Designed for Meta’s largest annual conference F8
Meta F8 • 2018, 2019, 2021
Each year posed different challenges and goals that creative delivered to ensure each conference was impactful. F8 (now Connect) is held annually where leaders from Meta announce new products and company strategy.
Role
Art Director and Senior Designer
Company
Meta
Type
Tech, Events, Keynote, Art Direction
F8 Refresh 2021
After postponing in 2020 during the pandemic, 2021 proved to be one of F8’s most challenging years. The goal was to keep F8 on-track to occur during a period when public gatherings was restricted. This meant taking F8 virtual for the first time.
Designed systems for F8’s first virtual production, including brand system, scaled design, and narrative.
After building a refreshed look for the virtual F8, next was to establish a scalable virtual production pipeline from pre- to post-production. This was vital to ensure the event occurs as scheduled and to greatly help in the development of working directly with speakers, especially many being their first ‘virtual production’ having come from in-person events.
From executives to engineering leads, over 15 speakers were equipped to perform home recordings and worked with closely to transition into a hybrid video format keynote and ensure they were confident in speaking and with visuals accompanying them in post-production.
F8 Refresh resulted in 2.9M keynote views, 91% positive sentiment on Meta for Developer channels, 85% surveyed ‘very likely’ to implement Meta products in the next 12 months, and over 6,500 attendee submissions to the F8 Virtual Hackathon, making F8’s return during the pandemic a success.
Opening keynote for F8 Refresh
F8 2019
Leaders from Facebook Gaming were were looking to up-level design and narrative since they were going to have a larger presence at F8 than they had in the past. Challenge was both developing their narrative visually for a developer-focused audience and combine Facebook Gaming’s unique existing identity with 2019 F8’s branding so that it was aligned but also familiar.
F8 2018
With F8 being a developer-focused conference, this year was the first that video and media had dedicated sessions at the event. As part of the Media Partnerships team, Fidji Simo (VP, Video & Head of Facebook app, 2021) was representing bringing video to the forefront for developers, the challenge was to balance the technical aspects of a “developer” audience, while bringing fresh, vibrant visuals that showcases the importance of entertainment and next generation of consumers.
This keynote was successful and brought attention to current and new developers to build products in video and entertainment. Going foward, video and media sessions became a prioritized, permanent part of all F8 events and more.
Design Credits
Erica Hsu, Tina Restrup, Phillip Du, Gabrielle Dal Santo, Emily Pack, Meta Creative Department, Jack Morton (agency partner 2021)