TEDx

What Comes After Growth?

An alluring visual and verbal identity for TEDxAmsterdam that explores what growth means beyond the numbers.

Abstract design with "AfterGrowth" text in bold white font, set against a red and black gradient background.

CHALLENGE

What comes before an event

TEDxAmsterdam, the annual event dedicated to ideas worth spreading, partnered with Dentsu Creative Amsterdam and Dentsu Lab to bring this year’s theme, What Comes After Growth?, to life. The organizers needed a visual and verbal identity that distinctively captures the event theme while sparking curiosity and challenging participants' perspectives.

Three posters with abstract designs, titled "What Comes After Growth?" for a TEDxAmsterdam event on November 12 at Pakhuis de Zwijger.

A large red cylindrical structure with tree-like patterns and text reading "What Comes After Growth?" stands near a historic building in Amsterdam.

A red poster on a brick wall advertising a TEDxAmsterdam event titled "What Comes After Growth?" with details for November 12 at 2pm.

Three red and blue digital posters with the text "What Comes After Growth?" and plant imagery in a dimly lit room.

APPROACH

(Re)defining growth

First, we had to unpack what ‘After Growth’ means. As established systems and paradigms are under immense pressure, we find ourselves at the cusp of change. TEDxAmsterdam wanted to dissect growth through a new lens, uncovering different manifestations of progress beyond today's monetary and economic reality.

With a theme open to countless interpretations, we started exploring to make the abstract tangible. A powerful, instantly recognizable language emerged: heat maps. Where shifting colors and patterns became a metaphor for the many shapes growth can take.

Four vibrant posters on a wall promoting the "Meet our 2026 Speakers" event at Pakhuis de Zwijger, featuring abstract art and portraits.

A dimly lit room with a large display featuring abstract red and blue art, the text "What Comes After Growth?" and event details for TEDxAmsterdam.

An underground station with escalators, featuring a red advertisement about growth and survival displayed on digital screens.

SOLUTION

Making growth unmissable

Through transitions from hot to cool, heat maps reveal density and intensity, bringing clarity to complex patterns and nuances hidden in everyday data. Surplus versus scarcity, renewal versus decay, risks versus opportunities– the color gradients capture the multi-faceted, full picture of growth. It’s the ebb and flow, wax and wane, plus and minus, visualized across all touchpoints. From billboards and social assets to speaker slides and on-site installations.

Beyond the visual language, the event also comes to life through its verbal identity. Rooted in the central theme, we further pique the audience’s interest by posing pointed questions in our communications that speakers will uncover in their talks. Together, the visual and verbal identity put the tensions and possibilities of our current realities front and center. TEDxAmsterdam is positioned as the year’s event that you cannot look away from.

Close-up of a person's wrist wearing a red wristband with white text next to a digital check-in screen showing a red silhouette.

A digital poster with "What Comes After Growth?" and a stylized face outline, advertising a TEDxAmsterdam event on November 12 at Pakhuis de Zwijger.

Person holding a smartphone, viewing content titled "What Comes After Growth?" with red abstract visuals on the screen, surrounded by darkness.

A TEDx stage with a large screen displaying a woman's face and text "What comes after Systematic Sameness?" The next speaker is Ingrid Tappin.

TEDx

What Comes After Growth?

What comes before an event

(Re)defining growth

Making growth unmissable

YOU FEELING IT?

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