Some events are built to impress.
Others are built to move people.
The Spark Awards, hosted in Qatar on January 31st, was one of those rare gatherings where ambition met intention. It was a celebration of Muslim-led startups, founders building with values at the center, and a reminder that innovation can be rooted in responsibility, not just growth.
Sunan Designs partnered with Collective Continuum to support the visual storytelling of this event, helping shape a cohesive stage experience that matched the purpose behind the room. The result was a screen system that felt premium, intentional, and built for clarity across a live program.
About Collective Continuum
Collective Continuum is a venture philanthropy initiative advancing 1,000 ventures over the next five years with one belief:
Values move the world.
Their vision is bold. Collective Continuum is the world’s first Islamic venture philanthropy platform, built to support values-driven sparks and turn them into a lasting #forceforgood.
They exist to ensure innovation serves humanity, not just profit, by prioritizing values, responsibility, and long-term benefit over short-term gains and financial outcomes.
By aligning purpose, capital, and community, Collective Continuum identifies, resources, and supports builders who lead with integrity and create real-world impact across technology, culture, and society.
Their mission is clear:
To support 1,000 values-led ventures by 2030, creating a continuous path of purpose that carries ideas through to measurable, real-world impact.
The Spark Awards: A Platform for Values-Led Startups
Spark Awards brought together 8 top finalists, split across for-profit and nonprofit startup categories. It was designed to showcase founders and their work in a format that felt high-level, thoughtful, and deeply aligned with the event’s mission.
The event flow included:
- Guest arrival and registration
- Opening remarks and introduction
- Continuum vision presentation
- Panel discussion
- For-profit finalist presentations
- Networking break
- Non-profit finalist presentations
- Keynote speech
- Awards ceremony
- Closing remarks
From a design perspective, this agenda mattered. Each segment required a visual system that could support a smooth program, provide structure, and elevate the atmosphere without becoming distracting or overly complex.
The Design Challenge: Turning Vision Into a Visual World
Collective Continuum’s identity is deeply layered. It is modern, values-led, ambitious, and community-rooted. That meant Spark Awards visuals could not feel generic, overly corporate, or like standard event slides.
They needed to feel:
- premium and intentional
- modern and mission-driven
- rooted in Islamic values without being overly literal
- strong enough for a stage environment
- flexible enough for multiple screens and segments
The goal was to create design that did not just decorate the event, but carried its ethos.
Designing for a Real Stage
Designing for live events is a different discipline.
It requires thinking beyond aesthetics and focusing on experience. What will the audience see from a distance? What will be readable on large LED screens? How does the visual system support transitions, pacing, and live production?
Spark Awards required a multi-screen setup, including a main screen and side screens. Every design decision had to consider how content would appear across that environment and how it would support the flow of the program.
This meant building a screen system that was consistent, legible, and aligned with the Collective Continuum brand, while also being practical for real-time event execution.
What Sunan Designs Supported
Sunan Designs supported Spark Awards with a cohesive set of visual assets designed to unify the event experience across key moments. The work was built to support both the storytelling and the structure of the program.
1) Pre-Show and Countdown Screen System
Before the event began, the visuals needed to set the tone.
This included a pre-show countdown system that helped build anticipation and create a calm, premium atmosphere while guests arrived and settled.
The visual approach was minimal and intentional, using strong contrast and clean branding so the stage looked polished from the start.
2) Speaker and MC Graphics
Live events rely on clarity. When a speaker comes on stage, the audience needs to know who they are, what they represent, and why they matter.
Sunan Designs supported the event with speaker and MC graphics that introduced names and titles in a way that felt clean and professional. These assets were designed to complement the live feed rather than compete with it.
The layouts maintained a strong hierarchy, ensuring that names were prominent, titles were readable, and the overall presentation felt consistent across every speaker moment.
3) Participant and Finalist Profile Screens
Spark Awards featured multiple participants, finalists, and key individuals throughout the program. These profile screens were designed to feel elevated and cinematic while keeping the focus on readability and structure.
The design system included:
- bold name hierarchy
- clean typographic alignment
- minimal framing elements that supported the layout
- consistent brand styling across all profiles
These screens helped maintain a sense of professionalism throughout the event, especially during key introductions and transitions.
4) Panel and Judges Screens
Panels are high-energy moments where structure matters. Audiences need to understand who is on stage, what roles they hold, and how the conversation is framed.
Sunan Designs supported panel visuals for both the for-profit and nonprofit segments, ensuring that judges and panelists were introduced with clarity and consistency. These screens were designed to feel modern and high-production, matching the tone of the event and reinforcing credibility.
5) Finalist Presentation Countdown System
Timed presentations require a visual system that supports pacing without distracting from the speaker.
Sunan Designs created presentation countdown visuals that helped guide the program through finalist segments, ensuring the audience could follow timing and transitions smoothly.
This included a visual approach that allowed the countdown to feel like part of the experience, not just a functional timer. It supported the competitive energy of the event while staying aligned with the overall brand language.
6) Q&A Screens and Audience Voting
Audience participation was a key part of Spark Awards. During Q&A sessions, voting screens were designed to allow attendees to engage through QR codes.
These screens needed to do two things at once:
- make the QR code easy to scan
- keep the layout visually balanced and stage-ready
By combining startup identity elements with clear calls to action, the voting screens supported real-time engagement without clutter.
7) VIP Dinner Hall Screens
Spark Awards extended beyond the main stage. The event included VIP dinner moments and additional segments that required their own screen visuals.
Sunan Designs supported the VIP dinner hall experience with screen assets that maintained the same brand consistency while adapting to a different environment and tone.
These screens included welcome moments, session titles, and branded visuals that carried the event identity throughout the full guest journey.
8) Qur’an Recitation Screens
Spark Awards included Qur’an recitation, and these moments required a respectful, minimal visual tone.
The recitation screens were designed to support the experience without distraction. The layout focused on clarity, legibility, and reverence, presenting the verses in a way that aligned with the dignity of the moment while maintaining consistency with the event’s visual language.
Why This Work Matters
Spark Awards was not just a celebration. It was a statement about the future of Muslim-led innovation.
Collective Continuum exists to ensure innovation serves humanity, not just profit. That message needed to be felt in every part of the experience, including the way the event looked, moved, and flowed.
Sunan Designs supported Spark Awards by creating a visual system that was:
- aligned with values and mission
- built for real stage environments
- clear across multiple screen formats
- consistent across the full program
Because in events like this, design is not decoration. It is how information is communicated, how the audience stays engaged, and how the experience becomes memorable.
Building Experiences That Hold Meaning
For Sunan Designs, Spark Awards reflects the kind of work the agency is committed to: experience that carries meaning, supports mission-driven storytelling, and holds up in real-world environments. This is not the first time Sunan Designs has supported stage-led experiences either. The agency has also contributed to visual work for events like Pearls of the Qur’an, an annual conference by Al-Madina Institute that brings together leading scholars and communities for deep Qur’anic reflection, learning, and connection. Across every project, the intention remains the same: to create an experience that feels elevated, aligned, and purposeful. Because when values lead, the work lasts.
