HOW Design Live mainstay speaker Alex Center presented us with a problem.
He and his team had created three new identity options for HOW 2024 … and all of them were fantastic.
In the end, though, one truly stole our hearts by honoring HOW’s past while forging ahead into its future:
What’s going on in the work? As with most identities, more than first meets the eye.
As team CENTER put it during their presentation, our annual event is a cornerstone of the creative community—so “HOW” is an anchor within the new system. Starting with the DNA of our longstanding type-driven logo, CENTER fashioned the larger identity into a frame for the most critical element of the whole event.
“As much as it is about creativity, HOW, for me, is about the people and the community,” Alex Center says. As he and his team discussed the logo, they began to look at it through the lens of a town square where people gather. “We wanted to lean into that idea and that motif, and organize things around that center.”
In the future you’ll find that frame showcasing our attendees, our amazing speakers, Denver (where the show will kick off on Sept. 23!), and all ground in between
Moreover, this is not a static identity that we’ll dispose of at the end of the year. It’s flexible, modular, and built to last, with its colors, icons and the content within that frame changing based upon each HOW location moving forward. You’ll always see our signature HOW Red on site—but this year it will be accented by Alpine Glow Pink, Ponderosa Pine and Rocky Mountain Granite, colors that pay homage to Denver. As for that icon in the bottom right, here it nods at the mountains—but it too will evolve with every installment of HOW. (We wish we could reveal the location of HOW 2025 early just to give you a sneak peek of how that Paul Randian geometry takes shape next year!)
Ultimately, as conference director Amy Conover put it, “This feels both familiar and surprising in the best of ways, and really captures the excitement and energy we have for this year’s show. It puts the spotlight on what you’ll find at the conference itself: brilliant and thoughtful designers, and design work that feels like the future.”
We’d be remiss if we didn’t add that this is all just the tip of the iceberg mountain. Alex Center’s team developed an array of fresh and fun applications for the show itself, and we can’t wait for you to experience them off screen in the fall.
Don’t miss out on all the other ways we’re redesigning and redefining HOW this year. Be a part of it all. Register today!