FastAPI Conf '26

This year, we held FastAPI Conf in Amsterdam on October 28. It was the first official FastAPI conference ever, and I worked on several parts of it.

Here’s a selection of that work, along with some of the decisions and iterations behind it. The website screenshots show its state as of November 2026.

Keeping it FastAPIsh

We wanted to preserve some of the FastAPI visual identity, while giving the conference a bit of its own character, so we brought in the teal, the FastAPI lightning bolt logo, and our axolotl friend ≽(◕ ᴗ ◕)≼.

Now a curiosity you probably didn’t know: at the beginning of 2025, we wanted a mascot for FastAPI, and I suggested an axolotl. The team liked the idea, and a teammate generated the first version while playing with AI. We stuck with that little friend, and since then we’ve made variations of it and used it in different places.

For the conference materials, I worked from that existing character, adapting it for the website, newsletter, T-shirt proposal, and badges.

Building and revisiting the website

The first version of the website had a white background and a more editorial feel, with teal used mostly in the details. More recently, I revisited the design and gave teal more prominence. The hero now uses it as the main background, with a darker shade for the code panel, while the photos and sponsor logos sit on paler backgrounds. I also refined the rounded corners and spacing.

It might be a common feeling, but once I’ve spent enough time with a design, I tend to see it differently, and I enjoy coming back to them and trying something new, so this website has gone through a few iterations (and probably will continue to do so).

Convince your boss

Before the event, a teammate shared the “Convince your boss” letter template from Laravel Conf, and I thought it would be fun to make a version for FastAPI Conf, with some easter eggs.

The tone ranges from Professional to Emoji (if you know, you know), and the finished letter can be copied or opened in an email app. The tool remains available as part of the 2026 archive.

Another easter egg: IDE mode 🐇🥚

I love easter eggs hehe, so I spent some time playing with the idea of an IDE-inspired version of the site using variant, and thought it would be fun to make it a hidden feature.

Pressing . opens an IDE-inspired version of the site, with a file explorer, syntax highlighting, and a command interface.

Highlights from the day

After the conference, I added photo highlights from the day in Amsterdam. The horizontal carousel preserves the photos’ original proportions, with small pagination dots, mobile swiping, and a simple full-screen viewer.

I also added a full photo gallery so attendees can browse the day and download their favorite photos. It keeps landscape and portrait shots in their original proportions, with a viewer that supports keyboard navigation and swiping.

The gallery is built with Astro and a small amount of browser-side JavaScript. The rows adapt to the available space, and photos load progressively in batches to keep the page light. Smaller images are used for browsing, with larger versions loaded when someone opens or downloads a photo.

I also added a thank-you banner. The axolotl in it is a simpler variation I developed with AI from the team’s original mascot, then polished in Inkscape. I used the same version on the attendee badges to keep those materials visually connected.

A T-shirt for Amsterdam

Fun fact: I hadn’t planned on working on the T-shirt design. I’m not a designer, and my experience with illustration and tools like Inkscape is pretty basic. But I had some ideas in my head (and on my Pinterest), so I sketched an idea, generated a few iterations with ChatGPT Images, and shared them with the team. They liked the idea, and then I had to put my designer hat on and keep working on the proposal. 🪄

Bringing Amsterdam into the design

With Amsterdam already chosen as the location, I wanted to bring the city into the design and show the axolotl exploring it. I picked tulips, canals, and bicycles as the main elements. 🌷

I chose serif fonts and a more vintage feel, it’s a different style from the rest of the visual identity of the conferece, but it was a deliberate choice to make the T-shirt a bit more memorable. I also wanted something collectible, so for future editions, we could have a new variation of the axolotl exploring each host city.

The front stayed simple, with the conference wordmark, and the whole scene on the back. I decided on the linework and how the axolotl should look in each scene, then used ChatGPT Images to explore variations. From there, I worked on the details in Inkscape to finish the proposals.

I started with two ideas:

The axolotl rowing through Amsterdam’s canals on the left, and cycling with a basket of tulips on the right.

The team liked both, and we initially discussed making two versions of the T-shirt. But that would have made the logistics more complicated, so I proposed combining the two ideas into one.

Final proposal

The final proposal brings the two ideas together: The axolotl cycling through Amsterdam with a basket of tulips, and the canals in the background.

The T-shirt mockup shared in the conference newsletter.

This was a fun project, and I learned a lot in the process. I’m still a bit of a romantic who thinks that human art is irrepleceable, but I continue to be amazed by the capabilities of AI tools and how they can help explore and iterate on ideas. Digital illustration is still on my list of things to learn, and I hope to keep exploring it in the future.

Badge design

I also worked on the visual styling of the attendee badges. The ticketing company had already defined the content, so I only had to focus on connecting them to the conference’s visual identity. I kept the design simple, with a white front and teal back that follow the website’s palette, and the axolotl on the reverse.

The refined badge designs, front and back, with a special guest from Hill Valley.

Newsletter and communications

Lastly, I also managed most of the conference communications, including the newsletter, where I shared practical updates about the talks, tickets, and the event.