Blending Tech & Music: RubyConf Austria
A visual identity that connected Vienna’s musical heritage with the Ruby developer community, designed to work across every conference touchpoint.
Scope
Visual identity, event collateral, website concept
Role
Art direction, creative direction, UX/UI design, graphic design
Year
2025–2026
Goal
An identity that celebrated Vienna’s musical heritage without losing the conference’s technical roots.
Key decision
One mark fusing a piano silhouette with the Ruby gem, carried into the community’s passport-stamp tradition.
Result
A coherent system across digital, print and event touchpoints that attendees embraced.
The challenge
RubyConf Austria took place at Das MuTh theatre in Vienna, with live piano and jazz woven throughout the program. The organizers, a returning client, wanted an identity that celebrated the city’s musical heritage without losing the conference’s technical roots. The question was how to bring music and technology together in a way that felt authentic rather than decorative. Many attendees turned out to be musicians or had a personal connection to music, which made music a genuine trait of the community, not just a theme.
Approach
I explored several logo directions. The piano-inspired route won because it tied the venue, the program and the community into one mark: a piano silhouette combined with the Ruby gem. I kept the system deliberately minimal, with a restrained palette, editorial typography and a small set of graphic elements, so it would stay consistent across many formats. I applied it to social media, merchandise, accreditation badges, lanyards and a custom passport stamp. The stamp was a strategic choice: collecting stamps in Ruby Community Passports is a long-standing tradition, so it placed the identity inside a ritual attendees already cared about. I also set the website concept and visual direction, then handed it over to the organizers’ team for development.
Outcome
One coherent system across digital, print and event touchpoints, before, during and after the conference. Attendees embraced the concept and responded very positively to the identity. Having designed EuRuKo 2024 for the same team let us pick up where we left off and move faster with more confidence.
Looking back
Grounding the concept in something the community genuinely shares made the identity easy for attendees to adopt.
Next project
Hiring, or have a project in mind?
I’m open to full-time brand and visual design roles and to freelance projects. Tell me about the role or the project below, or email me at hello@zehriich.com.