Zillow Unlock 2019 - In Person

Event branding & signage: Michelle Mendoza
The Hub design: Manifold
Production: Manifold & Taylor
Hotel: Aria Resort & Casino, Las Vegas

Zillow Unlock 2019 was the first Unlock conference in Zillow history. Zillow hosted 2,500 of their elite B2B partners in Las Vegas for a four-day event aiming to strengthen the business relationship between Zillow and its partners, and between partners and each other. I designed all the event branding based off the most recent Zillow B2C campaign in order to really drive home our brand recognition with our partners. Taking the already pre-developed illustrations from the campaign, I created new textures and patterns to splash across the event and combined them both to create a new brand experience for this in-person conference.

The problem: For the inaugural event, I designed the logo and conference branding. There were two big challenges: one was figuring out how to visually unite the new Zillow B2C campaign into this B2B event. The second problem was how to create separate spaces for our our different types of partners – Rentals managers, Premier Agents, and New Construction builders at this single conference. The event had to feel cohesive, but each group needed breakout spaces dedicated to them.

The solution: I developed the branding with “neighborhoods” for each group space. The neighborhood spaces leaned on visual elements easily recognizable to each group’s business (for example, rentals used imagery with apartment-style homes, vs. New Construction which caters to new builds and community neighborhoods). I also designed each neighborhood to have a primary color and pattern texture of their own, each of which still worked well with Zillow’s blue and gold branding.

Above (see top right) are some early design pitches for the Unlock logo. “Unlock life’s next chapter” is a major theme for both Zillow branding, and the Unlock conference. I went through several iterations pitching logos playing off that idea before we landed on the final design (see top left).

Below and to the right are the Unlock branding moments for Rentals (see right) and all the lines of businesses with their badges (see below). Further down are more examples of the conference branding I designed for the Aria hotel space – including both my design files and how the branding ended up in real life at the event. Designing for such a large space required a lot of communication and teamwork with our signage production company, who helped with measurements and consultation on best practices for materials to bring my ideas to life.

Club Unlock (wrap up party)