CRAFTING CONNECTIONS
MIRON SUMMIT 2024
MIRON SUMMIT 2024
Every year Miron Construction invites hundreds of employees together for the annual Summit, and the branding changes to match the theme. This year would be a bit different for our Summit. Instead of inviting field and office personnel, this would be field-focused. This way content could be more pointed and hopefully our Superintendents could learn even more relevant information. Along with the shifting audience, the team had some ideas on presentation topics but waited to dive in until the summit theme was decided. They knew they wanted it to be people-oriented. Relationships have always been important to Miron so that was one direction they knew they could take.
When the Marketing Department was brought in to come up with ideas, we realistically had only one and it was my own suggestion. I thought "Crafting Connections" would be the perfect play on words to emphasize the audience's craft and the art of building not just their project but those relationships along the way. We could highlight connections to one-another, connections to the community, connections to the journey, and connections throughout the process.
THE LOGO
As always when making a logo, I started by just playing around with shapes and different fonts. Immediately, the hexagon felt appropriately appealing, as it traditionally symbolizes connection with honeycombs and other applications. I also knew it was used in things like wrenches, which I started to experiment with as well. Before even finishing the logo off, I started experimenting with the motion graphics, as this would be a large part of how people would even view the branding. I went to work on some style frames, and that was about when I created the connector, almost in its final version. I took the connector into After Effects and created a sort of mesmerizing loop, which I then made into a pattern. It felt like gears of an engine coming to life, and that's when I knew I had something. I abandoned those early style frames and went head-first into this newer direction. I swapped out one of the hexagons in the early connector for a plus-sign and that completed the look.
THE SPEAKER INTROS
At the same time I proposed the logo, I had a demo of a possible speaker intro ready as well. I used the connector piece to reveal speaker photos and a hexagonal reveal to show b-roll of them in-motion. I really played up the engine feel with some foreground elements drifting into frame as well. These initial ideas would serve as the blueprint for all the rest of the motion graphics throughout the show.
Once things were approved, I set to making different versions of the speaker intros. It would have to be flexible enough for a single speaker, three, four, or even NINE! I used match cuts throughout to make things easier to mix and match as well.
THE POWERPOINT TEMPLATES
The largest need for Summit every year is the PowerPoint template. This would carry the brand across hundreds of slides, and the deck needed to be easy to use, visually appealing, and most of all fit the usage I knew we would get, like the traditional plethora of bullet points across from a photo or two. looked over the last few years and mimicked the type of slides we would need, then created many many variations. I needed some with 1 photo, 2 photos, 3 photos... I also made a custom hexagon bullet point as well. I'm personally not a fan of using a bullet point at all, but I knew we couldn't get away from it, so it may as well be an additional brand touch-point.
THE FONT
On top of all this, I made a custom version of the logo font for usage across the template and other graphics. These included some of my hexagon cutouts on the C and the G as well as some smaller flourishes. This font was then packaged with the template to ensure all our speakers and coordinators could utilize it.
THE MOTION GRAPHICS
With the visual look of Crafting Connections solidified, I set to work with some other motion graphics and videos. One thing we'd be utilizing quite a bit throughout the show would be a Year in Review video, which is a souped up slideshow of photos and video from our projects, finished and in-progress, through 2023. This would be played the hour pre-show, during breaks, and even on monitors through the hallways.
I created four variations using similar match cuts and movement as the speaker intros and paired that with four different motion graphics templates. I would utilize some of these MOGRTs with pieces of the Year in Review, and my colleagues would also use in on a Kickoff video. This was my first time working with creating MOGRTs, and I learned a bit along the way. The Year in Review ended up ten minutes long, but a snippet can be seen above.
I created four variations using similar match cuts and movement as the speaker intros and paired that with four different motion graphics templates. I would utilize some of these MOGRTs with pieces of the Year in Review, and my colleagues would also use in on a Kickoff video. This was my first time working with creating MOGRTs, and I learned a bit along the way. The Year in Review ended up ten minutes long, but a snippet can be seen above.
THE COUNTDOWN
I also wanted to spice up the countdown a bit to hype up the show and lead into our kickoff video, so I created a custom final 60 seconds featuring hexagonal reveals of footage from throughout the year. Many of these were shots I took myself out in the field as well.
THE NOTEBOOK
Every year we traditionally hand out a notebook for attendees to take notes during the event, and I always try to push the theme and look to new ground whenever I can. This year I brought the connector pattern across the entire cover. Originally, these were to be debossed, but a bit of a happy accident gave us silver foil instead. We rolled with the change and ended up with something that truly stunned the audience. I also created two different versions, a red and a blue, so the table placement could look even more amazing.
THE CONCLUSION
In the end, the branding stunned our attendees. It always feels great seeing the reactions and hearing feedback, especially if you get to witness things yourself on giant screens and massive backdrops. The theme resonated so much I already have a request to retrofit the PowerPoint template for another program for use throughout the year. We also ordered another version of a similar notebook, using the connector pieces and logos, for a different event as well. The motion graphics made people feel like they were at a massive sporting event or something similar, and they definitely made the speakers feel as important as they actually are. A well done brand at an event like this persuades the audience to take things seriously and really put in their own effort, and I think we succeeded there.
I also loved seeing my branding utilized by others. Supplemental signage, a kickoff video, handouts, and the presentations themselves were all put together by colleagues using my bits and pieces. I think when others can take your brand and not only understand it but build on it themselves, then it's a success.
