Event Design | The Garden Party
Project Overview
Create an identity for an organization whose mission is to provide a service that benefits others by designing and developing a specific local community event. Focus the project on the development of branded graphic-design-related materials or products that are determined to be the most useful for the event. The project will focus on combining graphic design skills with a socially responsible approach, creating visual materials to effectively communicate the organization's mission and objectives to serve others in a specific manner through a community-based event and any design-related products.
Event Overview
EAF sponsors and promotes community events across the United States. Apply for EAF to bring an event to your community. Popular EAF events include: the EAF Garden Party, the EAF Book Swap, and the EAF Need for Read Fun Run.
The EAF Garden Party: Community Leaders submit an application for EAF to come to their city and host the Garden Party. Combining funds from EAF, the city, and local sponsors, EAF will source local vendors (from your community) to support the Garden Party.
What is in it for EAF: EAF will select from their charity partners to donate a large portion of funds from ticket sales from the Garden Party. Any excess revenue will be put back into EAF to help fund future events across the US.
What’s in it for the city: The EAF Garden party allows local business owners and performers a great opportunity for exposure and promotion of their businesses. The garden party also brings the community closer as they enjoy the event together and work towards a common goal. The garden party brings in outside members to experience your city and provides revenue as well. Hotel rooms will be purchased, restaurants and amenities will be utilized.
Project Statement
Entering cities and encouraging community members to get excited about your event requires branding that stands out from what they may have seen before. The Garden Party concept is unique; its funds are focused on charity, but the event itinerary is not. The Garden Party preparation encourages community members to unite and concentrate their unique talents into one project. The event itself should be a celebration of these efforts and an opportunity to show attendees what their city has to offer.
The EAF wants people to feel that the Garden Party is worth their time and money. It is welcoming to all, but an excuse to buy a nice outfit. It is a great date night, a night out with friends, a place to meet new people, and an opportunity to showcase your business.
Empowerment for All Foundation
EAF Brand Guidelines
EAF Stationary
EAF is focused on contribution. They wish to promote community involvement while simultaneously giving to charitable organizations. EAF branding is meant to intrigue people. The organic pattern shares its visual interest and open interpretation with its logo. The logo could be seen as a person giving a hug, stacked stones, or simply fun shapes. As the EAF molds its events to match the city they are hosted in, its logo serves the same purpose.
The Garden Party
Garden Party Branding
Garden Party Illustrations
The Garden Party, one of EAF's primary events, has carefully curated branding. The Garden Party is incredibly popular and well-known across the United States. The brand guidelines created for the event act as a template, as the event is hosted in many cities around the country. Only the thin, san-serif text changes as new events take place. The contents are altered to match the host city and state.
The Garden Party takes place in the evening, a large influence in black for the logo and branding. There is also a heavy reliance on illustrations of flowers, which include many colors: pink, purple, green, and yellow. To promote legibility among the flowers, the logo will only be featured in black or white. The flowers' organic texture is intended to indicate a casual feature of the event. At the same time, the geometric features of black boxes add the impression of sophistication. The Garden Party requires a lot of effort and nurturing from its host's community members; similar to flowers in a garden, growth is a primary motivation for the event.
Design Process
Unlike many project I have completed in the past, this project allowed much more freedom. We were encouraged to set deadlines for ourselves and create a list of deliverables we would like to complete. Following this suggestion, I began with project planning. I created a list of deliverables, a calander to highlight deadlines, and an allocation of projected work hours. I cannot say I followed every set of planning to the minute, but it allowed me to understand how organization and planning are crucial to the success of your projects.
I then spent much time on the branding for EAF, the Garden Party’s parent organization. The EAF branding underwent many revisions while the Garden Party branding was less painful. I had a clear vision for the Garden Party branding from the ideation phase. However, I was unsure how the EAF branding would compliment the Garden Party branding.
Once I had landed on the branding I was satisfied with, I began illustrating individual flowers. I believed that if I had a set of flowers to incorporate into my branding, it would go much smoother. I proved myself right, and was able to create a set of deliverables that shared unique and cohesive elements because I spent so much time on the earlier phases. That was my greatest takeaway from this whole project.
EAF | Empowerment for All Foundation Branding
EAF Logo Inspiration
EAF Logo Ideation
EAF Pattern Development
EAF Branding Round 1
EAF Branding Round 2
EAF Branding Round 3
The Garden Party Branding
Garden Party Event Inspiration
Garden Party Design Inspiration
Garden Party Logo Ideation
Garden Party Logo Development
Garden Party Flower Illustration
Garden Party Flower Illustrations
Garden Party Flower Illustrations
This project allowed for a lot of creative freedom, great practice as we enter the workforce as design professionals. I would love the opportunity to practice as a freelance graphic designer someday and this project has better allowed me to understand this process. By creating my own timeline for deadlines and a checklist for deliverables, I better understand my ability to meet projections. Understanding the speed at which I work was also enhanced through this project, an essential piece in assigning project timelines. I am incredibly satisfied with how this project turned out. I wanted to approach it with a style I had yet to attempt. I focused much of my time on branding and illustration, which paid off.
Maddi Crew
