Hows & Whys of Intuitive Design For Event Branding with Teagan Shurtleff

Teagan Shurtleff is an events manager at ClickUp. At our 2022 Conference she spoke about why you should build an intuitive design into your event branding. 

In the literal definition of the word intuitive, it is software that is easy to use and understand. According to Teagan, with intuitive design, when an attendee sees it, they know exactly what to do.

Usually invisible, it tunes into attendees' thought processes, ensuring they know where they need to go and can focus on a task at hand without stopping. Overall intuitive design focus on experience, which is what event managers want. 

Marrying Intuitive Design Into Events?

One brilliant application of intuitive design was during the Mexico Olympics in 1968. After Lance Wyman and Peter Murdoch won a logo design competition, they set out to brand the event in a way that made the Mexico Olympic competition experience more enjoyable, especially for non-locals who didn't speak the language. Wyan's created color-coded icons to represent every sporting event, which at that time was iconic compared to previous Olympics art, and it worked out so well.

How to Apply Wyan's Strategy to Our Events Today 

• As you're building out your event brand guidelines, define your various attendee groups and activities 
• Assign a color scheme, icon, pattern to each grouping (people with different personas)

For instance, at LevelUp, ClickUp assigns unique colors to the different tracks and activities available. This is evident across every stage of the event as follows.

"Our minds are naturally programmed to navigate colors and designs they recognize, so by the time attendees get to the event, they start to follow intuitively." – Teagan Shurtleff

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Pre-Event

They use this branding as soon as promotion starts on;

• Event landing pages
• Pre-event emails
• On the agenda

Since our minds are naturally programmed to navigate colors and designs they recognize, once the attendees get to the event, they start to follow intuitively.

At Event 

During the event, you can apply this on;

• Badges, lanyards and wristbands
• Attendee maps + guides
• Signage
• Stage branding
• Slide decks 

Hybrid/Virtual Events

You can also apply this strategy virtually, e.g.,

• In your virtual platform 
• Backdrop for the speaker frame
• Zoom backgrounds
• Lower thirds

Key Takeaways

• Intuitive design means that when an attendee sees it, they know exactly what to do 
• Overall intuitive design focus on experience, which is what event managers want
• As you build your event brand guidelines, define your various attendees' groups and activities
• You should build colors and graphics into your event brand guidelines that your audience can recognize to help navigate and engage with your event

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