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Featured case study

Google Cloud Summits: Designing for scale without losing the craft

Creative Direction · Brand Systems · Design Systems · Production Systems · Automation · Motion · Team Leadership · R&D

The challenge

Google Summits spanned more than 30 countries, requiring thousands of bespoke creative assets every year across regional and digital event programs. From campaign materials, social and web assets to motion, video, landing pages and live-event graphics, each rollout involved a substantial volume of work, often with tight deadlines and localised requirements.

As the program evolved, the production model had become increasingly complex. Multiple teams, repeated handovers and inflexible templates created bottlenecks, rework and inconsistencies, making an already demanding operation difficult to scale.

The challenge was not simply to produce more work, faster. It was to rethink the system behind the work.

From production challenge to R&D

I saw an opportunity to approach the problem differently: to redesign the production model around how creative teams actually work, use automation where it added genuine value, and give designers the tools and knowledge to work more effectively.

What began as a delivery challenge developed into a significant R&D program, exploring how design systems, structured data and connected workflows could fundamentally change large-scale creative production.

The resulting framework brought together responsive design systems, automated production and delivery, practical documentation, connected review processes and a deliberately adaptive team structure.

The principle was straightforward: remove unnecessary complexity without removing the creative judgement that gives the work its value.

“One system. Thousands of outputs.”

Two programs, one connected system

Google Summits comprised two major event formats, each with distinct creative and production requirements.

Regional Summits

The in-person program spanned more than 30 countries. Each market required a comprehensive campaign and event package, including save-the-dates, social and web assets, localised landing pages, print materials, longer-form video, animated screen content and live-event graphics.

The regional program alone produced more than 12,000 assets.

Digital Summits

The global digital program combined live and pre-recorded conference content with an extensive range of campaign materials and bespoke motion assets.

Alongside the core campaign outputs, this included video bookends, lower thirds, animated speaker introductions, custom speaker graphics, live-video assets, landing pages, post-event films and follow-up communications.

Across both programs, annual production exceeded 25,000 assets. The scale and variety demanded a system flexible enough to accommodate complex, real-world requirements without relying on manual intervention at every stage.

Redesigning the way the work worked

The biggest gains came from redesigning the production process itself, rather than simply automating existing tasks.

I rebuilt the Figma systems around real production requirements, using Auto Layout, responsive specifications and defined rules for spacing, padding, typography and component behaviour. Brand guidelines became practical tools embedded in the workflow, helping designers make consistent decisions without relying on guesswork.

Documentation was also rethought. I developed a custom Figma plugin that generated detailed specifications directly from design components, including dimensions, typography, colour and layout behaviour. This made the underlying logic of the system easier to understand, apply and maintain.

The review and delivery process became part of the same connected workflow. Dynamically populated review environments brought stakeholder feedback together, while file naming, folder structures, presentations and delivery links were generated automatically.

Structured data connected these elements, allowing large volumes of assets to be generated from carefully defined templates and supplied content. Straightforward automation, applied to the right problems, proved far more valuable than adding complexity for its own sake.

I also invested in training and knowledge sharing, helping designers build the confidence and capability to use the systems independently. The objective was not to create a process that depended on a single specialist, but to establish a repeatable approach that the wider team could understand, maintain and extend.

By removing repetitive production work and unnecessary handovers, the team could focus more of its time on the decisions that genuinely required creative thinking, judgement and craft.

Security Summits: An idea taking shape

Security Summits became the proving ground for the wider approach: an opportunity to demonstrate how brand development, design systems and automated production could operate as parts of a single framework.

I conceived and designed the Security Summit identity, developing its logo and visual language as the foundation for the work that followed. The project extended beyond the identity itself, establishing a practical model for translating brand principles into a flexible, production-ready system.

The work explored how a visual identity could retain its character across different formats, languages, content requirements and event environments, while remaining consistent enough to be produced efficiently at scale.

It also provided a tangible demonstration of the wider automation concept. Rather than relying on static templates and manual adaptation, the system connected design rules, structured content and production workflows to generate finished outputs with far less repetitive intervention.

Security Summits was one of several sub-brands within the program, but it was an important step in proving how the broader methodology could work.

From identity to production system

Identity and design systems

Working with Google Cloud's internal brand team, I helped refine the Summit program's global visual language while developing the Security identity and the design system around it.

The system had to work across thousands of combinations of content, formats, languages, placements and event environments. That meant translating the visual principles into clear, practical rules that designers could apply consistently, without sacrificing flexibility.

Grids, spacing, typography, content hierarchy, responsive behaviour, motion principles, component logic and production specifications were designed to work together. The aim was to make the correct design decisions clear and repeatable, while retaining enough flexibility to accommodate the inevitable exceptions and changing requirements of a live global program.

My role combined creative direction with hands-on design and development. I led the visual direction and multidisciplinary team while remaining directly involved in building templates, refining motion, developing systems and producing key assets. Working within the system as it evolved allowed me to identify problems early, adapt solutions to real production needs and improve the framework at its source.

Building an adaptive team

The production model required a team structure that could respond to changing demands without adding unnecessary overhead.

I established the initial design and motion foundations, then expanded the team as the system developed and the program moved into wider production. The mix of design, motion, copy, production and specialist input could adapt to the requirements of each phase.

With the workflow established, additional designers could contribute without having to solve the same production problems from scratch. Clearer systems and documentation made it easier to bring people into the process, maintain consistency and direct specialist effort where it was most valuable.

The result was a flexible model that could scale to meet the work, rather than relying on a permanently expanded team.

From prototype to global rollout

An early automation prototype demonstrated that hundreds of assets could be generated from a single action. This provided a practical proof of concept for the wider approach and helped establish the direction for the subsequent Regional and Digital Summit programs.

The methodology was then developed into an end-to-end production framework, bringing design, structured data, automation, review and delivery together.

Rather than treating these as separate stages managed through manual handovers, the system connected them into a more coherent workflow. The result was a production model designed around the realities of the work: high volumes, varied content, tight deadlines and the need for consistent creative quality.

The result

Across the years I led the program, Google Summits developed into a global production operation delivering more than 25,000 assets annually across 30+ countries.

Between 2023 and 2025, agency production overhead fell by more than 50%. This improvement came from the combined effect of better systems, smarter workflows, automation, clearer responsibilities and a deliberately lean, multidisciplinary team — not from any single technology.

The framework also improved consistency and quality assurance. By embedding design rules and production requirements into the system, it reduced opportunities for avoidable errors and made final reviews substantially more efficient.

The gains extended beyond production speed. Designers and specialists had more time to focus on the work that required their expertise, while the connected workflow reduced the effort involved in coordinating, reviewing and delivering thousands of individual assets.

Beyond the brief

The work began as a response to the demands of one exceptionally complex client program. It evolved into a broader exploration of how creative production could be structured, automated and scaled.

The framework demonstrated the potential to extend beyond an internal production workflow into a platform of its own: one in which structured content and brand assets could be supplied through a guided interface, then transformed into a complete, production-ready rollout with minimal manual intervention.

That possibility changed the way the work was understood. The system was no longer simply a way to make an existing process more efficient; it suggested a different model for delivering creative work at scale.

For me, the project reinforced a principle that continues to shape my work: the most valuable design solutions look beyond the immediate brief. They create better ways of working, open up new possibilities and establish foundations that continue to deliver value long after the initial work is complete.