Client: Shoal Events & Design
Industry: Climate Tech Events
Type: Brand Identity, Graphic Design, Photo & Video
Year: 2025-26
Chumstock
Chumstock is a four-day climate tech unconference. The first 2026 edition was held in February on San Juan Island (120 attendees), in partnership with the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories and Foster School of Business. A second followed in August in Saco, Maine (40 attendees), with The Ecology School at Riverbend Farm.
I designed the event’s full visual identity and a suite of physical materials, as well as documentation of the Maine event on photo and video.
OVERVIEW
THE BRIEF
Chumstock had run once before in 2025, but though it was a remarkable place to make professional connections in climate tech, the event materials were minimal and lacked cohesion.
The organizers needed a professional brand identity, as well as physical materials that encouraged face-to-face engagement and made the event feel established and well organized from the moment people arrived.
Brand designer, illustrator, and event photographer/videographer. I worked closely with the organizers and took initiative from our conversations, designing, printing, and producing nearly everything myself, on a tight deadline.
MY ROLE
DELIVERABLES
LOGO AND FONTS
I made the Chumstock logo by printing out the word in the font Bookmania, tracing a rough outline in pencil, and hand cutting out each of the traced letters.
This resulted in a logo with a human touch and a hint of arts and crafts, but still a polish that felt trustworthy.
FIELD GUIDES
I designed 40-page printed field guides with original cover art collages, hand-illustrated maps, center spreads, tide charts, and an attendee directory. Every attendee received a field guide.
Custom sardine tins with vintage-style labels, each holding 14 hand-illustrated fish business card personalized with the attendee’s name and contact details. In 2026, I made a total of 160 individual tins for a grand total of 2,240 individual aquatic business cards.
SOCIAL CURRENCY
CUSTOM CAMERAS
Six custom-wrapped disposable cameras encouraged capturing memories throughout the long weekends, without smartphones getting in the way of the authentic connections taking place.
Also everything just looks better on film.
RECAP VIDEO
I captured event photography and videography for both iterations of Chumstock 2026, and edited a promotional recap video of Chumstock Maine.
KEY DECISIONS
Handmade, collage-based aesthetic: Attendees make their own name tags at a craft station and join creative activities all weekend, so the branding needed to feel like part of that. A refined but handmade look removed any corporate sheen while still reading as reassuring and legitimate.
Fully personalized business cards: each sardine tin carries the attendee’s name, and each of the fish shaped cards has their personal contact info. This required far more printing and precise alignment than “fill in your own” cards would have, but it was worth it.
Designed for conversation: The field guide, prompt sheets, cameras, and business cards were built to spark natural analog social interactions.
OUTCOME
The materials gave Chumstock the polish of an established conference without losing its playful spirit. Attendees loved the fish cards, the disposable cameras captured great shots from across the weekend, and the identity helped organizers secure sponsorship.
The system carried over to a second event in Maine with a regional update, and the recap video supports future marketing. Three more Chumstocks are planned for 2027, with even more radical themes in the works (think medieval).
