Can aesthetics uplift the energy around such a heavy topic as migration?
▉visual identity + creative direction ▉2024 ▉dwebcamp.org
DWeb Camp is a five-day retreat in the Redwoods where builders collaborate on creating a better, decentralized web. The 2024 theme 'Migration: Moving Together' united 500 protocol builders to explore how decentralized tech can address global challenges around migration for nations and communities worldwide.
As Creative Director at DWeb Camp, my task was to create a new visual language that would reshape the migration narrative. Instead of focusing on the painful reasons people migrate — wars, environmental degradation, corporate land grabs, and political forces — we needed a visual language that spoke of empowerment and possibility.
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logo evolution
Our logo has always had a special dual nature - combining a compass and a plant into one design. For three years, we kept both elements since everyone felt strongly about the original concept. But having two main elements was affecting the visual narrative consistency and often left people wondering which version was actually our main logo.
The perfect opportunity to simplify the brand system came when we chose this year's theme “Migration: Moving Together.” This new direction allowed us to retire the plant concept and focus on the compass. We created several versions of the compass logo, from simple to detailed, so we'd have the right fit for different uses.
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We kept the arrow as a layout functional element from previous years. With the clarified logo narrative, it became visually readable that the arrow is a part of the logo system. We also increased the modularity of the layouts that brought variety to our to our marketing communication, and at the same time, signigficantly sped up the design process:
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new visual heart and design foundation
Two main challenges for me in this project were:
1. How can we weave the beauty of new tech and the real-life aspects of migration in one simple visual concept that will attract more developers?
2. How can we manifest hope and energy through the new visual identity and prevent the negative migration-related associations from dominating the event vibe?
In previous years, we had an even split between developers and non-developers. This year, we wanted to attract more coders. So, our visual language needed to speak to them first, but without falling into the typical crypto or cyberpunk aesthetic.
Being a big fan of ASCII art, I couldn't resist including it as one of the concept proposals for DWeb Camp 2024's main visual theme, alongside other less technical options. The org team loved it from the first presentation, and thus, ASCII art became our visual heart for 2024.
My first challenge with having such a heavy topic as migration as an event theme was: How to maintain an optimistic and hopeful vibe in the promotional materials?
Our tradition of having a new color palette every year gave me our first opportunity to inject positive energy. To brighten up our visual language, we chose the colors of flame and summer - orange and yellow.
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To keep this uplifting feel in our imagery, I increased the temperature in our promotional photos and added light leak effects inspired by analog photography.
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Like previous years, we kept our connection to the DWeb network by using the same brand fonts for the camp.
But this year, I tweaked the heading typeface to feel visually softer. This softness let us use Poppins in all caps to create a sense of urgency — like important issues being voiced loud and clear, — without appearing authoritative or exclusive.
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communication
and promo
To understand how much design we need and when every brand touchpoint should be delivered, I facilitated an attendee journey mapping workshop. We mapped out the full attendee experience — from when people first hear about the camp, through their decision to join, the signup process, the preparation phase, the actual event, and staying connected afterward.
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swag
We create different swag items each year since we have many returning attendees. Our choices usually connect with either the weather (like beanies in 2023 when we camped during California's "winter" in June) or the camp setting (like seat-pads in 2022 for our first year at Camp Navarro).
We're also serious about our no-waste policy at camp. That's why we chose camp mugs as one of this year's items, featuring the heart of the camp experience — the campfire.
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everyone's favourite place on the campsite
To tie in with our migration theme, we designed a stamp-style sticker sheet showing the theme, camping icons from the event map, and highlights from our content tracks.
Moving the migration theme further, we also created the Migration Station — a special pop-up space to archive migration memories and host spontaneous workshops. The Zero-knowledge Audiovisual Club team recorded attendees' migration stories there and saved them in the Time Capsule. Everyone got their own orange DVD copy of their recording to take home, while all memories were archived together on a black master-DVD.
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wayfinding
and signage
The LEGO-like wayfinding system and map we created in 2022 had worked perfectly for two years straight, so we kept it going, just refreshed in our new colors:
I did sneak in one devil-in-details change in the map — replacing Activity Space pictograms with ASCII art.
Returning attendees who spotted these tiny tweaks were delighted by the discovery. And really, that's what makes small details worth it — seeing attendees' faces light up when they notice them.
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credits
Every DWeb Camp is born from the dedication and passion of many people. A few of us meet online every Tuesday throughout the year and gather in-person for the camp planning week 6 months before the camp every year. People call us the Core Team:
Wendy Hanamura — Event Producer
Kevin Nguyen — Associate Producer
Mai Ishikawa Sutton — Senior Organiser
Ese Ojo — DWeb Projects Coordinator
Arkadiy Kukarkin — Technical Director
Ian Davis — Senior Organiser & MC
ngọc triệu — Fellowship Director
Andi Wong — Art and Family Coordinator
Boris Mann — Emergent Day Coordinator
yours truly — Creative Director
next project ↓
ⓒ 2025