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.

Library Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon Invitation & Program Designs...Serving Up a Second Helping

Guitar invitation front and back.

Our library really appreciates its library volunteers. Every year, somewhere between 300 and 2500 individuals (depending on how you calculate it) selflessly provide an incredible amount of assistance in hours and effort to extend the library's operational service. Because of this, the library likes to invite volunteers to enjoy an annual luncheon together.

This year, the event planning committee selected a Brazilian guitarist to be featured at the event. From the design side, invitation concepts were designed, approved, printed, and in hand to mail out; program designs were also well into development and on schedule for completion. 

Guitar program / CD insert cover exterior (folds).

Then plans changed. The guitarist was out, and a new, more generic theme based on "the gift of time" was mandated. A scramble ensued to get a replacement speaker, develop a new invitation design concept, then print and deliver to the invitees in as little-past-deadline as possible. There's nothing quite like a change of plans after a significant amount of work has already been done to make things exciting, is there? Well, these things happen on occasion, so you just have to roll with it and hope things will work out better next time around.

Guitar program / CD insert cover interior (when opened).

So, what started out as one design concept for a volunteer appreciation luncheon, turned into two. And why not? We can say that our library loves our volunteers twice as much. Well, almost. We'll give them face time but not Brazilian music.

Clock invitation front and back.

Both designs utilized domain free photography which I modified to suit the theme. The guitar image colour was intensified by saturating it in Photoshop; text, a library logo, music note clip art, and additional photo images of utensils were added to make the guitar opening look like a table place setting. For the blue clock, its hands were topped off with the very same fork and spoon images used from the guitar concept to equally give reference to the meal aspect of the event. The final blue clock image was selected from a total of 24 preliminary designs urgently created within a few hours after the announcement that plans had changed from one theme to another.

The initial guitar concept included quarter page invitations and a program that would double as an insert into a music CD case which would also include a music CD from the guitarist. Opening the case would display the program event schedule on the flip side of that outer-facing guitar image cover. Pulling the insert out and opening it would then reveal names of all the companies that donated gifts to be raffled away to lucky prize winners at the luncheon. The music CD was going to look pretty cool. But I regress on the magnificence of what could have been.

Clock program front and back.

By comparison, the clock concept version utilized a simple front and back quarter page design for invitations, half page design for the program. Table markers based on the design were also made, folding an 8-1/2 x 11 inch sheet into a tall, 11 inch triangle pylon and set upright on tables to indicate seating table seating assignments. It wasn't nearly as exciting as the guitar concept, but hey, by then it was all about getting things done in time which I'm sure everyone appreciated.

TOTAL ITEMS:
300 Guitar Invitations (unused)
300 Clock Invitations
200 Clock Programs
24 Table Markers

Library Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon Invitation & Program 2012 Marketing Designs

Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon invitation front / back resembled a seed packet.

Event program front/ back continued the design theme.

The theme for the Alachua County Library District's 2012 volunteer appreciation luncheon centered on growing, and with an environmental horticulture agent as its featured guest speaker, I worked on the concept of promotional collaterals related to seed packet design. 


I submitted about 15 designs for consideration, and from that, developed a final design that would become the basis for applying to 300 invitations, 200 programs, 21 table marker signs, and 21 florist appreciation table tents. 


The design incorporated use of a public domain flower photo, self generated and vector clip art banners and seal, and a detail portion of a commonly used watercolour image of the Headquarters Library. A brand logo finished off two of the design elements. And...Clever Alert! ...in an effort to further resemble a seed packet, I also included a little faux seed packet language of my own, such as my "Latin" version of "volunteerus appreciatus luncheonata" and a small descriptive paragraph on the back of the invitation about this particular "variety" of volunteer. 

Triangular vertical standing table markers
indicated seating arrangements.

I would have liked the invitation to be an actual seed packet, but unfortunately the costing was prohibitive. Instead, the quarter page invitation was placed into an envelope along with a small seed packet that contained a variety of seeds.


Each promotional item was printed on 8.5x11 inch 110lb white card stock, then hand trimmed to size. Table tents and markers were folded for display.


Since real estate on the dining tables is always a premium, I created table markers that folded to form vertical standing triangle columns. The markers indicated which branch or organizational members sat at the various tables, attended by over 160 people.

Table tent front / back acknowledged the florist arrangements.

Small table tents a little larger than business cards were used to acknowledge the florist that donated the table floral arrangements.

Creepy Characters in (the Library) Popular Culture

The 118x69 inch large format alcove display poster.

In late September I asked one of the Library display team members if they had any ideas what the next display would feature after the Banned Books display came down. "No idea," she said, clearly not on her radar yet. The day before, I'd had a vision for a display, so I pitched it to her: "How about: 'Creepy Characters in Literature' or 'Fiction' or 'Popular Culture.'" I had initially thought to call it "Creepy Characters in the Library" but then thought better of it, not wanting the inference to suggest any of our patrons. That would undoubtedly be too tempting for some. By extension, I also wanted to steer away from the potential of slandering the character of real people by keeping the focus on fictional characters.


