Google NBU – Presentation/Event Design
Project developed and executed as a Senior Designer at Modicum.
Roles: Design Lead, Content Management, QA
Project Background
The next billion users coming online will be diverse in every respect: By bringing local communities together, Google wanted to speak to industry leaders, local businesses, educators, entertainers and the international press about their plan to bring high speed internet to developing countries.
An Origin Story
In December of 2015, I was part of a small team at Modicum who were given the opportunity to travel to New Delhi, India. Here we were tasked with designing the presentations for Google's first ever NBU event.
Jet lagged and adrenaline fueled, we got to work a few hours after our arrival. This was the teams first international show and we were about to find out just how demanding these events can be. New content, line-up changes, late nights in a foreign time zone and all the moving parts intrinsic with a large production made NBU a formidable challenge. Nevertheless we met every trial with laser sharp focus and as a result we found ourselves working directly with Google's top executives across multiple tracks, curtailing every design element to their needs and offering on demand support right up until showtime. The efforts made by both the onsite and home team landed Modicum a solid future with NBU and a leadership position for myself on the events that followed in Indonesia, Brazil, California and back again to India.
The Work
Designing for Google events always poses unique challenges. The environmental elements and screen arrangements are rarely standard and require extensive pre-planning, coordination and the creation of guidelines that compliment the event branding and still look great on screen.
I worked with our team along with the Google event/project managers and creative directors to develop the NBU templates. Creating image, font, color, animation and rule standards that became a staple for Google events. I was responsible for quality control and visual direction while on site and worked closely with our motion team, designing and directing event holding and title cards. Other responsibilities included the application and creative development of event branding into environmentals and collateral, delegating responsibilities to team members, client relations and occasionally some video and audio editing. Having a wide range of skills is necessary as work and conditions can change in an instant.
