CHEF’STORE’s annual leadership meeting was built around the theme “Own What We Do. Love What We Do.” I was given the theme itself, but no established visual identity, creative framework or environmental direction.

The opportunity was larger than branding a meeting. The event needed to create a cohesive experience across an entire hotel, reinforce CHEF’STORE’s evolving brand and values, celebrate the associates behind the business and work equally well in spaces shared with the general public.

The work needed to:

• Create a distinctive identity that could anchor the entire event

• Translate the meeting theme into a complete visual and environmental system

• Connect the experience to CHEF’STORE’s broader brand strategy and customer value proposition

• Build associate pride by making employees and their impact visible throughout the experience

• Adapt the brand appropriately across attendee-only and public-facing spaces

• Make navigation throughout the hotel clear and intuitive

• Maintain consistency across a wide range of physical formats and production requirements

• Ensure complex environmental installations were produced and installed accurately to avoid costly errors

I took the meeting theme, “Own What We Do. Love What We Do.”, and developed the complete creative and environmental framework around it, shaping how the event looked, felt and functioned across the hotel.

My responsibilities included:

• Developing the event logo and visual identity from the ground up

• Establishing the overall creative direction, including color, typography, imagery and environmental expression

• Mapping the hotel environment and identifying opportunities to extend the theme across attendee and public-facing spaces

• Integrating CHEF’STORE’s Own the Icon strategy into the event experience

• Connecting the creative to the company’s CVP and values of Care, Courage and Collaboration

• Using associate imagery and storytelling to reinforce pride, recognition and organizational impact

• Tailoring “Own” and “Love” messaging to specific environmental applications, including pillars and other large-format elements

• Developing public-facing creative that helped hotel guests understand what CHEF’STORE is

• Creating clear directional and wayfinding signage throughout the venue

• Designing and adapting creative across a wide range of physical formats and production specifications

• Partnering directly with vendors to ensure measurements, materials, fabrication and installation were executed accurately

• Reviewing installation onsite to ensure the final environment matched the intended creative direction

• Presenting to the full leadership organization during the meeting

Build a World Around the Theme

Rather than treating “Own What We Do. Love What We Do.” as a headline applied to individual assets, I used it as the foundation for the entire attendee experience. I developed the identity from the ground up and created a visual system that could extend from small-format communications to large-scale environmental installations.

Elevate the Brand for a Leadership Audience

I intentionally leaned into CHEF’STORE’s complementary gray palette to create a more formal and elevated expression of the brand while maintaining recognizable elements of the existing identity. This gave the event its own personality without disconnecting it from CHEF’STORE.

Put Associates at the Center

The event was an opportunity to reinforce the role associates play in delivering the brand promise. I incorporated associate stories and imagery alongside the values of Care, Courage and Collaboration, connecting company strategy to the people bringing it to life every day.

Extend “Own the Icon” Into the Experience

I carried forward the Own the Icon strategy developed for CHEF’STORE’s internal brand work, creating continuity between broader organizational initiatives and the leadership meeting. Iconography became a recognizable visual thread that helped connect spaces and messages throughout the hotel.

Make the Theme Environmental

Messaging was tailored to the physical environment rather than repeated identically everywhere. Architectural elements such as pillars became opportunities to reinforce “Own” and “Love” in concise, high-impact ways, allowing the theme to become part of the space itself.

Design for Two Audiences

Because portions of the hotel remained visible to the general public, attendee-facing and public-facing spaces needed to serve different purposes. Internal areas could focus more deeply on associates, strategy and culture, while public-facing environments helped explain CHEF’STORE through store imagery and brand storytelling.

Make Function Part of the Creative

Wayfinding was treated as part of the experience rather than an afterthought. Directional signage needed to be immediately understandable while remaining visually connected to the broader event system.

Direct Production Through Installation

Environmental creative carries significant production risk. I worked directly with vendor partners to translate the creative into accurate specifications, reviewed production requirements and oversaw installation to ensure every element was executed as intended. That attention to detail was especially important for large-format and custom applications where mistakes could create significant replacement costs or compromise the attendee experience.

Brand Impact

The event demonstrated how CHEF’STORE’s existing visual language could be elevated for a leadership setting without creating a separate event brand. The use of color, iconography, associate storytelling and environmental messaging reinforced a consistent connection to the broader organization.

Cultural Impact

By placing associates and the values of Care, Courage and Collaboration throughout the experience, the event made the meeting theme tangible. Leadership messaging was connected directly to the people and behaviors behind the business rather than remaining abstract.

Experiential Impact

The creative system carried consistently across major environmental touchpoints, directional signage and attendee communications, creating a unified experience from arrival through the meeting itself while accommodating the very different needs of private and public-facing spaces.

Operational Impact

Close coordination with production and installation partners ensured that complex, custom environmental elements were delivered accurately and installed as intended. This reduced execution risk and protected the investment associated with large-format event production.

Leadership Impact

I presented to the full leadership organization on 2026 marketing initiatives and the Get More campaign, reinforcing the connection between the event’s brand experience and the company’s broader marketing direction.

Because this project was primarily an internal leadership and experiential initiative, the strongest results are demonstrated through scale, adoption and execution rather than traditional campaign metrics.

• Developed the event identity and creative system from an initial theme with no existing visual direction

• Extended one cohesive brand experience across an entire hotel environment

• Integrated company values, customer value proposition, associate storytelling and existing brand systems into one creative framework

• Successfully brought complex custom installations to life while managing the financial risk associated with production errors

• Presented the work and broader brand strategy directly to the full leadership organization

• Saved $30,000 in event and production costs