The librarian liked it, so we pitched "Creepy Characters in Popular Culture" to the rest of the team, and it was unanimously approved. With that green light, the librarian sent out an email to ask others for their creepy people suggestions, and what came back was a copious list of some of popular culture's most creepy characters of all time. Now, I have to say that for me, the term "creepy" has more to do with an observation of a person's looks and/or behaviour that results in an unsettling sense that the person appears to be capable of doing something scary, horrible, horrific, detestable, or grotesque--but has yet to actually do it. Fear hasn't actually occurred, but the concept of it has "crept in" to one's consciousness. The actual definition includes all of those secondary reactions, however, so you'll find that whereas some of the people on our list are indeed creepy, others may actually be downright frightening. And since not everyone has the same level of tolerance, you can imagine there would be a little "bleed-over" between creepy and scary (no pun intended). There are a couple on the list that I don't think look creepy, but I may not know their story well enough to rule them out (Heathcliff and Lady MacBeth, for example). A couple have a humorous quality about them, but admittedly, they also have a certain creepiness about them as well (Burger King and the GEICO money stack come to mind).


So once we had a list, I gathered photos of the entries and developed a layout to show a good portion of them. If I didn't find a very good photo of an individual, they'd have to be left off. I didn't want any low resolution pixelated images to ruin the look. For some of the lesser-quality images, I could use them for the smallest size photo locations, and for the best resolution and sized images, use those in the most prominent positions. 


I also suggested that we engage the opinions of others by making the display interactive--asking viewers to write down who their most creepy character was and place that suggestion into a jack-o'-lantern. Once all suggestions were collected, we could post the result somewhere...on a blog, on our Facebook page, or both. The librarians liked that idea, so they took on that aspect of the display. A Facebook page was set up asking for patrons to pick from a selection of five offered. Results will come later! 


The 118x69 inch large format poster was printed out in two 118x36 inch strips from the in-house Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 800, trimmed, and spliced together using double-sided clear tape, then T-pinned to the display wall. A few additional halloween decorations were added: faux spider webs, spiders, bats, rats, a styrofoam tombstone and the jack-o'-lantern to place additional suggestions in...all to strengthen the connection of the poster with the Halloween holiday.


That just leaves one question...who is YOUR creepy character in popular culture?

Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon Table Signs

With almost 200 people needing to find out where they will be sitting, table tents are a good visual cue to help them navigate to their chair at one of the 25 tables that sat 10 guests each. To maintain the visual theme, I continued using the flame motif and font on the black background. Each table was assigned to a particular branch, department, organization, or combination thereof. 

View of Table Tents (foreground) and Programs (background).

Aside from simply listing the name(s) of those aforementioned entities on the table tent, I also wanted to include language to say "Reserved For", only I wanted to have fun with it and extend it into the food theme, so I added a little extra text to the "Reserved For" line.

One of the 25 Table Tents

When you read menus at restaurants, sometimes the descriptions of the meal can be very artfully crafted. Sometimes they are very straight forward and basic. Other times they border or even cross into becoming pretentious. I wanted to develop a creative and entertaining line for each table tent that could play off of that menu-reading experience--only for mine, I wanted to incorporate a spin on it to refer to the qualities of the library participants themselves. So as you will see by way of example below, I included lines such as "Steeped in wisdom and a hearty bouillabaisse, this table is reserved for High Springs" (branch library). On the flip side, I'd write a different phrase, just so they'd have another to be entertained by. For more examples of the phrases I used, see the bottom image of text choices I came up with. Hopefully, I got a couple of chuckles or at least smiles.


When the event organizer read my selection of phrases, she emailed me: "I love your table tent design concept and all your clever “peppered’ phrases!!  “Steeped in wisdom and a hearty bouillabaisse”…How did you manage that one – Wow!  I, of course, love “Marinated overnight and sprinkled with enthusiasm” too! Many thanks for adding to the fun of the planning stages for this event! Wonderful, Scot – Thank you for your enthusiasm and clever and creative ideas towards the printed materials, decorations, etc. for the volunteer luncheon!  Working with you is a treat!"

Not to be left out, the "apron/heart strings" was included on the table tent sign as well, to reinforce the full compliment of imagery involved in the event (note, I avoided saying "to tie it all together"). These tent cards were simply printed out on 8.5x11 inch card stock, folded twice, and taped together at the free ends with double-stick tape to create a little triangle, or "tent" as it is referred to.

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 

Annual Author’s Gala Fundraising Event Collaterals

One of the largest fundraising events for the library is the annual Authors’ Gala Event organized by the Alachua County Library District Foundation. This year, the Gala will feature crime/detective novelist Michael Connelly.

Design items related to the Gala included:

Left top: Gala Ticket (front), printed on 110# card stock (note table number circle at top right corner leaves room for hand-marking in the table number assignment). Quantity: 500.

Left center: Gala Ticket (back), features the highest level of donors.

Left bottom: Evening Program Guide (cover shown), an 8.5x11in. trifold brochure printed on 110# card stock repeats the horizontal format of the ticket. Quantity: 250.

Center left: an 8.5x14in. poster. Quantity: 20.

Center right: Evening Gala Tabletop Sign (for guests to locate their tables). This was held by a metal wire stand in the center of the table. Printed front and back on 3.5x11in 110# large tent card stock and trimmed to size. Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Green circles with table numbers inside them indicate donor level of contribution. Quantity: 30.

Right: 4.94x10.5in. colour newspaper ad (black/white version also made). Quantity: 1.

Not shown: a web ad for the ACLD website home page, a Save The Date postcard (Quantity: 100) and a 120x36in. wall banner that essentially resembles the program cover without the subordinate text and moved the Foundation logo to the same level as the event display text. Quantity: 1.