Designing for Fandom: Where Brand Meets Belonging

Event ID: PP1162620

Wed, Mar 18, 2026 | 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Venue: Waller Ballroom C (Austin Marriott Downtown)

View on Official SXSW

Summary

Fandoms aren’t audiences; they’re communities. And communities thrive on meaning, identity, and emotion. Featuring anime brand Crunchyroll and global creative company Buck, this panel explores how brands use design to speak the language of fans and build deep cultural connections. From anime to gaming to pop culture collabs, motion mnemonics, and type systems inspired by subculture, we’ll unpack how visual identity becomes a tool for trust, transformation, and belonging. When done right, design doesn’t just sell, it unites.

Contributors

Raw Event JSON

Large nested arrays are compacted for page readability. Full payload remains in dataset files.

Open JSON payload
{
  "id": "PP1162620",
  "track": "Design",
  "focus_area": null,
  "category": "Fireside Chat",
  "event_id": "PP1162620",
  "event_type": "panel",
  "format": "Fireside Chat",
  "genre": null,
  "subgenre": null,
  "name": "Designing for Fandom: Where Brand Meets Belonging",
  "presented_by": null,
  "publish_at": "2025-12-03T19:44:00.000-06:00",
  "reservable": true,
  "reservable_id": "PP1162620",
  "reserved": false,
  "date": "2026-03-18",
  "end_time": "2026-03-18T15:30:00.000-05:00",
  "start_time": "2026-03-18T14:30:00.000-05:00",
  "message": null,
  "image": {
    "alt_text": "Designing for Fandom: Where Brand Meets Belonging",
    "credit": null,
    "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/9oh8NVNgmo6hHgm55PteC4yNK6c=/950x633/images.sxsw.com/187/47372ac5-4f11-3e51-6f2b-a6833bd41804/pp1162620"
  },
  "credentials": [
    {
      "name": "Platinum Badge",
      "type": "platinum"
    },
    {
      "name": "Innovation Badge",
      "type": "innovation"
    }
  ],
  "contributors": [
    {
      "id": 110997,
      "company": "BUCK",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2287820,
      "name": "Ben Langsfeld",
      "speaker_types": [
        "Speaker"
      ],
      "title": "Chief Design Officer",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Ben Langsfeld",
        "credit": "",
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/s7Lpq1z2ONeSXp32-eWzTuso9n4=/0x64:960x1024/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/304b5f43-c19a-4122-8014-2602240fd163/pcid-1666890"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Ben Langsfeld is Chief Design Officer at BUCK and within the Residence network, where he focuses on the architecture beneath extraordinary work. He sits between strategy and craft, building systems and brand strategies that scale creative intelligence.\r\rHis partnerships span leading technology and culture-shaping companies such as Apple, Google, Meta, Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, Samsung, OpenAI, JPMorgan, IBM, and Amazon. He has also directly led projects for clients including Notion, Sherwin-Williams, Pepsi, Cash App, Eventbrite, Nike, IBM, and Google. Across these collaborations, he applies cross-industry insights to uncover root causes of business challenges and helps organizations move from interesting to undeniable.\r\rAs a founding member, Ben has shaped BUCK's growth into a company with 450+ people across five cities. Today he focuses on strategic offerings, client relationships, and creative talent mentorship. He has lectured at D&AD, It's Nice That, and Future London Academy. His favorite projects include work for Notion, IBM, BBC, Sherwin-Williams, Pepsi, Nike, Apple, Google, and BUCK itself.",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    },
    {
      "id": 79572,
      "company": "Crunchyroll",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2240727,
      "name": "Norman Rabinovich",
      "speaker_types": [
        "Speaker"
      ],
      "title": "Vice President, Creative Services",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Norman Rabinovich",
        "credit": null,
