Event Identity for Chicago Architecture and Design College Day

branding

logo development

graphic design

The Chicago Architecture and Design College Day is an annual event organized by AIA Chicago, bringing together high school and undergraduate students to explore degree programs across architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, urban planning, and construction management.

AIA Chicago partnered with View to create a refreshed, student-friendly event identity. The goal was to establish a brand system that celebrates Chicago architecture and design education, aligning seamlessly with AIA Chicago’s parent organization identity while standing on its own as an engaging, approachable visual language. The system needed to be lightweight and flexible enough to adapt year-over-year and appeal to high school and college audiences looking to enter architecture and design programs.

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The Process

Initial Moodboard Designs

We met with AIA Chicago to get an initial understanding of their needs for the Chicago Architecture and Design College Day rebrand. They wanted something modern and fresh to capture the attention of Chicago’s future architects and designers. Our team drew inspiration from their boards and came up with a vibrant design, featuring the bold colors that AIA Chicago wanted to see and merging together elements from their own branding to make this a cohesive and complementary brand system.

Brand Guidelines & Core Logo Lockup

From the final moodboard, we established a simple but comprehensive brand guide defining the brand colors, fonts, and logo usage across light, ocean, and dark background variations. The system prominently features the core Chicago architecture and design event logo paired with precise color values and font types to ensure cross-platform consistency.

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Physical Pop-Up & Welcome Displays

To support this year’s event we produced production-ready physical signage, including high-impact vertical pop-up welcome banners to navigate attendees at the event venue.

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Educational Pathway Infographic Redesign

One of AIA Chicago’s asks was to create a branded infographic that they could use to show students how they could travel through their architecture journey. We designed the multi-year degree pathway flowchart into a clear, visually digestible banner that carried their vibrant branding through. The layout uses color-coded vertical tracks to clearly differentiate between architecture-specific education and non-architecture coursework across 5-year, 4+2, and 3+ graduate programs.

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Digital & Web Touchpoints

We created standardized website header banners featuring dynamic collage framing, curved text badges, and gradient background overlays to maintain brand cohesion across digital pages.

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The Results

Delivered as a complete, highly adaptable system, the new identity gives AIA Chicago a powerful asset for inspiring the next generation of creative talent. The vibrant, eye-catching visual toolkit bridges the gap between professional industry standards and approachable student outreach—establishing an energetic, evergreen foundation built to empower young creative leaders as they take the next steps into their new design chapters, year after year.

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