Designing 4WARD
4WARD is Shift4's internal sales conference. I led creative for the October 2025 event, which had approximately 360 attendees, from the identity itself down to every touchpoint an attendee saw: the conference website and app, email communications, name badges, printed and digital signage, animations, presentations, sponsorship items, award certificates, photo slideshows, and swag.
An internal sales conference is one of the widest surface creative projects a design team can take on. 4WARD needed a single identity that held together across dozens of unrelated formats: a website, an app, a badge, a 40 foot banner, a screen behind a keynote, a certificate handed to someone on stage, swag, while landing with a sales audience of 360 people who would notice every seam.
I built the event identity and theme first, then presented the direction to Marketing and secured approval from the Chief Commercial Officer before any production work began so every downstream asset was measured against one signed-off direction rather than assembled by consensus. It was a big year for the company's then flagship product and the team selling it. The CCO wanted to emphasize the importance of going all in on the product. We created a flowing "kool-aid" style graphic that was used as the main element across the conference.
From there, I guided four designers on creative direction, dividing the deliverables between us: conference websites (for attendees and sponsors) and app, email communications, name badges, printed and digital signage, motion and animation, keynote and session presentations, sponsorship items, award certificates, photo slideshows, and swag. I stayed closely connected to each workstream across the design team to keep everything visually and strategically consistent, while coordinating with Marketing and Events on requirements, timelines, and approvals across every stage.
Leadership called it the best conference to date with the CCO specifically noting that "the feedback was incredible. Partners and team members alike commented on how seamless, professional, and well-produced the event was. Everything reflected the class, creativity, and commitment that define this team."
Sales teams called out the attention to detail and said the process around the conference ran more smoothly than in previous years. A clear signal that a single, decided-early identity does more than look good: it removes friction for everyone building on top of it.
