Marketing Design Collaterals for 2014 Library Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon

To strengthen recognition of any single event, its marketing collaterals
should be created to maintain a cohesive look from one piece to another.

Top row: starting images.
Bottom: modified images.

For the 2014 Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon, the library chose John Cech, who—among a variety of notable accolades—was Director of the University of Florida’s Center for Children’s Literature and Culture. He planned to speak about local Florida “treasures” that literary work had written about.

In conversations with my internal client, we agreed on exploring a visual solution that imparted the idea of a long-held keepsake from childhood that over the course of time might have become a little worn but nevertheless remained a personal treasure for the memories it evoked. 

Since the event was for a library, it was only natural to settle on a book concept—if for no other reason than to help present the essential invitation and program information. A book or personal journal could be the quintessential keepsake. 

Two sides of printed
program cover.

Next was to create something that looked like an “old book.” I already had a selection of domain free images of textures I could tap into from previous projects, and easily selected a brown leather grained material to be the cover of the book. A second book cover image had a wonderfully aged texture and decorative flower motif that would serve well as an accent to the primary cover material image. As it turns out, I also use the same image used in black/white as a pattern inside large “brackets” in the quarterly library newsletter, THINK...., so there is already a subliminal connection to the library for those who really look hard. 

Both original images needed to be modified for use in the luncheon event, however. I brightened both up and also changed the dark brown leather to be purple. The purple/gold combination looked more festive—perhaps a little more regal or “award ceremony-ish”—it was certainly a more youthful than the darker and duller original images. My client remarked that the purple/gold comination reminded her of the book The Little Prince; I was leaning toward Harold and the Purple Crayon myself. Neither was spot on, but hey, if the colour choices emparted any specific childhood book then I was already on target.

250 single-sided printed invitations on
 110lb stock before folding into card.

I planned to use the purple leather as the exterior cover of the book, then use the gold patterned image as an interior cover end paper surface. Once I placed text on the cover, however, I decided I wanted the cover to be more immediately recognizable as a book, so I included the gold accent image along the spine. I also used the accent pattern inside of a gold star that rested atop the display text, providing readers with an eye-catching place to start reading from.

I also wanted a playful, hand-generated looking display font with a thick line weight so it could still look bold even if used at a small point size. For this, I chose a font named “One Starry Night.” For the bulk of remaining text, I kept with the library’s corporate standards of Arial and Adobe Garamond.

The completed print invitation.

The first item of business was to create a print invitation in order to get it mailed out to recipients with enough advance notice. The library had typically used front/back printed quarter page card stock inserted into invitation envelopes for mailing. But because this theme involved a book design, I wanted this year’s invitation to be a “mini book” of sorts, with a cover and at least one internal page spread to open to. Having that would mean there would be four individual pages to provide information on in addition to the external and internal cover surfaces (not that I would advocate filling every open surface with text). It worked out well to have the event name on the cover; an invitation message on the first inside page; speaker credentials information on the left interior spread; event theme and essential date/time/location information on the right inside spread; and RSVP information requirements on the back inside page. The back cover and inside cover end pages could remain decorative and uncluttered. 

The e-vite version of the event invitation.

A separate RSVP card was created to be tucked into the invitation, but was later cancelled in favour of having attending guests either phone or email in their RSVPs. I was hopeful that the interior 24lb text pages could be bound to the exterior 110lb card stock cover by using a thin gold stretchy band, but due to a limited budget we used a thin, tan rubber band which--although cheap--didn't look terribly bad.

Checking program trim and alignment.

With the invitation setting the tone for the visuals, an e-invitation image was created to mimic the print invitation. This image would accompany electronically delivered invitations to invited guests. It would be followed up a few weeks later with a save-the-date email that included an instantly recognizable theme design image as an reminder.

Taking its cue from the invitation design, the event program would follow suit. It would utilize the same invitation book style and be more substancial in content with 12 interior pages: an opening dedication page; speaker bio; event schedule; six pages of branch volunteer highlights; a spread highlighting the speaker’s key points with a map to refer to their location; and a list of contributors to thank. Two slits into the back cover would hold in place a discount entrance ticket to one of the locations from the speaker’s list.

Above, below:
program interior pages.

The interior pages looked too stark and cheap against the detailed texture of the inside cover end pages, so I wanted to find something that had a little texture to it but not so much that it competed with the inside cover textures. I used an image of a handmade paper that had thin fibers and some golden accent leaves in it. After toning the original image back to 30% brightness, it provided a nice compliment to the cover textures. For continuity from page-to-page, I also made use of the gold patterned star as an accent above disaply text ascenders, as text bullets, and site locations on the map. Like my hope for the invitation, I hoped the program would make use of a nice, decorative gold stretch band. But finding materials within budget was a challenge. In the end, although a single staple held interior pages to each exterior cover, a length of gold yarn was used to hide the staple. It wasn't anyone's first choice, but it worked for those concerned with budget issues and the appearance of appearing too extravagant with public funding; a reasonable concern, of course.

While program language was being developed by others, I worked on designs for a raffle winner star and a discount ticket to one of the speaker’s destinations of choice. The raffle winner star was quick and easy: I picked up the accent star icon from the invitation and program, added a border around it using the purple cover texture, added the words “You Win!” inside the star, then duplicated the design multiple times on a single 8.5x11 inch page and them out for cutting out with an X-acto blade.



The discount ticket would require a little more work. I wanted it to have a carnival or movie ticket shape and use the same purple/gold textures. I created an outline of the ticket shape in Adobe Illustrator, then did the same with the border design. I turned the border into an outline stroke that I could import the gold texture into, then saved it as an image to place on page over top of the purple background texture. The ticket required text on both the front and back, so I placed that language into the center of the ticket. 

Program coupon front / back.

Originally, I wanted to have the border treatment on both sides of the ticket, but the paper pick-up on the office copier I used varied too much from page-to-page for me to count on a reliable alignment of front-to-back images. To address this, I opted against using a border treatment on the back of the ticket and centered text in a box ghosting out of the gold accent paper image instead.

Twentyfour table assignment markers were next to complete. I used 8.5x11 inch 110lb card stock pages to duplicate a design three times per page so that I could fold the page into a vertical pylon. Enough unprinted excess left on one side of the page provided me with enough room to act as a tab I could double stick tape to the leading end on the opposite side. To coordinate it with the other designs, I used the program page image of the handmade paper for the primary background of the table marker, used the purple and gold book image patterns for accent, along with the gold star.

Three-sided table markers.

Collateral designs produced for this event included:

Print Invitation (250)

Print Invitation Interior Pages (250)

E-Invitation Image (1)

RSVP Invitation Insert Card (Created but cancelled)

E-Save The Date Image (1)

Raffle Winner Stars (23)

Event Program Gift Coupon (250)

Event Program Exterior Cover (250)

Event Program Interior Pages (6 pages x 250)

Event Table Reservation Markers (24)

Event Table Veggie Plate Markers (12)

Some production shots. Upper left: trimming invitations; Upper right: trimming
invitation interior page; Middle left: notes on printed coupon pages during
effort to align printed fronts and backs; Middle right: cutting out scallop portion
of coupons after printing both sides; Lower left: cutting and folding programs;
Lower right: trimming collated interior pages of program before stapling together.