Gala Design Items

The Gala design elements came together 

quite well, however, some table signs bowed, 

due to using too thin of a paper stock (note
circled area above).

The annual Authors' Gala event, held 7 November, 2010 went off very well. The design collaterals held together quite nicely as well and provided a clean, cohesive presentation wherever seen.


I saw for the first time the printed version of the banner which was hung on the front wall behind the stage where the band played and along side the speakers' lecturn. It looked very good. The printing company called me earlier in the week to see if I had a higher quality foundation logo. The one used was a low-rez, 96dpi image which, when enlarged, they feared would become too pixelated. I agreed; most print items should start with a 300dpi image, but the 96dpi image was all that I had and referred the printer to the Foundation to see if they had a more suitable one.


I later talked with one of the Foundation members and she said that the printer ended up recreating the logo for them, a charge of $55. That wasn't bad at all, considering that the printer was actually donating the work and materials to the Foundation for the Gala--a cost worth $50. So in the end, the Foundation only had to pay $5 for the cost of the two combined and will get a better logo they can use from here on out.


The only item I was not too happy about was the integrity of the table signs. I noticed that some had begun to bow and realized that those that did were probably the ones that I printed on the 110# card stock, the same stock used for the programs and Save The Date cards. 


I thought these would hold up better because they felt about the same thickness as the large tent cards that were purchased to be used for these signs originally. Once I had started printing on the Avery-style tent cards, I had a slight difficulty aligning the artwork up with the pre-scored bevel on the tent card paper. One can never quite know for certain how the office copier will grab the paper as it runs through the copier, so there is always a little variation in where the resulting image rests on the paper. Plus, printing on front/back also adds to the difficulty to get both sides in perfect alignment with each other AND the bevels on the paper as well. Because of that, I had switched to the 110# card stock to avoid the bevels. Unfortunately, once seen at the Gala, it appeared that table signs printed on the 110# card stock were the ones to bow, while the Avery-style signs did not. Lesson learned for the future. Perhaps next time use the Avery-style card stock, but look for one without the bevels.


And to top it off, a nice note came in via email the next morning from the Foundation development chair afterwards:

Hi Scot:

Just a personal note to let you know what a joy it was to work with you on the gala projects.  You handled everything in such a timely manner and took a special interest in the event.  I'm glad that you were able to attend and to bring your lovely wife as well. 

Hope to see you again soon.
Laura