Axon Fest – CKO24
Axon’s company kick off takes place in January in Arizona every year. It has always been a place for our remote-first workplace to dip its toes in the culture that keeps us motivated and doing great work. This year, I got to take on the conference in totality as my first step as Marketing Designer II towards my goal of Senior Designer on the creative team.
First we were tasked with ROCK ON. A little on the nose, but I can work with that. As we got into the weeds of a rock-themed kick off I felt like it was isolating and wouldn’t achieve immediate buy-in from everyone. We decided to pivot to a music festival theme, Axon Fest, where everyone on our diverse team could feel celebrated, excited, and ready to vibe!
This Axon Fest we’re going on a group journey to a stark, wild and warm landscape in January while the rest of the country is frozen over. This Desert Dweller concept plays on classic visuals of a dusty festival, the colors of an Arizona sunset, and the glorious contrast between a Daft Punk set and flower crowns. Desert Dweller is the perfect setting for a wide variety of music genres between Country, Pop, Indie, Rock, Latin, Hip Hop, House and Electronic. It is Coachella with an edge. We love how these reference festivals focus on art, landscape, and the feeling of being surrounded by community. Add a dash of Axon, and we’ve got an internal corporate conference that brings us together through collective effervescence.
1,802 employees attended | 549 virtual attendees | $1,704,403.71 total cost
890 employees surveyed, branding: 5/5 stars | 68 “theme”/“brand” survey mentions
Art Direction | Branding | Digital | Print | Environmental Graphics | keynote imagery | wayfinding
First Round Presentation
2nd Concept by Blake Ignolia - Art Director
Final Iteration Results
This year I earned the opportunity to lead the creative development, production and implementation for nearly every deliverable at CKO 2024; including the creative pitch deck presented to Axon’s executive & senior leadership teams. My direction spanned across a variety of activations including the event identity, video & branding animations, venue branding, experience builds and experience designs. The creative was a visual extension of Axon’s internal culture and supported making CKO 2024 a successful and inclusive event for all Axon employees.
Deliverables
Additional Delivery created by Travis Bartlett, Brandon Panish
Brand Identity
Anonymous Feedback
First full conference in the books & she crushed it!
Thanks to everyone involved on another great CKO. Let’s continue reinforce our identity: we are a winning team with a lot of swagger that delivers outsized societal outcomes.
GREAT job everyone!!!!!
THANK YOU for all of the hard work in preparing for and executing CKO last week! It was great seeing all of you in person and congratulations on such a successful event!
