Appian SKO Mosaic
January 2025
CLIENT
Trademark
DATE
4 weeks
DIMENSIONS
4.25’ H x 6.25’ L
DURATION
Appian has an annual Sales Kick-Off (SKO) for its salespeople, and to add an engaging, team-building activation to the video-game themed event, I was contracted by the event production company Trademark to bring a tactile experience to their audience over the course of 3 days in Orlando, Florida.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
LEVELING UP WITH LEGO BRICKS
First, I had a couple of calls with the Trademark team in mid-late December, discussing the desired scope of the project and communicating project milestones and necessary steps to take to pull this off successfully for a mid-late January deadline.
Once we arrived at a plan to communicate with the marketing team at Appian, we coordinated creative efforts across myself and a brand designer on their team to create an image that would include a broad range of colors that would make it fun for attendees to guess what the build would be.
Preparing the MOSAIC
When I arrived in Orlando, a few days before the event, I went straight to constructing the stand and preparing the experience for their attendees. For a mosaic this large, we needed to use plywood as a base, to withstand the multiple people who would be pressing into it to place their part of the mosaic into the board. I added casters in order to move it to its ideal place where they would pass it by and build as the days passed.
Unveiling the magic
The assembly started early in the morning, ready for attendees to begin building portions of the mosaic over the 3 days of the event. The activation brought together coworkers who worked in the same job function, but also provided opportunity for cross-function introductions to occur throughout the event.
UItimately, hundreds of Appian employees took part in building the mosaic over the course of the 3 days, both in between sessions as a fun break to play, as well as during an extended happy hour that was also hosted.
The theme of this year’s event was Level Up, which came replete with video game imagery of multiple applications - arcade cabinets, controllers, and most frequently, pixel art, which was perfect to capture with LEGO bricks. In working with the designer, I gave them guidance to create something that had gradients that I could easily capture with the color catalog the LEGO Group possesses, as well as do’s and don’ts to consider as he was creating the image
Once I received it, I tweaked it using my own design chops to make the grid consistent with itself, ensure the diagonal lines were parallel with themselves, and that the lettering was legible and clear.
To create an ideal experience for attendees to self-sort and drive themselves without minimal help, I printed 720 separate diagrams (!) with 48 colored squares each to represent 48 pieces. Each color had an assigned number, and those numbers were present on each colored square on each diagram to allow for optimal wayfinding and accessibility; for those that might be colorblind, they’d be able to sort and choose the right color as well.
This engagement also worked well because Appian is a company that sells a platform as a service to their customers; an easy way to build apps with low-code, in ways similar to how LEGO sets are assembled. They’ve got an affinity towards the brick, to the point that when they onboard clients, they might create a custom build to celebrate their new relationship - so using LEGO bricks was a perfect medium to facilitate fun and team-building in a moment that’s meant to bring the entire team together to raise spirits and motivate them to reach their goals in 2025.
LEGO bricks aren’t just a toy, they’re a medium of art and a learning tool that can be applied in any and every context to give people the chance to learn while they play.
Get in touch with me to learn how we can create something incredible like this for your brand, organization, or company’s needs.