OVERVIEW
The African Caribbean Sustainability & Investment Summit (ACSIS) 2024 was held on the 21st and 22nd of November 2024 in London. It focused on fostering collaboration among and between African and Caribbean diaspora business communities, exploring and promoting investment opportunities as well as responsible investment practices, and driving socio-economic development in the regions.
ACSIS aims to bring together key diaspora stakeholders from the African and Caribbean business communities of the United Kingdom to discuss and strategise sustainable investments across various sectors while being cognizant of growing concern for the level of climate action necessary to keep the global temperature below 1.5C degrees.
Through the brand image I crafted, ACSIS attracted partnerships on the continental scale with public endorsement and contractual institutional partnerships with the African Union, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA). More partnerships ACSIS forged are viewable here.
My role in ACSIS was the Director of Design, I was responsible for the full design life-cycle of the event from inception to ending which involved executing the majority designs and managing a team of content writers, web support and liaising with operations and logistics staff. I was also the stand-in Event Manager on both days of the summit at the UK House of Lords and Lloyds of London.
LOGO & ICONOGRAPHY
I designed the ACSIS logo to combine warm colours of orange and gold for growth and excellence – two colours prominent within African and Caribbean Culture, and green for sustainability. The base logo is the ACSIS text, with the icon development adding the world map to show the global reach, and the full logo with the acronym text below.
The ‘S’ with a leaf further signifies the sustainable element. A clear bold typeface of Montserrat was used for its scalability, clarity and professional feel.
The brand’s design is spoken through the logo, and mirrored throughout every element in a cohesive manner, maintaining consistency and recognisability. This includes a sub-theme of globalisation for the event day PowerPoint presentations, cover slides, pop-up banners, ID passes, and the website.
SOCIAL MEDIA
I created the templates and visuals for all the Social Media (SM) for ACSIS, including the posts to announce speakers, tickets, advertisements, live updates, investment infographics, banners, stories etc. – which was later populated by the social media team who wrote the captions, scheduled posts and so fourth. Examples are shown below:
INSTAGRAM, LINKEDIN, X, FACEBOOK PROFILES
A social media profile is equivalent to how the front of a store, building or office looks. Image is important, I designed all of ACSIS’s social media graphics to be consistent with each other, having customised banners with different text to promote tickets, promote registration, create achievable highlights.
The primary platform was LinkedIn, where most of ACSIS target audience of business professionals are located and actively searching for events of the same nature.
The social media campaign I oversaw saw to 1000+ followers across social channels gained within the 5 months of the pages being active.
WEBSITE DESIGN
I designed the UI and optical design side of the website focussing on maintaining the theme of the brand to give a professional conference feel with the spirit of African and Caribbean culture. Technical elements of the web development (i.e. hosting and troubleshooting, were performed by HillDavenport. Some screen grabs are shown below:
EVENT PRINT MEDIA
The print media for ACSIS involved the creation of conference banners, flyers, ID passes, a programme cover and business cards. The following sections showcase the bespoke designs I curated for this project.
ID PASSES
POP-UP BANNERS
As seen in the first image (Event Day 1; UK House of Lords), two main pop-up banners were required for ACSIS 2024; Summit (2) GTI ( 3), alongside a Digital Banner with key information about the summit to be projected and shown on screens (4).
PROGRAMME FRONT & BACK COVER
I designed the front & back covers seen below alongside a scannable QR code card, the internal contents were populated and designed by HillDavenport. After some development to the agenda with the deadline soon approaching, and in alignment ACSIS’s commitment to sustainability, I proposed a digital e-programme that represents a tangible step towards reducing environmental impact. By eliminating the need for printed materials, we save resources such as paper, ink, and energy, reinforcing the dedication to eco-friendly practices at ACSIS.
EVENT LIVE DIGITAL MEDIA
STREAMING SCREENS
ACSIS was live-streamed to maximise its reach, promote inclusivity, and enhance transparency. This decision ensured that stakeholders, policymakers, businesses, and the general public across geographically distant regions could actively engage with the discussions, even if they couldn’t attend in person – as the summit was based in the UK, this is more appropriate than ever given the distance to both regions.
I designed all of the intermission screens, stream overlay and sponsor bar to give information to viewers in a non-distracting presentation. This featured variants to distinguish between Day 1 and Day 2 through colour schemes. A sample is shown below:
SPEAKER PRESENTATION (POWERPOINT) DESIGN
The key to an engaging Presentation is to choose a Cohesive Theme, Limit Text, Incorporate Visuals, Typography, Color Palette, Animations and Transitions, simple Slide Layouts. I designed a template that was issued to Speakers, with quality control before publishing at the summit to maintain consistency. Illustration of how the cover slides that show the title and information about the speaker, and a sample content slide is shown below:
BACKDROP (RUNNING ORDER) DESIGN
With a well-organized running order, presenters can stay on track, manage their time effectively, and transition smoothly between topics. Additionally, it helps team members, viewers and collaborators understand the flow of the presentation, reducing confusion and ensuring everyone is aligned.
I created a simple layout to display behind speakers while they spoke. This allows people who have just entered the room or joined the live-stream to gain some context about who is on stage. The below shows group ‘panel’ discussions (1) individual speakers (2), and a generic backdrop that could swapped to as a ‘holding screen’ (3) if alterations needed to be made live:
NB: Grid visible = screengrabs from PowerPoint.
CLOSING REMARKS
Working with the diverse team at ACSIS to bring life to the founder, David Roberts, idea through creative design has been both a privilege and a responsibility. Every visual element, from the branding to the presentation materials, was crafted to reflect the spirit of collaboration, innovation, and purpose that defines this event.
As the inaugural event, there was no established legacy, template, or proof of concept to build upon every detail had to be envisioned and created from the ground up. This offered a rare opportunity to craft an entirely new visual identity and narrative that would set the tone for future summits.
The lack of precedent made the journey both exciting and demanding, requiring creativity, adaptability, and collaboration to bring this vision to life. It was an honor to contribute to an event that not only bridges two dynamic regions but also lays the foundation for lasting partnerships and transformative environmental solutions. Design is a powerful tool for storytelling, and my goal was to ensure that every detail resonated with the summit’s mission to inspire and drive meaningful change, while creating a recognisable unique brand theme and image.
Aaron Adal 