ADCOLOR
Pull Up
After a year shaped by racial violence, a global pandemic, and a growing reckoning with performative allyship, ADCOLOR needed a theme that asked more of its community than statements of support. Pull Up became a direct call to turn intention into action and remind people that the fight for equity cannot belong only to those most affected by it.
Created for ADCOLOR’s 15th anniversary, the platform challenged colleagues, partners, friends, and allies to show up fully for one another. It expanded beyond the annual conference into an ongoing invitation to support historically excluded communities through learning, donating, following, purchasing, amplifying, and taking responsibility.
THE IDEADon’t Just Speak Up. Pull Up.
The language was intentionally active, giving the campaign the urgency of a rallying cry rather than the distance of a traditional conference theme. Every message pointed toward something people could actually do, making collective action feel immediate, personal, and difficult to ignore.
PULL UP FOR EACH OTHER • PULL UP WITH PURPOSE • PULL UP AND TAKE ACTION • PULL UP TOGETHER
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PULL UP FOR EACH OTHER • PULL UP WITH PURPOSE • PULL UP AND TAKE ACTION • PULL UP TOGETHER 〰️
Look & Feel.
Visually, we drew from the handmade language of grassroots movements and civil-rights-era sign making. Bold lettering, tactile textures, poster materials, and action-led copy gave the identity a human quality that felt assembled by a community rather than polished from a distance. The campaign began in stark black and white before gradually introducing color, building toward a full spectrum at the conference itself.
The design system also needed to represent the many voices inside ADCOLOR’s community. Multilingual typography and commissioned artwork translated Pull Up across cultures without flattening those perspectives into one visual language
Those designs moved beyond posters and into merchandise, digital promotions, speaker materials, environmental graphics, and the larger event experience. Each application retained the imperfect, handmade energy of protest graphics while becoming something attendees could wear, carry, and take home.
Pull Up
For Change
Pull Up For Change
Across film, social, posters, merchandise, and the hybrid conference experience, Pull Up gave ADCOLOR one clear and flexible command. It honored the organization’s history of creating space for professionals of color while placing greater responsibility on the allies, institutions, and industry leaders capable of helping that space grow.
The work turned a conference theme into a practical standard for community: be present, take action, and make your support visible. Because progress does not come from standing nearby. It comes from pulling up and doing your part.
