Beowulf Bash

About This Project

The Challenge: Create an identity and marketing materials for an annual social event targeting a high-tech audience.

The Solution: Embrace our inner geek! We developed materials that reference both the event venue and the irreverent theme concocted by copywriter Doug Eadline.


Every year, we have the fun of designing the event materials for Beowulf Bash, an industry social event that takes place during the Supercomputing annual trade show. Since each event has its own quirky theme, developed by Doug Eadline (who provides deadpan text),  we have leeway to create outrageous graphics and delve into geek humor. Below are a few of our favorite designs.

Beowulf Bash 2016

Since Beowulf Bash 2016 took place at a children’s museum, Doug parodied Margaret Wise Brown’s classic “Goodnight Moon” to describe the nocturnal life of a computer geek. We created illustrations riffing off of Clement Hurd’s original, with server rack LEDs and bundles of cables replacing the twinkling stars and striped curtains of the original.

Beowulf Bash 2016 “Goodnight Cluster” booklet

Beowulf Bash 2014

2014 celebrated the 20th anniversary of Beowulf, and the Bash threw a Mardi Gras-themed party at SC14 in New Orleans. Since Beowulf founders Thomas Sterling and Don Becker were being honored at the fete, we featured them as Mardi Gras dancers in the printed invitations, and in the animated GIFs.

Beowulf Bash 2014 animated gif

Beowulf Bash 2013

The only time we have ever had to refer to mechanical engineering student theses as research material was for the 2013 Bash. The event featured a “Physics of Newtonian Solids Smackdown” (aka a billiards competition).

Beowulf Bash 2013 postcard invitation

Beowulf Bash 2012

Since the 2012 Beowulf Bash took place at Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City, the organizers picked A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as the event theme. That permitted us to use gorgeous galaxy stock imagery and cheesy 1970s-era clip art, and create funky icons. Having Hitchhiker provided a lot of material to parody, such as a “Shallow Thought” random phrase generator embedded in the Bash’s landing page.

Beowulf Bash 2012 signage

Beowulf Bash 2011

The 2011 Bash took place at the Seattle Aquarium. Rather than featuring lush imagery of tropical fish and sharks, we decided to reference the iconic O’Reilly text book series. At the very least, it permitted us to animate an octopus.

Beowulf Bash 2011 tower ad gif animation
Category
ads, events, presentations, websites
Tags
banner ads, brochures, gif animations, landing page, postcards, trade show banners, WordPress