Bees, bags and branding – designing for a conference

What was the problem?

Every year the organisation Soroptimist International of Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI) holds an annual conference hosted in a different area of the Federation. In 2010 the Conference venue was Manchester and I was asked to create a logo and design the advertising and promotional items for this conference. This included a wide range of products include branded bags, notepads and lip salve, programmes and menus and the stewards’ scarves. Each conference has its own distinct identity. As the president of the SIGBI was a bee keeper and the emblem of Manchester was a bee she suggested that a bee should be incorporated with the Soroptimist logo into the conference logo.

How did I solve this problem?

The first step was to produce the logo. The main problem was that Soroptimist International has a logo designed in 1921 in the USA. Soroptimist International of the Americas no longer uses this logo, but it is used in the rest of the world. At the time I was asked to design this logo the International committee had asked for the logo to be redesigned to get a logo that everybody agreed.  This was to be unveiled at the International conference.  On the other hand this did give me a degree of freedom to experiment more widely.

I presented three different designs to the committee: one 1920s design based on the Soroptimist logo, which the President liked so much that she has framed on her wall at home; one based on the wording Manchester 2010 with the logo and the bee incorporated in the zeros of 2010; and the one which was chosen by the committee, which at that time did not incorporate the Soroptimist logo. I was asked to add that at a later date.   All three designs were well received, but the final design was chosen as it was the most modern and thought to be the most useful.

The resulting logo was kept simple and included the Soroptimist logo and a bee as requested as well as the conference slogan “Accept the Challenge, Secure the Future”. This logo was used on the advertising materials, stationary, conference bag and goodies as well as on a scarf to identify the stewards. I also produced a menu for the gala dinner with the bee emblem.

What happened next?

Over 1400 delegates signed up for the conference from 20 countries at an economically difficult time and the conference easily covered its costs. This is a not for profit organisation so the ideal is to cover costs, but not make much profit.

I’m delighted to say there were lots of compliments, right from the first leaflet, from members at all levels of the organisation. I ended up as a member of the conference committee, increasing my project management skills and liaising with one of the top audio-visual companies in the UK and am currently working on the 2014 conference.