Overview
Some projects are a job. Others are a journey. ACSIS 2024 was the latter.
Over eight months, from the earliest planning stages through to the final moments on the floor at Lloyd’s of London, I was embedded at the heart of the African Caribbean Sustainability & Investment Summit as its sole creative lead — responsible for building everything from the ground up. Every piece of visual collateral. Every social media post. The website. The video. The branding. And on the days that mattered most, I was on-site at two of London’s most iconic venues — the UK House of Lords and Lloyd’s of London — directing the event itself.
ACSIS 2024 was a landmark moment: a two-day summit bringing together diplomats, investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers from across Africa, the Caribbean, and the UK diaspora to drive South-South economic cooperation. The ambition of the event demanded a creative output that could match it.
You can read the official event summary here.
Work Scope
Brand Identity & Visual Language:
Before a single post went out or a banner went to print, the visual identity of ACSIS 2024 had to be established and locked in. Everything that followed — across eight months and dozens of individual deliverables — had to speak the same language. I developed and maintained a consistent design system that ran across every touchpoint, ensuring that whether a delegate was looking at a social media post on their phone or a pop-up banner in the House of Lords, the brand was unmistakable and authoritative. Brand identity included the development of the ACSIS Logo, Summit Logo, and other digital collateral.
Social Media:
One of the most sustained pieces of work in this project was the social media campaign in the lead-up to the summit. Starting eight months out, I planned, designed, and managed the full content output across all of ACSIS’s platforms — platforms I also set up and branded from scratch.
This meant speaker announcement graphics, countdown posts, teaser content, event information posts, partnership announcements, and everything in between. Across the full campaign, no two posts were identical in purpose — each piece of content had a specific job to do in moving an audience from awareness to attendance. Managing this over such a long timeline required as much organisational discipline as it did creative output, maintaining consistency in tone and design while keeping the content fresh and the momentum building.
Print & Digital Collateral
The volume of physical and digital design work for ACSIS 2024 was extensive. Every item was designed with the same level of care, whether it would be seen by thousands online or held in the hands of a single delegate:
Pop-Up Banners:
Designed to anchor the visual identity across both venues. At the House of Lords and Lloyd’s of London, the banners were often the first thing delegates encountered. They needed presence.
Event Brochure:
The cover of the ACSIS 2024 summit brochure was a key piece of print collateral, a delegate’s first impression of the event in their hands. Designed to be bold, professional, and reflective of the summit’s significance. The inside design was curated by Hill-Davenport – an IT consultancy supporting ACSIS.
Invitations:
Official invitations were designed for a delegate list that included MPs, High Commissioners, and senior business figures. The design had to communicate the calibre of the event before a single word was read.
ID Passes:
Designed for practicality and polish. With a guest list of that standing, the passes needed to feel as considered as everything else in the room.
Business Cards:
Designed for ACSIS representatives attending the summit — clean, on-brand, and professional.
Letterheads:
Official letterhead templates produced for ACSIS’s correspondence, maintaining brand consistency in the organisation’s formal communications.
Flyers:
Promotional flyers designed for distribution in the lead-up to the event, extending the reach of the campaign beyond digital channels.
PowerPoint — Running Order Decks:
The presentation slides running across both days of the summit were designed to be clean, structured, and consistent. In a room full of high-profile speakers and a packed programme, the decks had to support the flow of the event without ever becoming a distraction.
Website Design & Management
I designed and managed the ACSIS website throughout the project — the central hub for everything from event information and speaker listings to registration and media coverage. Keeping the site current across an eight-month campaign, with new speakers, partners, and updates to communicate regularly, required ongoing management alongside the wider creative workload.
The website maintenance and back end design was supported by Hill-Davenport and MightyCurvets.
Internal File & Project Organisation
Behind the creative output, there was a significant amount of structural work. I organised and managed the internal file system for the entire ACSIS team — establishing a clear, consistent architecture for assets, documents, and working files that kept the project running smoothly across a large and growing team. It’s the kind of work that rarely gets mentioned but underpins everything else.
Event Photography
Across both days of the summit, I picked up a camera alongside everything else. The photography I captured on-site at the House of Lords and Lloyd’s of London added to the visual record of the event — images that would later be used across social media, editorial content, and the ongoing ACSIS archive.
The event was supported by a team of photographers and videographers from ABN TV.
Event Management — On-Site Direction
Perhaps the most demanding element of the entire ACSIS 2024 project was being on the ground as Event Manager across both days. At the UK House of Lords on Day One and Lloyd’s of London on Day Two, I was responsible for the on-site direction of proceedings — coordinating logistics, managing the flow of a packed programme, and ensuring that an event of this significance ran seamlessly for its guests.
Day One brought together dignitaries including Baroness Verma of Leicester, Chi Onwurah MP, H.E. Dr. Karen-Mae Hill (High Commissioner for Antigua & Barbuda), and senior figures from the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. Day Two moved to Lloyd’s of London, where panels covered precision agriculture, connectivity and sustainability, tourism, trade, cybersecurity, and the circular economy — closing with Saint Lucian drumming and dancing in a moment that captured exactly what ACSIS is about.
Holding all of that together — while also managing the creative, the photography (supported by ABN TV), and the social media output (supported by Bobby Crowhurst) in real time — required the kind of focus and adaptability that only comes with genuine investment in a project.
A Final Note
Three High Commissioners in one room, a clear roadmap for Africa-Caribbean economic integration, and diplomatic commitments secured for what would become ACSIS 2025 — this was one of those evenings where you leave knowing something real just happened. Being trusted to frame it visually and document it editorially is the kind of work that goes well beyond the brief. Proud to have contributed to a moment that genuinely moved the needle.
Aaron Adal 