MOMNTM 2026 Conference
Modern Campus hosted their first in-person sales kickoff conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. Fueled by rapid growth and dramatic optimism for the 2026 fiscal year, the theme of Momentum is a timeless and telling motif.
Animation collab with Daniel Salaverri
What is Momentum?
Momentum is caused by inertia, a property of matter. Once an object begins moving, it tends to continue moving until acted on by an outside force. Concepts around acceleration, motion, inertia, and energy are all tied together under the theme of “momentum.”
Ultimately, the conference is about building, amplifying, and sustaining energy.
Energy created through teamwork, inspiration, strategy, and planning. The Modern Campus Sales Kickoffs have always been about launching our team into the future, the place where we are all headed, and where we want to empower the next generation of learners by serving this generation of higher ed.
I began by looking at projects with an energetic feel. I wanted to exude excitement, motion, and chaos in a design that was as modular as it was dynamic.
I reviewed various Behance projects, as well as spreads and case studies from design books like Optic and Colour Clash published by Counterprint.
With all of this in mind, I decided to start sketching various versions of the word "Momentum" in the hopes of finding a mark that spoke to the theme.
Alas, I did not find one.
It struck me that an identity that is rooted in dynamism wouldn't lend itself to a static mark. Instead, it would be a robust system of interworking elements. So I began to play with shape and color to create dynamic compositions.
After I combined objects with a shear transform, typography, and a sinuous expanded line that linked everything together, I had a cohesive set of materials to extend across deliverables.
One of my favorite ways to explore a theme is to design posters inventing various elements and applying them across designs. This helps create a sandbox environment where I can compose freely with borrowed elements, creating a self-feeding loop of discovery.
I discovered a mark in the form of a triple "M" derived from the letterform of my chosen typeface, Misto. It stands for a sine wave, carrying energy, as well as the three syllables of "mo-men-tum." As such, I abbreviated these syllables into "MOMNTM 26" for the wordmark to add punchiness and further push the idea of speed.
The conference was a huge success. Teams showed up to collaborate and innovate and left feeling more energize than when they arrived, ready to crush the year's sales forecasts.
