On August 11, 2011 Plywood People hosted "Plywood Presents: Social Innovation" at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA. Speakers would include Simon Mainwaring (best-selling author, We First), Esther Havens (Humanitarian Photographer for Charity:Water, TOMS, Warby Parker), Scott Thomas (aka "Simple Scott," Creative Director for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign), Aaron King and Erin Levin (leaders from Better World Books), Lauri Stallings (gloATL), Rashid Nuri (Old Fourth Ward Community Garden), John Saddington (Blogger and Social Technology Expert), Ron Marks (Atlanta Fresh Yogurt), Blake Canterbury (Founder, BeRemedy), and Jeff Shinabarger (Founder, Plywood People). This event would become the third Plywood Presents and deal with the subject of social innovation, described as follows:

"Social is changing everything. Businesses are engaging in creating social value and considering their social responsibility. As Stanford declared, The world’s most creative minds are “dissolving boundaries and brokering a dialogue between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.” Technology has changed the meaning of conversation. Innovation is progressing at a rapid pace resulting in social concern and a need for evaluation. How do we move forward in the social era? Who is finding success and who is neglected? How will innovation play a role moving forward? Join a limited audience of 220 passionate influencers, entrepreneurs, creatives, and non-profit executives for a one day conversation on the value of Social Innovation."

The location of Social Innovation is such a beautiful piece of architecture and a central figure in midtown Atlanta, so I decided to design the event graphics around it, abstractly and literally - abstractly by using a blend of modern typography (strong, clean, bold headline text) meeting traditional typography (classical Garamond Pro), which is both a great description of the High (a blend of modern and traditional art)  as well as a representation of the display of innovation (the juxtaposition of old and new); further, the High is designed by strong clean lines, the outside surface of which is almost grid-like, so I placed a light grid behind all of the pieces designed for the event. In a literal sense, the building's architecture was displayed across the materials by a series of photographs I took of the exterior one afternoon.

I wanted to carry the larger circles (being shapes representative of community or gathering) of the previous Plywood Presents across to Social Innovation in a new way and created a color scheme that would correspond to a series of ten smaller circles, each then corresponding further to one of the presenters / tracks of thought to be presented at the event. For some of the materials (as shown in the lock-up), these were displayed in a straight line; for some, the colors were stacked into two lines; and for some materials, the circles were arrayed around one another, forming a larger unit.

Advertisement posters were created for seven event sponsors to be mounted on sheets of plywood and displayed on easels at the back of the auditorium. The posters took QR code links to the sponsors sites and treated them in one of the colors from the event color scheme; the QR codes were then aligned to the thin gridline on all of the event materials - a perfect complement to the blocky graphics.