With only five days before the SC22 Conference begins, Design Director Todd Szymanski and the Q team are hard at work finalizing all marketing and promotions for the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis held this November 13–18 in Dallas.

The SC (formerly Supercomputing) Conference Series was established in 1988 by the Association for Computing Machinery and the IEEE Computer Society. In 2019, over 13,000 people participated. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic SC20 was held virtually. SC21 was a hybrid conference and SC22 is back again in-person along with some content available as a Digital Experience.

High-performance computing, combined with artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics, is especially relevant in our world today as we tackle the BIG CHALLENGES of climate change and global health in addition to seeking greater understanding of our universe.

SC attracts scientists and engineers, software developers, policy makers, corporate managers, CIOs, and IT administrators from universities, industry, and government agencies from around the globe. SC is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within their community and provides many opportunities for students and early-career professionals. One of the reasons we like working with this organization!

The conference planning committee is comprised of 600 volunteers and a group of contractors, including Q LTD, who work together to put on this annual event.

Within an 18-month timeframe, our team works closely with the conference chair and communications committee to design and produce a unique graphic identity that aligns with the vision for the conference year. For SC22 our theme, HPC Accelerates, illustrates how supercomputing is changing the world by accelerating the speed of research and solutions. The logo takes visual cues from the Dallas Reunion Tower, known locally as “The Ball,” combined with active red, magenta, and blue, resulting in a
fresh, bright, dynamic, and celebratory identity.

The conference look and feel is applied to a wide range of touch points including website, conference signage, merchandise, advertising, attendee guides, and more.

Behind the finished work are many emails, Slack messages, phone calls, Zoom meetings, in-person meetings, convention center walkthroughs, schedule reviews, design iterations, press proofs, merchandise sample sign-offs, final file deliveries, web staging reviews, HTML edits, email newsletter posts, and last-minute projects. Throw in a few heart palpitations and belly laughs and you get a bit of an idea of what it takes to finalize all our deliverables for SC.

Q LTD has provided design, editorial, and website services for the SC Conference Series since SC18 and is now contracted to work with the organization through SC25. Kudos to Todd for leading our team and collaborating with Candace Culhane and SC committee members, and going that extra mile to ensure all aspects of the conference and SC brand are on-point. In addition, a shout-out to Patricia Greve who provides eagle-eyed editorial review and Matt Restorff, our web guru for all things SC.

We love this work and we are all very proud to support the SC community.

– Christine