parties. We ordered “BNCONF” in 40-inch-tall versions and headed to the studio of our small town's star photographer to capture footage of the balloons being pushed around by a fan and a leaf blower behind the scenes. These will be a recurring feature for social media and the screen graphics during the conference and, yes, of course we will have some at the venue too.
That's what we have so far. At least that we can share without giving some fun stuff away. Unlike other years we actually have a lot of things already figured out about how the physical applications and imminent manual labor are going to be so now it's just a matter of saddling up and getting ’er done.