A full brand experience for Ethyca at IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2026: a "classified systems" visual language designed across every physical and digital touchpoint of a two-day takeover, just minutes from the conference.

Role Design lead. Working with Ethyca's marketing lead and CEO on strategy and concept, I translated the direction into a complete brand experience, designing and art-directing every touchpoint from environmental signage to swag to digital, and managing production across multiple vendors.

The Idea Most companies show up to IAPP with a booth: expensive, generic, forgotten the moment you walk past. We had a different idea. We branded a coffee house four minutes from the venue and turned it into Ethyca House. The same budget bought a fully branded, two-day space with coffee, breakfast, happy hour, a 6am Run Club, and closed roundtables with the industry leaders. It gave the attendees a reason to come to us.

The Concept: Classified Systems Privacy lives in a world of restricted access: briefings, classified documents, controlled information. The visual language borrowed from exactly that, using framing devices, redaction-style hierarchy, and deliberate reduction. Clarity over persuasion. On the event full of noise, the quietest materials stood out. And if a piece felt like it wasn't meant for you, that was intentional.

One System, Every Surface One idea had to hold from a 2-inch sticker to a six-foot A-frame, from a social ad to a coffee cup. I built this campaign as a flexible system spanning every touchpoint: A-frames, roll-ups, banners, table tents, cups, napkins, pastry bags, hats, Rubik's cubes, lanyard and speaker cards, plus the digital newsletter, social ads, and roundtable announcements.

Details That Worked Near the venue we handed out cookie bags reading "The cookie is on us. The coffee is waiting. Ethyca House is around the corner.", each paired with a map to the four-minute walk. And the swag was conceptualized, not ordered: Run Club hats people actually wore, and Rubik's cubes as a quiet metaphor for Ethyca making a genuinely complex problem solvable.

Made Under Pressure Two days, a fixed budget, multiple vendors, a date that didn't move. The hardest part was keeping the reduction clear, since minimal layouts leave no room for error in hierarchy or print. Every piece had to be flawless in production and legible at a glance.

Ethyca House worked because it didn't look like a campaign. Beyond the numbers, attendees stopped to look, came in for their own meetings, and stayed for Run Club, the roundtables, and happy hour. In a venue built for booths, the brand stood out by refusing to be one.