Designing the Kingdom Business Conference Brochure

I was asked to design a brochure for a conference on December, the Kingdom Business Conference. By the way let me plug it in here: I'd like to invite you to this conference on December 11, 2008, 1pm to 6pm at the PICC Meeting Room 4. This year's theme is "Soaring in the Business World" and basically this is a conference for entrepreneurs and professionals, or anyone who desire to become positive influencers in the business arena. The conference will feature 3 speakers who will speak on both spiritual and practical advices on soaring in the business world as the theme suggests. The speakers are Leif Hetland, Dick Hochreiter, and Larry Ihle, all of which have spoken in business conferences and have Christian marketplace ministries in the United States. Session Topics are entitled: "Becoming an Eagle in the Business World", "Stop Struggling, Start Soaring", and "Tapping into the Supernatural". If these topics interests you, contact me and I'll send you the registration form. The registration fee is now P1,500 (P2000). For more info on the event, please visit this link: Kingdom Business Conference

I'd like to share here some thoughts that I had in the process of designing the brochure.

Elements Selection
Everything has to start with the theme. The brochure design must emerge from the theme. I used images associated with the words on the theme statement. The word Soaring are associated with birds, eagles, flight, sky, clouds. Business World connotes money, firms, industries, technology, buildings and cities. I chose bold techno and sans serif fonts because they best represent the modern world rather than Times New Roman and other serif fonts which tend to exude elegance and a feeling of conservative bureaucracy.

Front and Back Cover


Inner Spread


Concept and Conveyance
Words are not just the only things that speak in a design material. Every element speaks: The images, the fonts, the colors, the backdrop. But then there has to be a concept to unify them. The drama we chose for this brochure can be summarized in the subtext at the front page which says "In a time of uncertainty and economic upheaval, we need wisdom to rise strong above the storms...". This is the reason why the outer front and back cover page are dark because I thought of storms and turmoil. Then I thought of soaring, which gives an impression of enlightenment, encouragement resulting to inner pages with clouds, an eagle and a lighter color scheme. I usually design with one main color for a whole material, but this time I wanted it unique. I wanted to play with sharp contrasts. The impression I wanted to convey was that when the readers look at the outer cover they will feel the problem in the business world at hand, but when they open the brochure they will encounter a totally different and lighter page causing them to feel hope and encouragement. The dark cityscape represents the business world and the economic problem while the eagle and blue clouds represent the soaring part (by the way, the eagle is the only bird who can rise above the storms and soar). The yellow boxes were also intentional to further lighten the mood.

Positioning of Elements
I found out that the theme still dictate the positioning of elements. Notice the yellow bird shape at the front page. I tried placing it nearest the top-right part of the headline. Then I tried placing it at the top rightmost part of the brochure farthest the headline. The latter option was better since separating the bird from the headline helped amplify that sense of "Soaring". Notice also the eagle in the inner page. I first tried placing it below the Program Box. But then it made me feel that the eagle was struggling and not soaring. When I tried placing it on the upper portion, and the Program Box at the lower portion, it emphasized the soaring eagle and made it the focus of the page spread.

Actual Brochure Print




Screen and Print Output Differences
When the brochure came out from the printing press already mass-produced, I didn't like the output because the inner page was darker than I expected it to be. It was supposed to be bright. I guess next time, I should choose colors brighter than I wanted it to be. And next time I should also be present at the print shop when they release the test print. I was in Davao when they produced the test print. If I did, I would have had the chance to modify it before the final release.

Overall it has been a fruitful and fun design exercise for me. It is rewarding to engage with new design ideas in the mind.