For the second year in a row, creative studio Thornberg & Forester was asked by the people behind the innovative Gel Conference to help them brand their exciting two-day event. In an effort to raise enthusiasm for the agenda, strengthen the Gel brand identity and drive attendance to the conference offerings, T&F concepted and created a branded video series that navigates attendees through the exciting dayparts, as well as collateral for the event from tee shirts to customized attendee name/game badges. The physical stage design was also concepted and produced by the team.
Gel (Good Experience Live) is an annual event that takes place in New York City and features the world s top creative leaders and a wide range of enriching off-site experiences. Always excited to receive a brief from a creative organization as original as Gel, T&F was able to raise the creative bar with this immersive campaign. According to T&F Principal and Director Justin Meredith, the team ultimately decided to "celebrate this year's theme of 'Breaking the Barrier' by juxtaposing real world, NY-inspired situations with our authentically creative 'Gel treatment' precedent from last year."
The overall event now includes post-conference activities on Saturday morning as well. T&F Principal, Elizabeth Kiehner hosted a tour of Chelsea area galleries and The Highline. 'Breaking the Barrier' was a wonderful conceit to work with and we were thrilled to see this play out on stage as well as within our physical set, said Kiehner. "Gel is helping to redefine the conference category and our team excels at creating and supporting active and engaging experiences.
"Our idea for stage design this year was to flank both sides of the hero screen with 3 to 8-foot practical cityscape elements such as the NYC skyline, rows of historic brownstones, light posts, a freestanding mailbox and, of course, a fire hydrant," added Scott Matz, T&F Principal and Director. "Seeing the actual Gel speakers walk through the set design became an extension of our juxtaposed real/Gel-world prevalent in our films."
"Thornberg & Forester did brilliant work for Gel 2011," said Gel founder Mark Hurst. "The animations, stage design and badges worked together to fully express the theme of 'Breaking the Barrier' and demonstrated a deep well of talent and execution."
T&F enjoyed the challenge of creating a unified system that captured the lively, yet unpredictable, spirit of Gel 2011. Gel is essentially a community that promotes good experiences in all of its forms art, business, technology, society and life and Thornberg & Forester is the perfect company to harness those varied experiences into a strategically-targeted, inspired and memorable event experience.