The challenge
The United State of Women is dedicated to connecting, convening, and amplifying voices in the movement for full gender equality. In 2016, the White House staged the inaugural USOW Summit — a national gathering of the country's best and brightest women meeting to exchange ideas on advancing gender equity across every sector.
The existing USOW identity — a bold W mark in black and blue — was strong but tightly scoped. A one-day summit at this scale meant hundreds of touchpoints: an arrival experience, main stage, breakout rooms, interactive activations, printed program, presentation templates, and digital displays. The brand had to stretch to fill a convention center without losing the sharpness of the original mark, and it had to feel unmistakably presidential without turning corporate.
Our approach
We were brought in to expand the USOW brand into a full event system that could carry the gravity of the moment.
We built the expansion off the W itself — pulling both the solid and outline forms of the mark and turning them into a family of graphic elements: bars, planes, and linework that could scale from a lapel pin to a 40-foot stage backdrop. The palette anchored to USOW's original black and blue, then added a light-tinted red and a softened blue to set a deliberate Americana tone — leaning into the 'United State' half of the name.
The system rolled out across every surface of the summit. Environmental graphics defined the arrival sequence, registration areas, and main stage. Interactive stations and a purpose-built selfie wall gave attendees a way to enter the visual identity, not just look at it. Printed collateral — the summit guide, wayfinding, table cards — matched the digital displays, keynote presentation templates, and social assets so the brand read as one voice from the moment guests walked in.
The result
The expanded identity carried a wildly ambitious program without straining. The W mark held its authority at every scale, and the Americana palette gave the summit a distinctly national tone — patriotic in spirit, contemporary in execution.
President Obama, Vice President Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Oprah Winfrey shared the stage with organizers, activists, and thousands of attendees. Every one of those moments was framed by a coherent visual system that let the ideas — and the people speaking them — lead. USOW laid a design foundation the movement continued to build on well after the summit closed.