Web Design / Harvardx.design

HarvardxDesign

Website and branding design for an interdisciplinary design conference

Challenge

Every spring, students from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and Harvard Business School present an interdisciplinary conference covering topics about the impact of design, framed as “___ x Design” (such as “power by design”). By promoting a culture of collaboration, the conferences strive to share experiences across disciplines, explore pressing global issues, and empower students to become change agents through design.

Outcome

Usually hosted on Harvard’s campus, the pandemic has recently brought the conference to an online platform Run The World, bringing the conference’s scale to a global level while also increasing the importance of the conference’s digital identity. The themes for the conferences I designed were Influence x Design (2018), Social x Design (2019), Conflict x Design (2020), Reality x Design (2021), and Power x Design (2022).

Influence x Design (2018)

Influence conveyed the bright, bold nature of spheres of influence, radiating outwards.

Social x Design (2019)

Inspired by flocks and swarms, Social explores how groups come together and fall apart to form society.

Conflict x Design (2020)

The gestural, artistic brushwork of Conflict features a crisp logo of two halves of a square, exploring the tension of coming together and pulling apart.

Reality x Design (2021)

My most ambitious design and the first for an internet-first conference, Reality explores the total flattening of lived experiences as seen from the screen. Inspired by Dada and vintage images of old technologies, this design uses parallax and lots of CSS grids.

Power x Design

To me, hands are the clearest vessels of human power. They reach to out to others, form fists, and express love. These illustrations were inspired by greek pottery designs to convey a sophisticated, distinctive style.

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