How One Infographic Turned into a Multi-Year
Visual Partnership

“The work created by Killer Infographics has added a unique special sauce to our events, elevating the creativity and coolness factor, and helping us achieve our mission of informing, educating, entertaining and inspiring our audience of tech leaders.”

—John Cook, GeekWire co-founder

The Initial Goal & Solution

We first partnered with GeekWire in 2012, for Silicon Valley Geeks vs. Seattle Geeks, an infographic designed for the back of the GeekWire Summit event program, as well as for evergreen web use. GeekWire, which has an investor familiar with the Bay Area tech scene and its stereotypes, was looking for a unique way to engage their audience at the Summit while also instilling pride in Seattle’s growing tech scene which, at the time, was just beginning to rival Silicon Valley. Inspired by our recent success producing the infographic Geek Versus Nerd, we chose to pit the two tech titans against one another in the ultimate geek matchup.

In 2013, following the success of the 2012 GeekWire Summit infographic, GeekWire asked us to partner with them as their visual content provider for their signature event, the GeekWire Awards. Since then, we have produced the event’s branding, an intro video each year and bumper videos for each award:

“More than 800 members of the Seattle tech community joined us to honor the region’s top entrepreneurs and companies. From the inspiring keynote from Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff to the awesome intro video from Killer Infographics to the actual awards ceremony itself, it was a night to remember.”

—GeekWire.com

Moving Beyond Motion Graphics & Infographics

As our partnership with GeekWire grew, our services also evolved. The GeekWire Summit and GeekWire Awards have become staples in the Seattle tech community so it was time to rebrand each event to attract a wide range of professional attendees on a regular basis.

GeekWire wanted compelling logos for each event that both spoke to their tech theme while also providing separate color palettes allowing the events to stand on their own. See the logos before our work (slide right) and after (slide left) below:

“Our audience enjoys consuming information visually and Killer Infographics has helped us execute on interesting methods to connect with our readers, whether via video for our events or content on our site.”

—John Cook, GeekWire co-founder

Our collaboration with GeekWire firmly established, we created a media kit that lets readers learn about GeekWire’s success and explore opportunities for advertising. The design reflects the organization’s personality and shows off photos of the GeekWire team and GeekWire events combined with icons, illustrations, and data visualizations. It was important to build an aesthetic that worked within GeekWire’s brand while creating an engaging interface for the information. As the company grows and numbers change, GeekWire can update pricing and stats, keeping the design relevant for years to come.

Example Logo Design Process

We always approach logo design by first sketching multiple ideas based on the needs and input of our clients. We’ll hone the sketches until we have enough information to develop a black and white vector of the final logo mark. This gives us the opportunity to experiment with fonts as well. Once a logo direction is chosen, we develop multiple color palettes for the client to choose from.

“Killer [Visual Strategies] is part of our community and understands our brand and positioning in the market. Because of that, we can work closely together to come up with visual stories that resonate with our community.”

—John Cook, GeekWire co-founder