Designing and Organizing the First Across Canada Design Jam

From Jan - May 26' with Jaden Lee

SparkJam was a Design Jam I branded, organized, and ran between May 11 - 23, 2026 across both Vancouver and Waterloo for 400+ students.

When it came to developing the design direction for the event, we centered on the idea of an explosion of unfiltered, passionate, and inspiring creation.

We took that concept of creation and filtered it across three different layers; creating seperation, harmony, and reducing overwhelming visual noise.

Breakthrough Layer
Creation is messy and often times no matter how hard you try to contain it, it breaks through the barriers you have.
Grid Barrier
Part of creation is presentation and communication. Being able to convey ideas is one of the creating's key aspects.
Creation World
Creation is multidimensional. Whether it be retro technology, clay, paper, or code, all of these are forms of making.

Nailing down the creation world was essential to working out the branding. We formed the foundation from old 3D modelling primatives, and then added various multidimensional materials on top.

Typography for SparkJam focused on being expressive and bold, while still being functional.

Thanks to the grid system that lays ontop of the creation world, creating fluid social media assets for the brand came naturally

After that came physical assets. Our brand had to be flexible across lanyards, tote bags, badges, and more.

One thing we really wanted to push this year was bringing the brand into the physical event space.

We got so into it that we developed a SparkJam box lighting system that would adapt to different contexts.

Oh, and one more thing... we of course had a web presence too. With a classic canadian skiing game ;)

From my perspective, going from the very start of the brand ideation, to finally running the event was one of the best things I had the opportunity to go through.

I learned so much about brand flexibility, how to run an event that runs seamlessly, and had so much fun that I'll forever cherish SparkJam 2026.