Print Design : Invites & Auction Tickets

Project: Invitations and Auction Item Tickets
Client: The ArtsCenter
Usage: We held Benefit Party for the ArtsCenter to celebrate the future construction of their new building / expansion. Theater performances, arts classes and concerts would be auctioned off.

My limited technical knowledge of print design stems from the first few semesters of my college experience so this project I had to depend solely on my design aesthetic. But alas - I’m no longer trapped in the realm of web-friendly fonts!

The gathering itself was meant to be a simple evening out for our guests where they could enjoy homemade soups and discuss new opportunities for the year with other small business owners. Keeping with that notion, our invitations and auction item tickets needed to be homemade and elegant, with a touch of branding.

The invites themselves needed to contain a ton of information so the layout was a challenge from the get go. We paired Old English with Times for legibility purposes (and the fall theme), then added flourishes as bookends to the party title because we knew that we would use florals again for our party decor and the tickets. We lined the bottom of the invites with the logos of all involved companies as an extra thanks for their generous donations.

The back of the invite is the official bus schedule for Carrboro, as it fit with our company’s values - no need to add to the road congestion, air pollution and gas consumption when you can take the bus for free! The party was located in the heart of Carrboro where all roads lead. Or should.

The auction item tickets were less difficult, but somehow more nerve racking. In exchange for a hundred dollars or so, guests would receive a piece of card-stock. Better make these pretty…

The flourishes reinforce the idea of growth and maturity, which is exactly where the ArtsCenter is headed. The chocolate brown works effectively to compliment the orange and make it pop on the “toothy” paper. Because my copy did not quite fill up the ticket, I wanted to create a double border that would encapsulate the ticket. I chose to use a brush for the inner border that looked like 4 small rectangles at 70 px and multiplied the stroke to create the segmented line effect. I liked the geometrical element it added to the otherwise organic design.

The copy is in Zapfino, a calligraphic font that adds intimacy, and maintains it legibility and its line structure without compromising its decorative element. Its is sophisticated without being overly computer-generated. The bottom font is Baskerville, smoothed, to distinguish those instructions as secondary to the auction item information. I learned quickly that the smaller the Zapfino, the more the ascendants and descendants ran together.

I took liberties with the ArtsCenter’s logo (which is sometimes a no-no) and swapped out the color of the spheres with other fall colors.

Overall, I think I would have made some of my print designer colleagues proud. I’m interested in tackling more projects like this one and expanding my repertoire.

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Post by laura on 12/03
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