Accel Connect
One wordmark, forty years, every touchpoint.
A design system for Accel Connect, Accel’s flagship community event marking 40 years of the firm, built to hold together across stage, street and screen.
Overview
Accel Connect is the firm’s flagship gathering for its community of founders, and this edition marked 40 years since Accel was founded. The event needed a system that could read as both a milestone and an invitation to what’s next.
Challenge
Build a design system flexible enough to run across a full event footprint (stage backdrops, OOH, delegate merch, apparel and the event microsite) while staying unmistakably one identity wherever it landed.
What I did
- 01Identity & logotype system
- 02Key visual direction
- 03Colour system
- 04Environmental design (stage, OOH)
- 05Merch & apparel application
- 06Digital application
Approach
The wordmark carries a single looping wave, a signal, a connection, running through the word “connect” itself. That wave becomes the system’s one recurring device, shown in a rotating colour system (from a single vivid gradient to flat brand colour) so it can flex from a 3-metre stage screen down to an embroidered chest logo without ever losing its identity. A retro-futurist key visual, equal parts nostalgia and looking-ahead, sets the tone: relaxed, confident, unmistakably about tomorrow.
The system
- Wordmark & Wave Device
- Colour Lockup System
- Key Visual Language
- OOH Templates
- Merch & Apparel Guidelines
Design development
It’s been 40 long years,
but we’ve only just begun.
In this incessant journey towards
pioneering, inspiring and exploring,
every day, to us, is day one.
First partner to future.
Execution
Impact
- 01One wordmark and one wave device, carried consistently across a full event footprint (stage, OOH, merch, apparel and digital) for a 40th-anniversary milestone.
A milestone year needs a system, not just a moment: something that still feels like one brand whether it’s on a stage screen or a delegate’s water bottle.
