PARAGRAPH For this project, the assignment was to create an invitation for an even around the Des Moines community. Our options to choose from were 80/35, Passion for Fashion, Dam to Dam, and the World Food and Music Festival. The invitation isn’t just a card or a flyer- it should take a unique form and convey all of the information with a creative twist. The envelope also has to be produced, and it cannot be standard sized. The invitation has to be mailed, and go through the postal service. In this project I want to stay true to the event- I want the design to support it, not overpower it. Since the form of the invitation is going to be the most important, the design on it should focus on getting the message out clearly. It doesn’t matter how cool the piece looks if the recipient can’t tell what the event is about, or the time or location. I want to push myself to do something more out of my comfort zone- I really want to challenge myself and do a format that I normally wouldn’t do. The first step was to create mockups for the invitation ideas. My ideas were a runner’s bib for Dam to Dam, a silverware roll for the World Food and Music Festival, and a hanger for Passion for Fashion. I eliminated the Dam to Dam idea first- it was too overdone. After the class critique, I decided on the hanger. It was inspired by the hangers that have paper coverings on them from the dry cleaners. After I decided on that design, I got to work putting my ideas into the computer.
IDEAS
MOCKUP
It was inspired by the hangers that have paper coverings on them from the dry cleaners. The design is a black background, with purple and white text. The header text is Didot Bold and Italic, and the body text is Futura. I chose Didot, because it reminds me of the design in fashion magazines, like Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and Elle. The picture on the bottlom left inspired the colors, and the one on the bottom right inspired the envelope. I decided that a garment bag inspired envelope would fit in with the hanger invite and the event.
INSPIRATION
ENVELOPE
After I got the garmet bag idea for the envelope, I created a mockup of what it would look like. I decided to keep using Didot from the invite, but switch around the colors. Instead of a black background, the envelope would have a purple background with black and white text. It would open on the back side, on the bottom of the envelope. I decided to have part of the hanger stick out so that it would resemble a garment bag more, and it could be carried like a real hanger would be.
PAPER
On one of our days in class, Megan, a representative from Field Paper Company came in to help us pick out paper. She started off with a presentation of different kinds of paper and what they worked best for. She gave us samples, and showed us examples of how those papers were used by other designers. Then she met with each of us individually to determine what kind of paper we should order. I was planning on getting colored paper, but after she said that white text won’t show up well on colored paper, I decided to go with white paper. I didn’t want my paper to be just plain white though. I picked out thick white paper with a pearl metallic sheen and a texture. When printed on, it would have a shimmery, soft look to imitate the look of real clothing. I chose two thicknesses of it- an 84 for the invite, and a 105 for the envelope. The paper was too thick to be printed at Kinko’s or the regular Carnegie printer, so I printed it on the large format printer in Carnegie.
FINAL DESIGN
FINAL DESIGN
These are my finalized designs that I used to print. The front of the hange has basic information like the name of the event and the date, while the back side has more information about the event and registration information. The envelope has the recipient’s address, as well as a retun address. I decided to keep it simple so that the point would get across. With such a unique format, and at such a large scale, an intricate, busy design would overwhelm it. The final step of the project was to print, put together and mail the invitation.
FINAL HANGER
FINAL ENVELOPE
ART 052 SPRING 2015