Event Mailer
Research/Inspiration For the event mailer, we had the opportunity to choose between 5 different Des Moines events for our event mailer. I decided to choose the World Food and Music Festival as my event. I chose it because I love both of those things very much and I had a few ideas of what I could do for my mailer. I spent a lot of time on the website looking at the color scheme and it was red, grey, and white. I wanted to keep the red color. When I think of world and food my mind automatically goes to Europe and Italy. With the red I wanted to keep that rustic feel with my design and I wanted use a lot of creams and browns. I knew I wanted to incorporate a map in there somehow and I wanted it to look very old fashion. I wanted the entire mailer to have an old fashion feel to it.
These are a few older advertisements I found online. With the first one, I definitely wanted my event mailer to have some type of texture like that. I figured though from the start that the texture would come from the paper though. The second one I found online was definitely my inspiration for the cream and brown colors in my event mailer.
Sketches...
These were my original sketches. For my first one, I wanted it to be kind of like a little booklet. I wanted the front to be the world and as you flip it, each page zooms in more and more into Des Moines. Then it would go into the information. The second design on the page was my favorite. I wanted it to incorporate the shape of the world by it being a circle invitation. I wanted it to fold up and be a map on the outside and then open up into the world with the information on it. Then I wanted the envelope to look like a pocket so it’s like keeping the world in your pocket. The third idea was like a booklet as well but in the shape of the world. Similar to number one but then fitting into an envelope that looks like a pocket as well.
First Sketched Prototype
My first sketch of the booklet transformed a bit once I turned it into it’s 3D form. I came up with the idea of having it as a passport instead of just a booklet. The first page would have most of the general information on it. The World food and Music Festival logo would be the passport photo. Then the next couple pages of the booklet would be different vendors. I wanted it to be like going and getting each page stamped as you went from vendor to vendor, like travelling around the world. I got this idea from a music festival a few years ago. I was also getting my visa and study abroad stuff in order at the time and decided it could be a cool iea. They incorporated the same idea, receiving stamps at the festival and keeping the passport as your souvenir. The passport would have been a dark brown and the inside pages be a light brown. I would want the typography to be red and I’d choose a type that fitted the what most passports use.
Second Sketched Prototype
My second prototype was my favorite out of them all and the class favorite as well. It starts off folded into a map with a map design on the back. and then it opens up into the shape of a circle into the world. The information would then be on each litle square. My idea was to have little circles or flags on the map on the inside to indicate where all the food was going to come from around the world.
Third Sketched Prototype
My final design was the bookelt but in the shape of a circle. The outside would have a picture of the world and then the inside would flip open and each page would have information about the event and the vendors. The last page would hold a little pocket with the map of the festival as a take away. For this design I would want the typography to be red and then booklet be a cream incorporating browns.
InDesign Prototypes From my three protytpes I showed in class, the class and I all agreed that the second one (circle shaped mailer) was the best one. So from here, I brought my idea onto the computer to start working on inDesign. I came up with four designs to show to the class in our next round of critiques. The first three designs are the outside of the event mailer, what it would look like unfolded in a circle. They are all very similar, I just had different colors for each one that I wanted to show the class. The fourth design is the insde of the event mailer, once it is flipped over.
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SEPTEMBER 19 – 21, 2015 Trinidad Tobago Mesoptamian Arabic Spanish Asian Latin American Laotian Thai Dutch French American Ethiopian Cajun Filipino
The World Food & Music Festival is Des Moines’ premiere taste and entertainment event featuring international cuisine, live music and performing arts, cooking demonstrations, wine and craft beers, a world marketplace and non-profit organizations showcasing interactive activities. The event is completely free to attend! Guests can taste their way around the world as each food vendor offers $1 taste samples and full-plate options of culinary favorites for no more than $5.
Italian Hawaiin Korean Mexican Indian Mediterranian Ukranian Russian Greek Moroccan Ecuadorian Cambodian Thai Bosnian Salvadoran
The type face I used was Century Gothic and Arial Narrow. I was trying to keep the font on the event mailar and the actual logo very similar. The countries on the sides are the countries where the food vendors are from. This was my favorite one I created because of the creams/browns used. I wanted to keep it a rustic feel to it. I found a old fashioned map online and changed up the colors a little bit.
