Client
Kawasaki and Astound
CAtegory
Trade Show Design
ARTIST
Clay Carpenter
Product Duration
3 Days
PUSHING THE BOUNDRIES OF DESIGN
For the Kawasaki Unleashed RFP with Astound Group, “out of the box” and “pushing boundaries” had to be defined in a way that felt true to Kawasaki, not just loud for the sake of being loud. In round two, when Kawasaki asked Astound to go further, I was brought in at the eleventh hour to reframe the creative with a typography-forward approach that captured the brand at full tilt. The goal was to establish shared criteria that could scale across the entire footprint, creating a cohesive communications model that could stretch from one end of the show to the other while still hitting with maximum intensity. The result was a radical, high-energy visual language that felt fast, aggressive, and unmistakably Kawasaki, and yes…it helped Astound win the business.
BOLD TYPOGRAPHY
I started by pulling letterforms from multiple bold, condensed, industrial-style fonts, then chopping and recombining them into a unified word-marks with more attitude and motion than any single typeface could deliver. I treated each character as its own component, which let me introduce hard cuts, collisions, and overlaps that build tension and speed. From there, I refined kerning, alignment, and rhythm so the word reads instantly, even at a glance. Finally, I pushed scale and weight shifts to amplify the chaos and make the type feel like it is launching off the page.
APPLYING THE LOOK
When developing a design system, the real test is scalability across every touchpoint. We validated the Kawasaki show look by applying it to high-visibility event graphics and experiential design assets, including shuttle bus wraps, way-finding signage, and on-site mini apps. By stress testing typography, color, and layout rules in real-world formats, we ensured the visual identity stayed bold, consistent, and instantly recognizable from arrival to the show floor.
PROBLEMS
Sometimes you get years, months, or weeks to refine a concept, but this project gave us a single weekend. I stepped in late, set a clear creative north star, and quickly translated “push the boundaries” into a typography-driven direction that felt like Kawasaki at full throttle. From there, I broke the work into focused pieces, delegated key explorations to a talented art director, and kept the team aligned through fast, decisive feedback loops. The result was a fully formed, high-impact show look delivered in days, not weeks, and it landed as the winning concept.
