International Mass Timber Conference
The Client
The International Mass Timber Conference (IMTC) is the premier gathering for the mass timber industry. It's a movement-defining event that brings together architects, engineers, developers, sustainability professionals, foresters, and students under one roof. Founded in 2016 by three trailblazers from the lumber industry, IMTC has grown from a passion project into the most respected conference in its space. Its tagline says it all: "Build a better business, build better buildings, and build a better planet℠."
The Challenge
IMTC had built a sterling reputation as the only must-attend event in the mass timber space — stellar NPS scores, sold-out tours, and a who's-who roster of exhibitors and speakers. But as the industry matured and the conference set its sights on 4,000 attendees by March 2025, the brand needed to grow with it. The original identity, built in 2016, no longer fully reflected the scale and sophistication IMTC had earned. Meanwhile, a competitor event — Mass Timber+ at Greenbuild — had entered the space, borrowing formats and aesthetics uncomfortably close to IMTC's own.
Bluecap Studio was brought in to modernize and elevate the brand without losing the warmth and community feel that made IMTC beloved. The challenge: look bigger and bolder while still feeling like home to the people who'd been coming for years.
Objectives
- Refresh the IMTC logo and visual identity to feel modern while honoring its roots.
- Develop a full campaign and messaging strategy to drive registrations and booth sales toward the 4,000-attendee goal.
- Reinforce IMTC's position as the definitive, market-leading event in the mass timber space.
- Create scalable design systems — signage, décor, email, ads — that could carry the new brand across all touchpoints.
- Differentiate clearly from emerging competitors like Mass Timber+ at Greenbuild.
Strategy & Execution
- Delivered a modernized brand system that unified IMTC's look and feel across all channels for the first time.
- Provided the IMTC team with a scalable, production-ready design toolkit — templates, guidelines, and assets ready to deploy immediately.
- Sharpened IMTC's competitive positioning against Mass Timber+ at Greenbuild, reinforcing its status as the original and leading event in the space.
- Gave the organization a visual identity equipped to grow alongside the mass timber movement as it transitions from early adoption to mainstream.
The Results
- Delivered a modernized brand system that unified IMTC's look and feel across all channels for the first time.
- Provided the IMTC team with a scalable, production-ready design toolkit — templates, guidelines, and assets ready to deploy immediately.
- Sharpened IMTC's competitive positioning against Mass Timber+ at Greenbuild, reinforcing its status as the original and leading event in the space.
- Gave the organization a visual identity equipped to grow alongside the mass timber movement as it transitions from early adoption to mainstream.
Summary
Bluecap Studio helped IMTC step into its next era — one defined by the same honesty and integrity that built the conference, but with the visual confidence and campaign horsepower to match its ambitions. By balancing the warmth of a community conference with the polish of a world-class event, the refreshed brand ensures that when the mass timber industry looks for its home, IMTC is unmistakably it.
