young promotion & Airport Staff
For their twentieth birthday, young promotion and Airport Staff invited guests to Club Astoria in Cologne, theme: the Golden Twenties. We gave the party a face, from the save the date to the cloakroom sign. And it all starts with a single ornament.
- Services
- Key visual
- Invitation with foil embossing
- Mailings and landing page
- Wayfinding and door graphics
- Stage backdrop and screen
- Dance card and drinks menu
- Stamp
- Year
- 2014–2015
The two sister companies celebrated at Club Astoria, the former officers’ mess in Cologne. The theme was set: the Golden Twenties, with period dress, a live band and a casino.
To turn a theme into an experience, you need a face that goes the whole way: from the first invitation to the last door in the house.
Lines, steps and angles like the façades of the twenties. On the axis of the ornament sit the symbols of both companies, with the lettering between them. Two companies, one party, on one line.
This one motif becomes the whole evening, sometimes as the full ornament, sometimes as a frame, sometimes as a single line.
- 01 / 04Two hosts, one axis. Everything hangs on a single vertical line, and both hosts sit on it: the young promotion sun and the Airport Staff symbol. Whoever throws the party takes centre stage.
- 02 / 04Built like a façade. From the axis, steps, angles and frames grow outwards, line by line, like the design for an Art Deco doorway.
- 03 / 04One half is enough. The other comes from mirroring, with 97.7 per cent of the gold area overlapping. That rigour makes the ornament festive rather than fussy.
- 04 / 04Lines turn to metal. Only the gradient makes the lines shine, and in the middle the stage stays clear for the lettering.
The ornament looks extravagant, yet it makes do with three directions and three stroke weights. That is why it cuts a fine figure at any size.
- 01 / 04Vertical: poise. 44.5 per cent of the edges are vertical and give the ornament its height, like pillars on a façade.
- 02 / 04Horizontal: calm. 20.3 per cent are horizontal: steps, cornices and the frame around the lettering.
- 03 / 04Diagonal: sparkle. 34.9 per cent run at 45 degrees and bring in the sparkle. A fourth direction is not needed.
- 04 / 04Three weights, one ratio. Each line is a good twice as heavy as the one before, and three is where it stops. That is all it takes for this much splendour.
The invitation is the evening’s first promise. On the cover, the ornament is embossed in gold foil; inside, golden lines frame the text.
On the back, a QR code leads straight to registration. The twenties, this time with an internet connection.
- 01 / 03Gold that is only pretending. On screen, gold is just a gradient. Convincing, as long as nobody moves the card.
- 02 / 03The artwork plans the real thing. In the print files, the ornament sits on a spot colour called ‘Folie’, German for foil. Magenta, because it is not a colour but an instruction.
- 03 / 03Real gold, in the light. Where the instruction was, embossed gold foil now sits. The invitation gleams the moment you pick it up. That is how a party begins before it begins.
A party starts long before the night. First came the save the date, then the dance class, then the dress code, then the make-up room. By the time the evening arrived, everyone had long been living in the twenties.
The landing page took the registrations and kept growing until the night.
At the door, it was already clear where the evening was heading. Inside, signs in the same frame pointed the way to the make-up room, the photo studio and the smoking lounge. Even the artists’ dressing room got its share of gold.
Behind the band, the lettering runs across five metres of stage. Beside it, a screen announces the programme, from casino and burlesque show to shoeshine boy. Twelve stations, one night.
The dance card lists charleston, swing, foxtrot, waltz and tango, each with a line for your partner’s name. Flirting by appointment, just as in the twenties.
The drinks menu carries the programme on the back. And for the smallest format, there is a stamp.
A few centimetres on the stamp, five metres behind the band, and everything an evening needs in between. Here the final artwork stands side by side, at the same scale.
- 01 / 04Tiny. On the stamp, all that remains of the ornament is the lettering; on the dance card, a fine line. It does not get any smaller, and it is still recognisable.
- 02 / 04In the hand and on the wall. The invitation carries the whole ornament, the signs in the building only its frame.
- 03 / 04At the entrance. Each door panel carries one of the two symbols. This is where the evening begins.
- 04 / 04On stage. Behind the band, the motif is 71 times as wide as on the stamp. Next to it, the stamp shrinks to a dot, while the face of the evening stays the same.
Planning something similar? info@vertikahl.com