Jacob Waites Visual & Interaction Designer

Jacob Waites is a Visual & Interaction designer specializing in brand design & experience. Living at the intersection between designer & developer, Jacob seeks to bridge the gap between digital and physical. Jacob co-founded Foremost, a creative collective working around the globe, and is currently working at IDEO CoLab. Jacob is also an avid instant photographer and a big fan of tacos.

Blueprint 2016 Event Branding

Blueprint is IDEO CoLab's annual member event. CoLab convene's industry leaders from around the world to see a glimpse of the future through prototypes that are on display made during the year, talks from leading experts in numerous research fields, and breakout work sessions during the day.

I led the blueprint brand team for 3 years from 2016 to 2018, creating themed event collateral and visual style guides for the CoLab so that the prototypes showcased would have a uniform presentation across the venue. All Blueprint events were forward looking, and based off of an inspiration word or term. 2016’s term was crosstalk, an electrical engineering phenomenon that occurs when two wires charged with electricity come close enough to one another to arc, creating a visible flash of light and energy. Crosstalk was used as a metaphor to describe CoLab’s unique membership model and sprint process: when putting this industry leaders, engineers, and designers into a single area, the opportunities for collaborative innovation are maximized.

Event video

The branding

The event branding focused on two spot colors to create a modern, saturated, high contrast space. I created custom illustrations for the event posters, along with takeaway cards for each prototype present at the event.

Event Branding Photos Event Branding Photos

A book to take away

Since this was the first year that blueprint ever happened, we commemorated the event with a 90 page book cataloguing what CoLab was, our approach, point of views on each portfolio area that we were researching, and case studies with members that happened during the year.

Blueprint Book Blueprint Book Blueprint Book Blueprint Book Blueprint Book Blueprint Book Blueprint Book

Posters

Portfolio area posters directed attendees to different sides of 3 large triangular areas housing prototypes.

Event Posters Event Posters Event Posters

Swag

Shirts & tote bags were created for the event as a takeaway in addition to the book.

Blueprint Totes Blueprint Nametags Blueprint Shirt

Installation

A cathode tube relay installation was installed at the front of the venue entrance as a welcoming experience. Switching relays looped a cross talk inspired pattern through the tubes.

Welcome Installation

Blueprint through the years

Blueprint evolved into an IDEO wide event in 2019, check out the branding for Blueprint 2017 and Blueprint 2018.