Diversity Forum

Fairchild Media

In 2020 the fashion and beauty industry was forced to confront its exclusionary nature. This led to a renewed focus on diversity and inclusion, and in turn an opportunity for the industry to layout a new roadmap.

Fairchild launched their inaugural Diversity Forum in the Spring of 2021, mid pandemic this moved from a live event to a virtual one. With over 32 speakers—including Bethann Hardison, Prabal Gurung, Phillip Lim, and Kimora Lee Simmons—spanning across a wide spectrum and demographic of the industry.

Given a blank canvas and a sensitive subjective matter a project can feel politically complex and daunting. Luckily, we worked with a dynamic team at Fairchild who were a great sounding board as we developed the branding for their event.

The image concept was an old idea from a previous project—we stripped it down, gave it a new direction, and an updated color palette—the client loved the approach and we delivered one of our strongest pieces for 2021.

illustration | The illustration we created in-house; using a rich mixture of mixed media from old WWD covers, found imagery, and stock pix we were able to blend a diverse spectrum of race, age and gender with an impactful image that sends an even more powerful message.

live action | One of the biggest challenges during covid, within the live events sector, had been the transition from live to virtual. We wanted to make sure we delivered an equally impactful and engaging experience online as we had to a live audience.

Steering away from the small talking-head boxes that most events opted for, we took inspiration from news channels like the BBC and CNN to create full frame head crops with expandable lower thirds, and bump-ins.

“A beautiful design”

—TARA DONALDSON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, WWD; HEAD OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION AT FAIRCHILD MEDIA