OpenAI DevDay checkerboard photo wall

Summary

An event photo wall where the identity's checkerboard is scaled up to architectural size and the branding is reduced to two small blocks of repeated monospace type.

Visual description

The photograph is taken straight on from a rooftop terrace in daylight. Behind the wall are grey office towers with dense window grids, a palm tree, a string of festoon lights and part of a glass balustrade; potted plants and a green cafe table sit at the right, a white metal stool and a uniformed guard at the left. The wall itself is a long freestanding block painted in a very pale blue-white, with large dark green squares and rectangles painted across it in an irregular arrangement, some squares merged into longer bars so the grid reads as broken rather than uniform, and the topmost blocks wrapping over the wall's capping. Two small blocks of type sit at the same height, one at the left third and one at the right third, each reading OPENAI DEVDAY OPENAI DEVDAY set as four short lines of dark green monospace caps, flush left and modest in size against the scale of the wall. The paint is matte and slightly uneven, and the ground in front is plain grey asphalt.

Key takeaway

Blowing the pattern up until the squares are person-sized, then keeping the wordmark deliberately small and repeated twice, gives a photo wall that reads as a backdrop rather than a billboard. Breaking the grid by merging some cells stops the checkerboard from looking like a placeholder texture.

Reuse notes

A good model for event environments where people will be photographed in front of the graphic: the two type blocks sit at head height and clear of the centre, so subjects can stand in the middle without covering the branding. Needs a large flat build and matte paint to hold up in daylight. The two-colour scheme is what keeps it from competing with whatever people are wearing.