Facebook Africa new market launch
This is a project I was involved in during my time working as a Marketing Communication Designer within EMEA at Facebook.
I was extremely lucky to get involved in what can only be described as a game changer and a redefining moment in the history of Facebook globally. This included developing branding and collateral to launch the new Facebook Africa office in Johannesburg, and announcing the arrival of Facebook as a major player in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This was an amazing opportunity to bring the Facebook brand to life in Africa for the first time. We did this by avoiding stereotypical African visuals, and instead focusing on a local, modern and authentic vibe that feels true to the region while remaining in line with the core Facebook look and feel. The design is inspired by African clothes pattern, and plays with warm and earthy African colors based on the Facebook for Business color palette that Facebook had at that time.
The decision process was complex. Three potential concept designs were developed initially (developed into seven artworks later on), with the final decision involving colleagues who knew the market or were based in Africa who gave us a more critical point of view and pointed out potential stereotypes.
The chosen design concept uses a flexible geometric grid to ensure design adaptability in any venue space (we worked with a very tight deadline and had no idea of how the venue space looked until the very end). I personally took care of the art direction and the design, and I worked very closely but remotely with a new 3rd party event organiser team based in South Africa to produce all the designs and concepts of this project. Also, in order to add a bit of dynamism to the space, I collaborated with a fellow in-house designer to create some animations for the different screens.
The scale of the Africa Launch graphic design role included 10x Facebook Events over 3 days (reaching over 700 leading influencers from across Africa), design planning of 6 venues, over 100 different mock-ups and 140+ final artworks (branding, stationery, wayfinding, multiple venue setup and collateral material).
The announcement of a Facebook sales office in South Africa prior to the events we organized made significant international headlines (over 1000 articles) across major international business outlets. Having the opportunity to lead such a big moment for Facebook as a company made me personally feel very proud as it is not every day that Facebook gets to launch itself in a new continent!
