Leaving Our Mark

Capturing the spirit of the Rails community and celebrating the end of an era

At the 2024 RailsConf in Detroit, it was announced that RailsConf 2025 would be the final RailsConf put on by Ruby Central. While we are sad to see this conference end, we also look forward to all that Ruby Central has in store for its future as they pivot their full focus to RubyConf—their Open Source Software programs, local meetups, and other efforts in supporting the community.

As the designer for the conference, I had the challenge to make this last conference a visual representation of all that RailsConf has meant to people over the years and to honor both the past and future of the community. Just because RailsConf is going away, doesn’t mean that the community is; it is still as strong and vibrant as ever! This needed to come across in the visuals of the signs and swag, the liveliness and character of the community as it moves forward.

The concept I landed on was one of leaving our mark, sharing our stories, and celebrating the community we have built within Rails and RailsConf. I found so many examples of museums and exhibits that were fun and involved the audience, using bright colors and expressive styles, giving individuals the space and permission to share their stories, experiences, and creativity. This brought people into the creative process of building an experience, something I wanted to have at this final RailsConf.

To bring this concept to life, I had to decide how I wanted attendees to interact with the physical space of the conference (without actually knowing anything about the actual physical space until later in the project lol). This limited what I could do, but those constraints helped me narrow down how to approach the problem. I found that items like Post-it notes, sticker dots, highlighters, and markers were all wonderful and accessible tools that we could use to make the space our own, and would be easy for attendees to use. I also loved the bright colors that these supplies have, and I imagined that these would be great tools for transforming a space. The website includes many brightly colored dots, Post-its notes, and scribbles (a nod to what will happen at the conference).

The conference signs and interactive physical spaces are black and white, minimalistic, and ready for attendees to write on, draw all over, and sticker them up. During the duration of the conference, the attendees are encouraged to leave their messages, doodles, and marks on the conference, both literally and figuratively.

Another thing needed was directional signage. With this in mind, I started to brainstorm how to make these otherwise very commonplace pieces into fun, involved pieces. When designing the RailsConf signage and displays, I worked towards keeping them a blank slate for attendees to leave their mark on, keeping many of the signs a soft cream color with space for people to add some flair. I wanted to utilize as much of the conference signage as possible so that from the beginning of the conference to the end, there would be plenty of places for people to interact and discover. One example of this was using the wayfinding signage for both function and fun by including a place with interactive surveys for participants to take throughout the conference.

The questions range from silly (yet important) questions like “What is your go-to snack while coding?” to more technical questions like “What frontend frameworks do you use, if any?” They are on as many signs as I could squeeze them onto!

The largest piece (which I’m very excited about!) in this project is a 20ft long, 8ft tall interactive wall with a range of activities for attendees to participate in. It includes some timelines, a map, space to leave a portrait or doodle, and prompts to share about conference memories and hopes for the Rails community in the future. The aim of this wall is to visualize the beauty, diversity, and richness of the Rails Community. We want attendees to express themselves and see the impact they have on the community.

Other interactive pieces designed for this event include a conference badge with a bingo-style checklist of activities to complete during the conference, a sponsor scavenger hunt where participants collect stamps from the various event sponsors, and a selfie booth provided by Flagrant.

As a whole, I enjoyed this project so much! It gave me the opportunity to create an interactive space, something that I have wanted to do for a long time! I got to be creative with where I could incorporate spaces for people to customize the conference, like the signs and badges, and I cannot wait to see how the attendees will make the space their own. <3 Update: I LOVED how people used the space and designs!!)

P.S

Here are some images from the actual conference to show the designs in real space!

A collection of pictures from the conference. An interactive wall, the main stage backdrop with a panel set up, a picture of some swag items