The Fan Zone!

One recurring bit of feedback we receive for the conference is that attendees wish there were more opportunities to interact with other attendees and meet new people, especially for those coming by themselves. So… we are introducing The Fan Zone! Yes, with a cheesy name and exclamation point on purpose. We tried coming up with something more serious or engaging but, in the end, what we are putting together is literally a zone for fans. Fans of Brand New, fans of logos, fans of branding, fans of… cornhole?

In case you missed the note on the home page, this year we are not having any sponsors and The Fan Zone! is part of the reason why: we wanted to use all of the real estate we would have assigned to them to set up this series of interactive exhibits and galleries. So what can you expect?

The main attraction will be a one-of-a-kind physical gallery that gathers real-life examples of some of the best projects that have been featured on Brand New in the past three years. Burger King uniforms? Check. Squirrels hoodie? Check. Crazy perfume bottles from Hong Kong? Check. Bad-ass spray paint from Ukraine? Check. We have sourced dozens of projects from around the world that will bring to life all the mock-ups you’ve ever seen on Brand New and thought they would never come to life. Below is a fraction of what we have catalogued so far. (Sorry for the less than stellar photos.)

A couple of other galleries will include every piece of material from all of the Brand New Conferences and clothing racks full of tote bags from around the world. If you prefer your design digital and in motion, we will have an hour-long video playing the very best motion files from projects posted on Brand New in the previous 12 months.

There will be six real-life voting stations where you will be able to see and vote “Great”, “Fine”, or “Bad” on some of the year’s most notable projects and if all goes according to plan we will have additional stations to test your logo knowledge, a March-Madness-like logo tournament playing out across the two days, some live infographics we will all build together, and even a book swap where if you bring a design book you can take another design book.

If you want a break from design, we will have ping pong tables, cornhole boards, dominoes, a charging station, and more — not too much more because this is already a lot. Point being: we will have plenty of ice-breaker opportunities and ways to interact with others.