EVENT PLANNING & Visual Design
While I spend my 9-5 focused on 2D interfaces, my weekend job is in events management, the tangible, physical side of experience design.
I've been apart of planning and designing for conferences, galas, weddings, and tech events — the list is ever-growing!
I was a former committee member for AIGA MN Design Camp. I worked with a team of 8 for an entire year to book speakers, organize the venue, collaborate with the design agency sponsor (a huge shoutout to Luis Fitch with Uno Branding for the visual punch), and finally, to pull off the event at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
I was apart of the web design subcommittee, where I worked with one other designer to build that year's website on Webflow. It had to allow registration, payment processing, speaker bios, and the full day's schedule.
I'm a current One World Surgery Young Professional Board Member, where I am actively planning this year's gala. It's the largest fundraising event of the year, bringing in millions of dollars for the medical non-profit.
The biggest tech conference in the Twin Cities, I've been apart of the design committee for Open Source North for 2 years. One of my favorite parts of event design is seeing 2D images come to life in front of you.
These were a few favorite concepts that unfortunately never made it to production, but I love to share them.
Wedding days are pure magic - the hair and makeup transformation, the smell of flowers, the glittering chandelier of a ballroom. It's also a day of immense stress and nerves, and I found that I am incredibly good at navigating it.
When Talia came to me after getting engaged on Christmas Eve and wanting to be married in 5 months, we immediately got to work planning every last detail of her princess-inspired day. I worked with the Saint Paul Hotel coordinator, helped finalize RSVPs, made stationery and visual decisions like uplighting, and put together the shot list and day-of timeline, just to name a few of the many tasks.
When the big day finally came, it was my job to keep the timeline on schedule, make sure the vendors had everything they needed, and be a personal assistant to the bride.
The second-best part of wedding day, besides marrying my husband? Getting to plan design the whole thing.
Since I was my own planner, I needed a way to communicate all details to the bridal party, my family, and friends, so I put together a massive binder of every detail of the day. There were two paper copies plus abbreviated digital copies that were carried around and sent out to those who needed it. So many brides have asked me for this template and have used it for their own weddings!
We got married at the stunning Basilica of St. Mary and had our reception at The 1893 at the Grain Belt Office, two buildings that visually spoke for themselves. My invitations were inspired by the breathtaking stained glass ceiling above our dance floor.
The color palette was jewel-toned and vibrant, complimenting the slightly shifting autumn leaves and the rich colors of the historic venue buildings.
The place cards and table numbers were all designed to match the invitations. I kept them simple as to not compete with the architecture of the room.
I had a tricky space problem that I had to solve creatively the month before the wedding! My father-in-law baked the cake, and the venue had this cool bank vault meant to serve dessert. But we decided to keep the cake out on platters by the bar, leaving this room empty. I thrifted a bunch of photo frames and filled the vault with pictures of my husband and I plus the past wedding photos of our family.
As a fun surprise for guests, we placed dice shakers and instructions for our favorite dice games. We had the lower level of the reception venue looking like a speakeasy by the end of the night!
I loved putting together all of my printed materials for my wedding day. I've started a business on the side doing it for other friends and family.
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Made in the Midwest. © 2024 Josie Romano – All rights reserved.
