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The NRF Foundation Honors is a night of glamour, celebration, and recognition of the nation’s brightest retail leaders and rising retail talent — aptly named “the biggest night in retail.” Since 2019, openbox9 has designed the interiors, stage, and pre-event marketing for this glittering moment. We apply our branding & experience design expertise to infuse the night with elegance and transform the venue to a stage worthy of its 700+ attendees & guests of honor.
Planning & Content Strategy
Designing for a large space requires a comprehensive understanding of available furnishings, signage, displays and accessories, so we began with researching ideal setups, while collaborating with the client and the venue to identify budget and overall feasibility.
Once the scope was set, we needed to establish the framework of messaging that would reinforce the night’s purpose, so we carefully diagrammed the attendees’ walkthrough to identify opportunities along the path for messaging and storytelling that would support the event’s mission and fundraising goals. We confirmed the user experience with our client, then drafted and assembled several hooks, taglines, and statistics that would be placed strategically throughout the event.
Zoned Wayfinding
A key consideration when hosting guests in this space is the positioning of various forms of signage in the numerous large lobbies, which attendees must travel up and down several floors to reach. At an upscale event like this one, it’s crucial that the environment feels intuitive so guests can focus on celebrations and enjoying the programming. We invested significant time in the planning and preparation of directional, informational, and branded signage that would balance features of the NRF Foundation’s accomplishments with the clear navigation cues.
Setting the Stage with Immersive Visuals
The main event took place in an enormous ballroom which boasts 7 larger-than-life screens that wrap the entire room and over 100 tables. We looked critically at every moment that guests would encounter and, in partnership with local video production studio IMG, conceptualized solutions for it all, frame by frame. The result was an immersive experience that enveloped the crowd in rich motion graphics and dynamic effects, driving the grandiosity of the moment home.
Reception Branding
Bookending the event were two cocktail receptions that offered guests a window of time to relax, converse, and let their hair down. Openbox9 tended to these sub-events with the same level of care though, paying special attention to lighting considerations, brand placement, and legibility in dense crowds.
Utilizing Website Solutions
To improve the attendee experience in a large venue, we used physical signage and video screens to consistently direct attendees to the event website, which served as the central hub for the virtual map, digital program, and key information. The site also provided context about the event and encouraged financial support for the cause, while helping guests quickly orient themselves, locate major checkpoints and event areas, and move through the space using a clear, user-friendly spatial diagram.
In all, the NRF Foundation Honors was a massive success, and served as an exemplary case study of our full suite of services, from strategy, to copy writing, to stage design, to motion graphics.
