AWS re:Invent

I am the signage design lead for every AWS-hosted event globally — architecting and evolving the sign system that guides, orients, and immerses attendees across AWS's full event portfolio. From the smallest regional summit to re:Invent, the world's largest cloud computing conference with 60,000 attendees across six venues, one unified system has to do it all. I designed that system, document it, automate it, and steward it with the agencies and stakeholders who bring it to life.

AWS hosts some of the most complex, high-stakes events in the technology industry — and every single one requires a signage program that is simultaneously brand-precise, operationally functional, and scalable across wildly different venues, cities, and attendee volumes. As the global signage design lead, I own that system end to end.

The AWS Global Signage System is a comprehensive design framework covering wayfinding, environmental branding, functional signage, and digital displays — across both print and digital formats. It is the connective tissue that makes an AWS event feel like an AWS event, whether it's a 500-person summit in Singapore or a 60,000-person, six-venue conference in Las Vegas.

My role goes beyond design execution. I set the creative direction, evolve the system year over year, build the documentation and tooling that enables agencies to implement it correctly at scale, and serve as the strategic bridge between AWS marketing stakeholders, event leads, and the production partners who manufacture and install thousands of physical signs worldwide.

THE CHALLENGE

The central design challenge of this project is one of extremes: build a system robust enough to handle re:Invent — six venues, tens of thousands of signs, multiple simultaneous event tracks, complex multi-building wayfinding — and simple enough that a regional agency can execute a one-day summit in a single hotel ballroom with the same visual quality and brand consistency.

A signage system that only works at one end of that spectrum isn't a system — it's a one-off. The creative and systems-thinking challenge was to design principles, templates, and documentation flexible enough to serve any AWS event at any scale, in any city, without requiring bespoke creative intervention every time.

Compounding this: signage isn't just a design problem. It's a logistics problem, a production problem, a stakeholder alignment problem, and a brand governance problem — all at once. Keeping all of those moving parts coherent across a global program requires as much process design as visual design.

MY ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES

Signage System Design & Evolution

I inherited an existing signage system and undertook a significant redesign — not a tear-down, but a rigorous evolution that addressed gaps in scalability, visual cohesion, and production efficiency. Key redesign work included:

• Redesigning the iconography across all sign types, creating a unified icon system with consistent visual weight, style, and legibility at both small and large formats.
• Developing 10 core sign templates covering the full range of functional needs — wayfinding, directional, identification, environmental, and informational — with clear rules for each.
• Creating a flexible framework for large-format and variable-dimension spaces, with design direction for how to apply the system to non-standard surfaces, architectural elements, and unique venue configurations.
• Establishing print and digital specifications that streamlined handoff to production vendors and reduced errors in the manufacturing and installation process.

Figma System & Automation

I rebuilt the signage design workflow around Figma, using it as both the design tool and the single source of truth for system documentation. This was a strategic platform decision with real operational impact:

• Designed all sign templates in Figma with auto layout and component architecture, enabling rapid customization without breaking brand constraints.
• Documented the full system in Figma — usage guidelines, spacing rules, icon library, color specs, and production notes — so agencies worldwide could access, understand, and implement the system independently.
• Led the automation of digital signage production, achieving 82% automation of all digital signs in 2024 and increasing digital signage output by 150% year over year.

Stakeholder & Agency Leadership

A significant part of my role is translating creative vision into operational reality across a complex network of partners:

• Partner with AWS marketing stakeholders and event leads to align on creative direction, scope, and production timelines for each event.
• Collaborate with and provide creative direction to external agencies responsible for producing and installing signage at events globally.
• Present concepts and creative rationale to senior stakeholders, building alignment on system decisions and evolution priorities.
• Develop and refine the processes — not just the designs — that allow agencies to execute the system as intended, without requiring my direct involvement in every production decision.

Cross-Event Creative Direction

While the signage system is unified, each event has its own spatial and logistical character:

• re:Invent (Las Vegas): AWS's flagship annual conference — 60,000+ attendees, 6 venues, thousands of signs spanning wayfinding, environmental, digital, and functional needs across a multi-building campus. The most complex signage program in the portfolio.
• re:Inforce (cybersecurity-focused): Smaller in scale than re:Invent but with a distinct audience and tone. Applying the system thoughtfully to a more specialized event context.
• AWS Global Summits: 30+ cities annually, ranging from major metro centers to regional markets. Each summit requires the system to flex to a new venue, a new production partner, and a new operational context — while looking identical to every other summit in the series.

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PROCESS & EXECUTION

Define the System's Job

Every design decision in this system starts with a question: does this work at re:Invent and at the smallest summit? If a template, icon, or layout rule can't survive both extremes, it doesn't make it into the system. This constraint became a design philosophy — a commitment to flexibility without sacrificing brand integrity.

Design for Makers, Not Just Viewers

Signage design is ultimately production design. I design with the full lifecycle in mind — how a sign will be manufactured, installed, and perceived in a real physical space under real lighting conditions. This means close collaboration with print vendors and fabricators, and building production specs directly into the system documentation rather than treating them as an afterthought.

Automate What Can Be Automated

The 82% digital signage automation achievement didn't happen by accident. It required a systematic analysis of which sign types were repeatable, a Figma component architecture that supported data-driven generation, and a stakeholder process that trusted the system enough to reduce manual creative intervention. The result was a 150% increase in digital signage output — more signs, faster, with fewer errors.

Govern Through Documentation

A design system is only as good as its adoption. I invest heavily in documentation — not as bureaucratic overhead, but as a tool for empowering agencies to execute the system at the quality level it deserves, even when I'm not in the room. Clear guidelines, annotated templates, and decision trees reduce ambiguity and protect the brand at scale.

RESULTS & IMPACT

82% — of all digital signage automated in 2024 — reducing manual production burden and enabling faster turnaround at every event.

150% — increase in digital signage output year over year — more coverage, more touchpoints, same team.

30+ cities — served by a single unified signage system annually, across AWS Global Summits worldwide.

60,000+ attendees — navigated re:Invent across six Las Vegas venues using wayfinding and environmental signage designed and directed by this system.

10 core templates — cover the full range of AWS event signage needs — from a single breakout room sign to a full campus wayfinding system.

Stakeholder feedback across events has been consistently positive, with agency partners and event leads citing the system's clarity, flexibility, and production-readiness as key strengths.

CONCLUSION & REFLECTION

The AWS Global Signage System is the project that most clearly reflects how I think about design at a senior level: not as the production of individual beautiful objects, but as the construction of a framework that makes beautiful, consistent, functional work possible at any scale — with or without me in the room.

Signage is often treated as a logistical necessity rather than a creative opportunity. I've spent three years proving it can be both. When the wayfinding works, attendees don't notice it — they just find their session, navigate the campus, and experience the event. That invisibility is the goal. Getting there requires systems thinking, stakeholder trust, production expertise, and relentless attention to how design translates from screen to physical space.

What I'm most proud of isn't any individual sign — it's the system that generates thousands of them, consistently, globally, efficiently, and on brand.

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