Pushing the Envelope

The failures are tossed in the garbage immediately, and the successes are saved for a few weeks and thrown out after the event. Once in a blue moon, someone will hold onto one for a few years in a desk drawer. If this is how invitations are treated, why is it so important to splurge on them?

Because they’re more than invites; they’re first impressions, says Kira Evans, founder of Kira Evans Design, based in Los Angeles. “The invitation is the first time the brand is going to be seen,” she says. “Skimping on paper, printing techniques and design is a reflection of the brand.”

That’s all the more reason to create invitations splashy enough to make guests not just want to come to the event, but also admire the sponsor. To help readers achieve that goal, M&C asked five of the country’s top invite pros for a sneak peek at their latest and best work, along with a few tips for fashioning better invitations. The ultimate creations might still be destined for the trash bin, but with some careful planning, they can accomplish an impressive amount in their brief life span.

Here’s how the pros approached some creative challenges -- and ways you can apply their tactics to your own events.

Celebrating a bubbly Halloween

The company: Creative Intelligence, (323) 936-9009; www.creativeintelligence.com. Marc Friedland, founder and president of the Los Angeles-based outfit, is considered by many to be the person who invented modern invitation design. Friedland hung out his shingle in 1984 and has since catered to Fortune 500 companies and top celebrities alike. His book, Invitations (Clarkson Potter), became an instant bible in the industry when published in 1998.

The event: Veuve Clicquot Yelloween 2006, held in Miami. The Reims, France-based champagne company Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin holds a Halloween event every year, to generate buzz among VIPs in South Florida and beyond.

The invitation: The company’s brand colors are rich yellow and black, so those colors would be used in the invitation -- and then replicated throughout the event. Veuve Clicquot had a particular image in mind for the piece, that of a seductive-looking woman. Friedland superimposed the graphic on a square of mirrored acrylic. On the back, a textured black surface, the text was printed in white and yellow.

Then the invite was put into a black envelope made of treated paper that produced an almost rubbery feel and lined with yellow fabric in a moire pattern that looked like wood grain.

Tips: A simple card with a unique design and clear information can be just as effective as something glitzy. “Put energy into the envelope,” Friedland advises. “It really makes the recipients feel like they’re important.” And don’t use annoying gimmicks like confetti falling out of the envelopes, he adds. “People forget that invitations are supposed to be inviting.”

Launching luxury Manhattan apartments

The company: Alpine Creative Group, (800) 289-6507; www.alpinecreativegroup.com. This innovative printing/design outfit also has offices in Englewood, N.J., and Beverly Hills/Newport Beach, Calif. Alpine has fashioned stationery for the stars of the social and corporate worlds. “The invites we make here are not what you would find out of a standard book,” says president Howie Paster.

The event: A launch party this April for avant-garde designer Philippe Starck’s new Gramercy YOO by Starck condo apartments in Manhattan. “It was going to a really high end of the market,” notes Paster. “They were looking for something that would excite people.”

The invitation: For the front of the piece, Paster used an expensive, highly reflective mylar material imported from Europe, effectively making a mirror. The offer to “Discover yourselfÉ” was foil-stamped in orange on the mirror. Paster backed that with a piece of foam core, to make it feel substantial; on the flip side, he finished the sentence with, “in the world of Philippe Starck” in white, on an orange backing, along with the rest of the details. The invitation was placed in a reflective mylar envelope, completing the effect.

Tips: On a budget? Forgo the foam core, making it a single sheet. Or use a less reflective material. If you don’t have the budget for a designer, visit an art supply store to find interesting stocks and designs, as opposed to selecting invitations out of a book.

Creating buzz for a foundation gala

The company: Top Design, (818) 985-1100; www.topdesign.com. Based in Toluca Lake, Calif., and named for principal and creative director Peleg Top, the outfit creates cutting-edge designs mostly for nonprofits, known for their razor-thin budgets. “It really limits our ability to do those elaborate invitations that the major corporations do,” says Top.

Top Design is producing a book to arrive on shelves next spring. Design for Special Events will portray the most innovative invites among some 2,000 submissions.

The event: The Alfred Mann Foundation, which supports medical research, needed an invitation to its 2006 Innovation and Inspiration Gala. The only direction the client gave, Top says, is that it should “look classy.”

The invitation: Top’s team sifted through photographs and paintings before finding one that exemplified inspiration, imagination and elegance: a dancing woman holding a length of fabric. The client loved it so much, Top ended up building the theme of the entire event around that image.

As for colors, Top chose dark brown and coral to match the photo. “Chocolate brown has become very trendy,” he says. “It’s a color that works well with other colors.” He printed the image on a heavy card stock with metallic specks in it to make it look sophisticated, and foil-stamped the words on it. “It evoked a lot of emotion,” he says.

Tips: Certain elements look expensive but aren’t. Top recommends trying custom die-cuts, foil stamping and interesting paper. He also advises using custom invitations only for large events; without sufficient quantity, the per-unit costs skyrocket. And keep the brand in mind when designing the invitation, Top says, because “smart branding is a way to impress without spending too much.”

Opening a European consulate in Florida

The company: Dragonfly Custom Design, (407) 521-2144; www.dragonflycustomdesign.com. Lindsey Luxa founded Dragonfly about two years ago, after she couldn’t find suitably unique invitations for her wedding. The Orlando-based designer pushes the envelope in the shapes and materials she employs: wheat stalks, little toys, twigs.

The event: Last November, an office of the Austrian consulate opened in Orlando, accompanied by a regal gala at the site. The event planners approached Luxa with a request for something different.

The invitation: Luxa suggested incorporating the Austrian crest and flag to make it look stately and official. The invitation was printed via offset and mounted on metallic card stock. It was wrapped in a satin ribbon, which looked like an ambassador’s sash, and set inside a box lined with red Thai silk on the inside and covered in ivory Thai silk on the outside. The Austrian crest was attached to the outside of the box.

Tip: To cut costs, try digital printing, which isn’t as luxurious but is much less expensive than offset type.

Raising the curtain on a concert theater

The company: Kira Evans Design, (323) 954-0800; www.kiraevansdesign.com. Evans has been in business since 1999, creating invitations for entertainment industry parties, product launches and other corporate events.

The event: The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas was poised to open a new, intimate music venue, the Pearl, in April of this year. Gwen Stefani was lined up to play on opening night; the theater would be the first stop on her tour. The problem was, the invitations had to be sent out before the venue was finished. Evans didn’t know what the theater looked like. All she had was a logo.

The invitation: Evans wanted to create the feeling of being in the theater by using a pop-up invitation. A practiced paper engineer, she used intricate bookmaking techniques to design a pop-up stage, basing the structure on architectural sketches -- and a bit of her own imagination.

Guests received a big envelope in the mail, holding a slim cardboard book with a shiny black cover. Upon opening it, recipients saw the words, “You are invited to the grand opening of the Pearl Palms Concert Theater, Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas.” On the second and last page of the book, her rendition of the opulent theater, in card stock, rose up in front of them, along with the details of the event.

As Evans puts it, “Our pieces are about the reveal. It starts out as one thing, and it becomes something else.”

Tip:Begin the design process four months out. “Often, people call us so late that much of the budget goes into getting the paper in time,” Evans notes.