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WordCamp Europe

266 volunteers, 42 speakers, 32 sponsors, 1 WordCamp.

WordCamp Europe is a community-organised gathering of WordPress enthusiasts — from casual users to Core developers. We come together from across Europe (and beyond) to discuss all things WordPress, share ideas and get to know each other. WordCamp Europe is often the largest event on the WordCamp calendar and roams from city to city. In 2017, the host city was Paris.

Les Docks de Paris at night in black and white with search lights scanning the sky

I formed part of the volunteer design team, comprised of six people. Together we created all conference, digital and marketing material for the three day event that took place between 15th — 17th June.

The Brief

Design a reusable branding system that can be personalised by every WordCamp Europe city. Deliver tooling and a WordPress theme to support future WordCamps and apply this new design system to Paris.

Les Docks de Paris

Les Docks de Paris in Aubervilliers is one of the largest venues in the French capital. The architecture provided us with inspiration for our designs — we leaned into the art deco features of the venue, creating designs that felt at home with the buildings around us.

A picture of the audience in the main theatre. It looks a lot like a cinema with many people.
Richard greets attendees at the registration table with a big smile
Andrew on stage giving a talk, arms apart like a shrug. The title of the slide reads
T-shirts and stickers piled on a table ready for collection
Simon Dickson introduces Matt to the stage for his keynote
Milan is sorting name badges ready for event registration to open
Rahini stands at the WordCamp shop holding a Wapuu plushy
Jenny and Milan take to the stage during the final moments

Deliverables included signage, marketing graphics, announcement templates, schedules, lanyards, presentation backdrops, slides, stickers, socks, website assets, volunteer t-shirts and conference booklets.

A WordCamp Design System

A screenshot from the WordCamp Europe design system showing the header component

The new style guide and accompanying WordCamp theme were made available on GitHub. The style guide is generated directly from the CSS (or SCSS in our case) using the Knyle Style Sheets (KSS) methodology. You can read the technical details in our write up on the WordCamp blog. The result is modular markup and components that can be reused and customised by all future organising teams.

An Event to Remember

221 organisers and volunteers cramped on the stage at the event ending

Let me start by saying how proud I am of my team of 5 amazing designers and developers and what a pleasure it was to work with them.

— Sonja Leix

2,900 attendees made the the trip to Paris representing 79 countries and we were able to live stream to a further 1,000 attendees that couldn’t be there in person. The event was made possible by 45 organisers (split across 9 teams) and a further 221 volunteers on the actual weekend. 42 speakers delivered brand new talks and 32 sponsors, along with WordCamp central helped to keep the lights on… the total event budget reached €860,000.

A huge banner hangs from Les Docks de Paris advertising the event with sponsorship logos
A wide angle photo showing the stage and audience in black and white

It was a privilege to be part of such a wonderful organising team and fantastic event.