CareerBuilder World's Fair SHRM Tradeshow Booth
2013
Role
Creative Strategy
Art Direction
Design
Core Creative Team
Mary Lorenz (Copy)
CareerBuilder had always made a major investment in SHRM, one of the largest events of the year for the HR industry. When the conference came to Chicago, CareerBuilder’s hometown, we saw an opportunity to create something that felt less like a traditional trade show booth and more like an experience people would remember.
I pitched the World's Columbian Exposition as the creative foundation: a defining moment in Chicago history built around innovation, invention and a sense of discovery. That idea became the thread connecting everything from the booth environment and interactive experiences to the giveaways and pre-event promotion.
Years later, it remains one of my favorite projects I've worked on. It brought together concept development, visual identity, environmental design and a lot of wonderfully specific details into one experience.
A visual language rooted in the fair
With 2013 marking the 120th anniversary of the World’s Columbian Exposition, I pitched the fair as the creative foundation for CareerBuilder’s SHRM presence. The event was deeply tied to Chicago and remembered for introducing audiences to new ideas, inventions and experiences, which made it a natural way to connect CareerBuilder’s hometown story with its latest recruiting technology.
The visual system drew inspiration from the typography, ornamentation and ephemera of late-19th-century fairs and exhibitions, reinterpreted through CareerBuilder’s existing orange and blue palette. Headlines and graphics borrowed the tone of fair posters and handbills, while the messaging positioned CareerBuilder’s products as the next generation of innovation being introduced in Chicago.
Building the World's Fair experience
The concept extended across CareerBuilder's full 20x20 footprint. I partnered directly with experiential design company, Design Centrix, to translate the visual direction into the physical booth, working from vendor specifications through the details that made the space feel immersive.
The experience included product demonstration areas, fair-inspired signage and a Wii-based activation called Target Talent Practice, which I helped concept and art direct with a third-party game developer as a digital take on a carnival game.
We also turned the exterior back wall into a small World's Fair museum. I visited antique warehouses around Chicago to help curate authentic artifacts and ephemera that could give attendees another reason to stop, explore and spend time with the space.
Giveaways with a story
Rather than treating swag as an afterthought, we used it as another way to extend the World's Fair narrative. Many products that became American staples were famously introduced or popularized around the exposition era, which gave us a playful foundation for giveaways inspired by brands like Cracker Jack, Wrigley's and Hershey's.
Each item was reworked through the CareerBuilder visual system and paired with recruiting-focused copy, turning familiar objects into small pieces of the larger experience that attendees could take with them.
Starting the experience before the show
The campaign began before attendees ever reached the booth. A direct-mail piece introduced the World's Fair concept through a series of stories, product messaging and interactive elements designed to build anticipation for CareerBuilder's presence at SHRM.
The piece also included a tear-away ticket attendees could bring to the booth to trigger a CareerBuilder donation to i.c.stars, a Chicago nonprofit focused on technology training and career development. It gave the promotion a reason to continue into the live experience while connecting the hometown theme to an organization doing meaningful work in the city.
