Led the brand identity and content strategy for Philadelphia Model United Nations 2026, a 4-day conference centered on the Asia-Pacific region through the lens of the dual nature of progress, specifically the tension between rapid modern advancement and tradition. As Director of Administration, I translated this theme into a cohesive visual system spanning print, digital, and physical installations while managing end-to-end logistics for a multi-person design team.
The Challenge: How do you visually capture a region balancing ancient civilization with rapid economic expansion without resorting to stereotypes? The 2026 theme tasked delegates with exploring how the UN supports both sovereignty and progress across an Asia-Pacific rich in cultural nations that far outnumber its political states.
Goal: Build a scalable identity, including color palette, typography, logo design, and a component system for over 10 committees, that could hold up across conference packets, staff merch, delegate badges, social media, posters, and video. The system clearly expressed the concept of "tradition balancing with progress" rather than falling back on generic diplomacy branding.
Color and typography were grounded in the immense diversity of the Asia-Pacific. The challenge was building a central palette that reflected the region's vast spectrum of cultures, landscapes, and histories while maintaining the structure needed for a multi-day diplomatic event. I explored two distinct directions before settling on the core palette that anchored the entire visual system, as shown in the team comps below.
I supervised the logo design process itself, including running it through beige and green colorways to test which held up best across dark staff merch and digital assets before it was finalized as the conference's core mark.
Committee Posters: Each committee needed a poster that felt like part of one family while still signaling their own topic issues, placed outside committee rooms as wayfinding and atmosphere.
Lobby Installation: The theme's physical anchor was a large stacked tri-fold map of the Asia-Pacific built for the conference lobby. It displayed region-specific voting scenarios tied to the theme, updated daily throughout the conference so delegates could interact with the material outside committee sessions.
Pre-conference, I supervised social promo material, including director highlight graphics, subteam graphics, and Instagram reels, alongside a theme infographic series breaking down the Asia-Pacific brief for delegates. I also produced the opening ceremony video and managed the photography covering staff and director content.
During the 4-day conference, the team posted daily Instagram story highlights and a recap graphic each evening, alongside managing live photography and updating the lobby voting scenarios. I closed the event with a highlight-reel closing ceremony video recapping the conference for delegates.
