The Illuminate Conference at UCLA was the first-ever Student Affairs professional development conference of its kind — an inaugural internal event for 500+ Student Affairs staff, with a long-term vision to eventually expand to Student Affairs professionals across California. As a member of the founding planning committee, I led all creative and brand development, building the conference identity from scratch and producing every designed touchpoint attendees encountered throughout the day.
The brand needed to feel distinct from UCLA’s standard institutional identity while staying within the brand family — energetic and modern, built around a lightbulb icon system and bold graphic elements that could flex across print, digital, apparel, and environmental applications.
Starting nearly a year out, I developed a full brand positioning document and visual identity — logo, color palette, icon set, graphic elements, and usage guidelines — then packaged everything into a brand guide that department partners could use independently to produce their own materials.
From there I translated the identity across every conference touchpoint: a digital program and venue map published on the internal staff website, a standardized presentation template used in all sessions, tote bags and step-and-repeat backdrops for the selfie station, a selfie frame, and room signage throughout all three venues. I also produced a sponsorship deck (the sponsorship track was ultimately not pursued). Each deliverable had to work cohesively without me being in the room — so the system had to be airtight.
Branded tote bags designed and produced for all 500+ attendees.
Standardized presentation template used across all conference sessions — designed to flex across speaker content while maintaining brand cohesion throughout the day.