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/lNcspjZ_J70NTjMgl3EcaYHapoc=/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/2939f589-d8b4-25af-462d-42dec2e1a9d1/pcid-1627764"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Norman Rabinovich is a Creative Director with over 20+ years of experience creating visual identities, digital interfaces, retail experiences and campaigns for some of the most well-known and least well-known domestic and international brands. He is currently the VP of Creative Services at Crunchyroll, the global brand that fuels fans’ love of anime.\n\nOriginally from Riga, Latvia, brought up in the US, and trained at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, Norman has served in creative leadership roles for both agencies and in-house companies across industries.\n\n",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    }
  ],
  "venue": {
    "accessible": false,
    "age_policy": null,
    "floor": null,
    "id": "V2049",
    "indoor_outdoor": null,
    "mixhalo_url": "https://translate.mixhalo.rocks/432?venue_id=432&partner=true",
    "name": "Waller Ballroom C",
    "parent_id": "V2024",
    "parent_venue_name": "Austin Marriott Downtown",
    "venue_entry_info": null,
    "formats": null,
    "location": {
      "address": "304 E Cesar Chavez St.",
      "lat_lon": [
        30.2628298,
        -97.74157
      ],
      "city": "Austin",
      "postal_code": "78701",
      "state": "TX",
      "name": "Austin Marriott Downtown"
    },
    "root": {
      "id": "V2024",
      "name": "Austin Marriott Downtown",
      "mixhalo_url": null
    },
    "events": "[omitted 5 venue events]"
  },
  "description": "Fandoms aren’t audiences; they’re communities. And communities thrive on meaning, identity, and emotion. Featuring anime brand Crunchyroll and global creative company Buck, this panel explores how brands use design to speak the language of fans and build deep cultural connections. From anime to gaming to pop culture collabs, motion mnemonics, and type systems inspired by subculture, we’ll unpack how visual identity becomes a tool for trust, transformation, and belonging. When done right, design doesn’t just sell, it unites.",
  "experience_level": "Beginner",
  "audio_url": null,
  "accessibility": [
    "Closed captioned"
  ],
  "accessible_venue": false,
  "add_bcl_url": false,
  "add_slido": false,
  "after_midnight": null,
  "age_policy": null,
  "american_sign_language": false,
  "apple_url": null,
  "audio_description": false,
  "caption_url": null,
  "captioned_qa": false,
  "closed_captioned": true,
  "cpe_credit": false,
  "event_status": "none",
  "has_subtitles": false,
  "hash_tags": [],
  "high_sensory_experience": false,
  "live": false,
  "long_description": "Fandoms aren’t audiences; they’re communities. And communities thrive on meaning, identity, and emotion. Featuring anime brand Crunchyroll and global creative company Buck, this panel explores how brands use design to speak the language of fans and build deep cultural connections. From anime to gaming to pop culture collabs, motion mnemonics, and type systems inspired by subculture, we’ll unpack how visual identity becomes a tool for trust, transformation, and belonging. When done right, design doesn’t just sell, it unites.",
  "meeting_url": null,
  "meeting_url_live": false,
  "mentorly_url": null,
  "mobile_audio_url": null,
  "open_captioned": false,
  "playlist_tag": null,
  "rebroadcast": false,
  "recommended_ids": [],
  "search_conversions": null,
  "short_program": false,
  "slido_url": null,
  "sort": "DESIGNING FOR FANDOM: WHERE BRAND MEETS BELONGING",
  "source": "Official",
  "squad_up_url": null,
  "stream_embed": null,
  "stream_id": null,
  "stream_url": null,
  "strobe_warning": false,
  "subdiscipline": null,
  "summit": null,
  "summit_display_name": null,
  "tags": [
    {
      "id": 1094,
      "name": "Branding",
      "created_at": "2016-11-28T14:54:15.982-06:00",
      "updated_at": "2022-02-14T12:07:45.213-06:00",
      "sort": "BRANDING",
      "alpha": "B"
    }
  ],
  "talent_attending": null,
  "title_only": false,
  "track_display_name": "Design",
  "trailer_id": null,
  "trailer_url": null,
  "video_on_demand": null,
  "vimeo_id": null,
  "vod": false,
  "xr_project_type": null,
  "youtube_id": null,
  "related_events": [],
  "related_sales_client": null
}