Icon Middle East handles branding at climate change conference

The Doha office of worldwide creative communications group WRG called on Icon to provide all interior branding, internal and external way-finding and exterior venue dressing for the event.

With limited time and resources, the project put Icon's expertise to the test and proved the company's capabilities.

"We were delighted with the overall look of the conference," commented Jilly Dungay of WRG. "There is no doubt that Icon's knowledge, experience and professionalism enabled them to cope with the tight time scales and cumbersome decision making processes that were encountered on this project," Jilly added.

"We had less than six weeks from our initial briefing until the conference opened. After two weeks for scoping we had a similar amount of time to prepare over 5,000 pieces of artwork and manage the production of all the necessary elements for this important, global event," explained Dave Weller, Client Services and International Business Director from Icon. "The scale and complexity of this project meant it was one of the largest handled by our Middle East office," he added.

The event was held at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC). Icon dressed both the interior and exterior of the venue as well as the surrounding car parks and approach roads. In short, Icon designed, produced and installed:

350 hanging structures located in the reception areas
1,200 metres of hoarding banners
20 large backdrops built in the Conference Halls
8 large hanging banners for the foyer
200 large outdoor wayfinding, directionals
500 + internal directional and room signs

As a separate project, the company also worked on both, the UN Secretary General's and the GCC Pavilions. Icon creatively used a plastic frame, which was screwed to the end of the walls and covered with stretched plastic, to brand the four exterior walls in a continuous design. In addition, Icon erected four 5m x 3m messaging walls which featured hundreds of people's faces interspersed with mirror squares to reflect the faces of those attending the Pavilion.

Environmental Sustainability
With sustainability being the core subject of COP18, Icon made sure that the signage was environment-friendly and reusable in other events. The client requested all material delivered to be fabric based for ease of recycling. Icon successfully responded to such a request.

As a result of Icon's professional work in COP18, QNCC is considering hiring the company to brand all of its events for the coming year.