Happy Llama is AIM’s AI startup summit, designed to bring founders, investors, enterprise leaders, and ecosystem builders into one high-energy environment. The 2026 platform expanded across Bengaluru and San Francisco, connecting India’s emerging AI companies with wider investment and business networks. Its programme included founder conversations, startup showcases, investor networking, the Llama Battleground pitch arena, the GrowthHub exhibition zone, and the Llama AI Innovation Awards.

Happy Llama needed to appeal to several audiences at once: ambitious AI founders, venture capital firms, enterprise decision-makers, developers, and ecosystem partners. The public proposition centred on helping startups access the right connections, expertise, capital, visibility, and opportunities to scale.

I wanted the identity to communicate that Happy Llama was a platform for builders who were willing to jump before the market had fully mapped the landing.

I built the creative direction around a deliberate contrast: serious startup ambition expressed through a playful but daring character-led brand world.

The llama mascot became the visual anchor. Instead of treating it as a decorative event character, I used it as a flexible personality that could move between campaign narratives, locations, and audience groups. It could appear relaxed and self-assured in one communication, airborne above San Francisco in another, or become the confident face of a founder-focused call to action.

A souvenir for delegates, a quiet brand asset for the summit, an archive that outlives the event.