Amplify

Year: 2026
Role: Art Direction, Motion Design, Look Development

Dave & Buster's came to us to create a one-off brand experience for their upcoming Annual Operation's Leadership Conference (AOLC). The event is held in different locations every year and D&B's loves to incorporate location flare into the conference branding. 2026 was held in Nashville, TN, and what better way to call upon the city's storied music scene than referencing the legendary poster shop: Hatch Show Print.

Given the reference material, we found it best to begin the visual identity process by creating a series of posters that D&B's could use to announce their annual conference to attendees. Upon hearing the name of this year's AOLC, Amplify, I wanted to create a nod to Fender's iconic amps and create a logo that would sit upon the namesake item. I combined hand-drawn vectors of different music instruments/tools with a color palette derived from the D&B main branding. Stacking different colors, artwork, and textures on top of each other in Adobe Illustrator, I played with opacity and the bleeding of hues to create a faux letterpress print effect. The posters are slightly worn and have an imperfect quality to them, a reminder that no two posters will ever turn out quite the same using the letterpress technique. Once the posters were approved, we moved on to building out the rest of the show assets.

I collaborated with our Art Director on the account to ensure consistency in look and feel across presentation, print, signage, and experiential elements of the show. Meanwhile, I also began building out the motion package for this account. Smaller than other shows I have worked on, my primary deliverables included a walk-in loop that would play before and after General Session a logo reveal and hold, and a couple of transitions to take us in and out of video or presentation looks on-screen. Working in a 3:1 format, the final deliverables were a mix of Motion Graphics and Cel animation that utilize a posterized time effect to create the appearance of fewer keyframes that fits the grungier, printed aesthetic of the graphics.

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