Sometimes you come up with an idea as a joke, a sort of acknowledgement of the absurdity of the brief. "Oh, they want us to use the polysyllabic whale 'Student-Centered Learning' in our event theme? Fine. How about 'Student-Centered Learning: The Musical'?" Everyone laughs and moves on to the real ideas. Then you pitch it as a palette cleanser joke and, next thing you know, you're figuring out how to make it work.

All design by the one and only Bren Postma.

We invented our version of Broken Social Scene, a ragtag bunch of all-stars, each tied to a different aspect of our educational strategist's philosophy on student-centered learning. They got names, backstories, heroes, quotes, press blurbs, larger-than-life posters, t-shirts. We spent an inordinate amount of time making sure every character's story was rooted in a principle (growth mindset, collaboration, problem-solving, authenticity, etc).

All attendees got backstage passes. Everyone's with the band at InstructureCon, man.

What's a band without a song? So we commissioned a favorite songwriter and studio to write/record the Student-Centered Learning theme song. Oh, and we made a video with a dancing CEO because why not?

Giant signage for our main session tent.

Stage design for our outdoor stage.