First Round

First Round A one-day showcase of original presentations made to clients showing initial design explorations for logo, identity, and branding projects.

An event by UnderConsideration.

New York, May 8, 2026—Coming in from the UK Max Ottignon from shared their recent work for Granola which followed a sl...
05/26/2026

New York, May 8, 2026
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Coming in from the UK Max Ottignon from shared their recent work for Granola which followed a slightly different timeline and path than most of their work. Part of this was an extremely short deadline which is why after some initial work and meetings they presented three guiding concepts through seven loose ideas and invited the client to go over them in a meeting that is usually reserved for internal review only, a concept crit. The goal was to focus on the potential of the ideas and not the detailed ex*****on of each.

Demonstrating an office-wide flexibility through a messy and chaotic process that kept changing and adjusting, a few things remained steady: At Ragged Edge their concepts are just that, concepts. The look-and-feel is up for grabs, but not the clear single-minded driving idea — a good test is to have the client repeat it back in their own words.

He closed with the ethos that guides them: What’s different gets noticed. What’s different gets remembered. What’s different gets chosen. Different pays… no matter the deadline or process.
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#2026
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New York, May 8, 2026—Fresh from her flight from Florence, Italy, Miriam Frescura from stated that, culturally, Italia...
05/22/2026

New York, May 8, 2026
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Fresh from her flight from Florence, Italy, Miriam Frescura from stated that, culturally, Italians find belonging and connection by sharing experiences and bars are particularly prone to foster both through foosball tables, card games, coffee, aperitivos, and loooong conversations.

Two alcoholic beverages, four directions presented where each is explored down to the most minute detail as they seek to be very clear from the start about how each package has to go out into the world — this includes materials, textures, embossing, foil, anything and everything that should be considered and explored. In the process they question where the brand could be now and into the future. Each direction is given a visual summary and then all four are set side-by-side for a comparison.

To wrap up, she shared that it is important to distinguish between work that relies on trends or beautiful design elements and work that has a big idea or concept behind it.
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#2026 identity conference newyork
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New York, May 8, 2026—Coming from Montreal, Canada, Ugo Varin LaChapelle .lachapelle and Léo Breton-Allaire from prese...
05/21/2026

New York, May 8, 2026
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Coming from Montreal, Canada, Ugo Varin LaChapelle .lachapelle and Léo Breton-Allaire from presented their work with long-standing client Le Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal. They shared that within their team every project undergoes three phases: conception of two creative directions, design and development of the chosen concept, and production/delivery.

They see their territories and explorations as “creative hypotheses” while approaching typography as a central and foundational component of their work while building from a collection of assets to the full identity language; these are nicely packaged in the end with a full universe recap that includes assets and inspirational imagery in unison.

They also provided a warning of sorts: Having to work in French and English always doubles the work, but not the budget.
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#2026 newyork 
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New York, May 8, 2026—With key words for the title treatment, Emily Oberman from Pentagram and her team got to work on t...
05/20/2026

New York, May 8, 2026
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With key words for the title treatment, Emily Oberman from Pentagram and her team got to work on the design for “ELVIS, A film by Baz Luhrmann”. After collecting a slew of references they presented 10 options that incorporated all the things at various levels — each option named because this particular client with whom they have worked before likes it when they do that. If there is one thing Emily has learned is that in Hollywood they love a thousand options… no way can you show up with just three, let alone a single solution. And not only that, but they show everything in-situ across many, many applications. In this case this included everything from movie posters to set chairs that were then bundled up into a visual summary of options. All in all, the project took seven rounds of revisions! Knowing that entertainment clients just want more, and more, and more whlist clouded in secrecy is good insider information to have.
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#2026 identity conference newyork
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While we edit videos in preparation for the live remote viewing on Friday and we tackle admin tasks we tease you with a ...
05/13/2026

While we edit videos in preparation for the live remote viewing on Friday and we tackle admin tasks we tease you with a link to the flickr album for the conference photos by

🔗 https://bit.ly/FR-26

Stay tuned for individual speaker highlights starting next week. ❤️🖤

First Round New York 2026 speakers and project they will be presenting: of presenting ELVIS, A film by Baz LuhrmannRegi...
04/23/2026

First Round New York 2026 speakers and project they will be presenting:

of presenting ELVIS, A film by Baz Luhrmann

Registration for both in-person and remote access closes May 7

First Round New York 2026 speakers and project they will be presenting: of .co presenting Fedefut GuatemalaRegistration ...
04/23/2026

First Round New York 2026 speakers and project they will be presenting:

of .co presenting Fedefut Guatemala

Registration for both in-person and remote access closes May 7

Amsterdam June 15, 2022—Ending the day on a high note and inspiring direction, Graham Sturt () from presented their wor...
08/19/2022

Amsterdam June 15, 2022
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Ending the day on a high note and inspiring direction, Graham Sturt () from presented their work for Pride Amsterdam where they strived to do justice to this year's theme: Gender. By educating themselves with the help of ten members of the non-binary and transgender community, D8 presented two highly contrasting ideas with the winning approach presented under the concept of "My gender is fluid". Based on the final design and the audience's appreciation it's safe to safe the team did the theme justice.
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London June 10, 2022—Michael Johnson from had the room in stitches within seconds of taking to the pit to talk about Jo...
08/18/2022

London June 10, 2022
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Michael Johnson from had the room in stitches within seconds of taking to the pit to talk about Jodrell Bank, an intimidating project that they tackled like all the work that comes into the office — with intense scrutiny that looks effortless from the outside.
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Berlin June 8, 2022—What does a decentralized brand look like? that was the challenge taken by Tim Williams and team fro...
08/17/2022

Berlin June 8, 2022
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What does a decentralized brand look like? that was the challenge taken by Tim Williams and team from when briefed by Polkadot on their rebrand. Taking a unique approach that was more immersive and less formal they used Figma to share the work with the client — a 10-minute playtime session where they could see everything at a glance and move around the Figma environment — before walking them through the work in detail, ultimately leaving the final design direction to members of the platform through a public vote.
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Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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