Making the Brand at Make with Notion

When we decided to host a conference for our users, there was one guiding question we kept coming back to: What would it feel like to spend a day with Notion?

What would a physical manifestation of our product feel like? How could we convey the way we build it both on the keynote stage and off? And how might we invite our community to show off how they use it to build their life’s work?

Over the span of six months and many Notion docs, Notinos worked side-by-side with two agencies to bring the answer to life. Here’s a peek at how it all came together inside a (54,000 square foot!) space that mirrored Notion as a product, as a company, and as a community.

Our goal was to find a venue that reflected the qualities people are drawn to in our product: openness, filled with light, and elegantly designed.

After scouring our home base of San Francisco, we landed on Pier 27: an airy building with clean lines, beautiful natural light, and unobstructed views of the Bay Bridge. While many conferences cover up elements of their space (often literally building walls or masking them), our vision was to maximize these qualities to mimic the feeling of using Notion: We threw the doors open, let the light pour in, and used the floor-to-ceiling windows to frame the bridge.

To capitalize on the light, we were inspired by the late American artist Robert Irwin. We suspended translucent fabric scrims from the ceilings to divide the cavernous space and bend the beams coming into the venue.

To reflect the way our users tinker and create extraordinary tools with Notion’s block-based system, we used simple, humble materials like cardboard, paper, and Ram Board for our furniture, walls, and built structures.

A Notion page is also akin to a flexible space. To reflect this, we dedicated open areas for attendees to think, learn, and share—creating extemporaneous opportunities for our tight-knit global community to connect in person over a love of building. In the words of an attendee, “Cannot put into words how much I enjoyed meeting other creators and new friends.”

The circular spaces we built across the conference were also designed to contrast the rectilinear spaces of the the blocks, lines, and windows.

Good furniture and good coffee have been the bones of how we build Notion since the beginning—our first office had an Eames chair and the espresso machine we still use today! We have a penchant for iconic chairs and couches—a devotion so central to our identity that we ferried our cherished office furniture over from our headquarters. Dotting the space with our furniture (paired with wells of also-beloved Cometeer) were ways we literally shared the experience of working from our offices with our attendees.

Notion is a product made up of building blocks (or as we like to say, LEGO for software). To bring that concept to the space, we developed a library of modular digital, Tangram-inspired shapes that could be easily arranged into different visual needs. These block-like shapes took countless forms—from patterns and icons to illustrations and letterforms—to build an identity that conveyed the essence of Notion: simple tools with endless possibilities.

Through the many permutations of these shapes, every element across moments (animations for the screens, the website, the merchandise, the signage, the food) was woven into one continuous, unique brand experience.

What did it feel like to spend a day with Notion? It felt like the buzz of 1,000 (well-caffeinated) makers and the electricity of new ideas and new friends—like a community brimming with the optimism it takes to build your life’s work. We’re grateful to have had the chance to bring that feeling to life. 🖤

Thank you to our incredible creative partners: Design, Bitches, for their support with interior design; and Order, for their close collaboration in the visual identity.