Women’s Foodservice Forum
Women's Foodservice Forum is a Dallas-based nonprofit whose mission is to advance women leaders. They hold annual events that organize and galvanize professionals at every level to push toward gender equity in the workplace.
My Role
Visual Designer
Brand application & environmental / event design
Style guides
Event collateral and large-format signage
High-fidelity designs and asset creation
Lindsay Hertz - Marketing Director
Anita Hunt - Marketing Manager
Ashley White - Marketing Manager
Team
During my time with WFF, I designed branding application and in-venue signage for two of their most significant events: the 2017 Executive Summit and the 2018 Annual Leadership Development Conference (ALDC). The Executive Summit is an intimate event (100 participants) open only to Vice President and above roles, focused on vision, strategy, and solutions for workplace gender equity. The ALDC is a four-day, all-levels conference in Dallas with sessions on leadership development, gender equity, and more.
The goal for both events was to refresh the prior year's branding into a more modern look. For the Executive Summit, I drew from the logo toward geometric shapes to add dimension to the 2D signage without overwhelming an executive audience or the venue. The ALDC carried a "Breakthrough" theme, breaking through the glass ceiling and shattering other barriers. (The event logos were created and approved before I joined; my role was brand application and environmental design.)
Goals
Challenges
The main challenge was designing for a venue outside Dallas that I could only see through photos and schematics. We ran many calls and requested reference photos of other event signage to visualize the space. The other constraint was a locked three-color palette- red, grey, and white- that had to feel refined: red used enough to stand out but not dominate, grey to balance without darkening the event, and white kept crisp and clean.
Executive Summit
The challenge was stretching a modest signage budget across the enormous Hilton Anatole so the brand still felt everywhere. With people arriving from all over, the visuals needed to wow alongside the workshops and sessions, so we had to decide where to concentrate signage for maximum effect.
Annual Leadership Development Conference
Solution
We let the event space shine and kept the design calm for an executive audience, meter boards, wall clings, and directional signage drawn from the logo's geometric shapes. Every touchpoint matched the branding, from the program to fountain pens, travel mugs, and leather-bound notebooks. The primary "wow factors" were large 4'×4' cubes featuring statistics and the event logo throughout the space. Signage and wayfinding were designed to ADA legibility and contrast standards so they stayed clear and readable throughout the venue.
Executive Summit
For the ALDC, I placed signage strategically to maximize brand presence where it mattered most, entrances, main stage, high-traffic thoroughfares, and session rooms, so a modest budget still read as full, immersive coverage across the Hilton Anatole's enormous footprint. I designed the large-format pieces to ADA legibility and color-contrast standards so wayfinding stayed clear and readable for the thousands of attendees moving through the space.