The first two maps are the same. I found a generic map online and then fixed/changed the colors on Illustrator. The last photo I found online as well. I was searching for a more old fashioned looking map. I also brought it onto illustrator and started fixing up the colors. I changed the reds on the left side to be darker then the ones on the right.
The class agreed that the final design was their favorite. They liked the colors I used and they really liked the fact that it opened up into a circle. The critiques I got on the outside were that they didn’t like the white box around the logo. They would rather it just be the logo. I knew that I had to figure out a way to get rid of the white background without having the entire logo blend too much into the map because they had similar colors. Neil did mention that I could find a brown colored paper to use so so that I just printed out the red on the outside. I decided that was a great idea and knew I would go with it once I worked on my final design.
Some critiques on the outside was that they didn’t like some of the font choices. There also wasn’t enough about music or information on the venue which I knew I still had to add in. I still wanted to find a good way to put everything in there. Throughout the whole process, I really liked the idea of a circle as the invitation. But I still didn’t like how it looked when it was unfolded. I liked the circle look idea but the way the folds looked still bugged me. I wanted to try and figure out a way to make it open up still like a circle, but with less folds too it.
Final Design
I decided to use Neil’s idea with the paper and to get rid of the background and only have the red land be printed. So I brought the photo back into illustrator and expanded it to only 2 colors. then I deleted the background cream color and changed the red to a darker color that I liked better.
From some examples I found at the beginning of the project from researching, I noticed that they stacked the world food and music festival logo. So I decided to do that on the outside. I kept the colors the same throughout. They are a dark red and brown.
SEPT. 18 – 20. 2015
OVER 50 INTERNATIONAL FOOD VENDORS
Join us for the annual World Food & Music Festival: Des Moines’ premiere taste and entertainment event! Featuring international cuisine, live music and performing arts, cooking demonstrations, wine and craft beersit’s a weekend you don’t want to miss! While listening to some live music, Guests can taste their way around the world! Each food vendor offers $1 taste samples and $5 full-plate options of culinary favorites.
20 LIVE
BANDS
Fri. 11 am - 10 pm Sat. 11 am - 10 pm Sun. 11 am - 5 pm
As you can see, I switched the inside up quite a bit. The fonts I used are almost all the same except for the Downtown Des Moines and Free Admission. That font is Krungthep. The rest used is just Arial. From my critiques and based on the way it looked, I got rid of the list of countries. I also added the 20 live bands because I knew there wasn’t enough with music added in. From the website, I found the fork and note symbol. I took it and brought it into illustrator where I enlarged it and changed the colors. The background of the entire thing is white on here but when it is printed, the colored paper will show through.
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I found an envelope that was the right size for my mailer. I then took it apart and measured the sides to redo it on InDesign.
With the print before the final print on good paper, I decided to experiment with the cutting. I cut along the side of some of the folds. This way when you open up the event mailer, you aren’t constantly pressing it down to keep it open. That was what was initally bugging me. Neil looked at this and gave me some last minute edits before printing on the good paper. I wanted me to make the whole square of text in the middle a bit smaller. He also didn’t like the random font I had for DOWNTOWN DES MOINES and FREE ADMISSION. He told me to just keep it all the same font so before printing the final, I changed everything to Arial.
FINAL PRINT!!!
I chose a heavy cardstock to print the final event mailer. What happened when I ended up printing it was the color red changed to more a purple based on the color paper I printed it on. But Neil and I both liked it so I didn’t change anything. I got rid of the other lines before printing it so that there weren’t lines on the inside of my event mailer where the folds were supposed to be. What I liked when printing the final mailer was how the ink looked against the paper. I originally wanted it to look rustic and old fashioned. There are some spots on the outside with the map and inside where the ink is kind of faded or not inked super dark on there. I like the way that looks.
I used a bone folder the fold the final mailer. It aws pretty hard because I wanted everything to match up well. I think it turned out great! My original design had brown ink on it but it wasn’t dark enough so I changed it to black so that it contrasted against my paper. So instead of red and brown for my final mailer it’s more of a purple and black. But I still like the way that turned out!
I really liked the texture of this paper too. It had cool lines across it giving it an awesome look and feel. So the ink didn’t reach everywhere on it but I like the way it looked faded in some spots.
The End!