holiday party 2022
My aim was to make this gathering inclusive, welcoming, warm, and non-denominational as a secular way to celebrate the light in the darkness of winter before our term’s submission deadline — especially for those students, like me, who were far from home.
I invited everyone in my Graphic Design course, as well as others that I had made connections with at that point in the year. The day after the gathering, I noticed a kind of warm glow of camaraderie. It felt good to be a part of fostering that, and it helped inspire me to make more connections — and to later host the inherently ephemeral gathering.
My parents raised me to celebrate the holiday season in a way that honors nature & cozy togetherness, and I was inspired to share that with my new friends and peers, 3,000+ miles away from “home.”
Here is the Save the Date that I distributed to the guests, its necessary elements boiled down to the minimum. Keep swiping to see a breakdown of this project.
If I was completely insane (or had a lot more time than I did), I would have designed each invitation so that there was a unique snowflake in it.
I was pleased with this invitation design, where the need-to-know contents are confined to a strip of paper, with a welcoming phrase on the other side of it in my script, and the heart of it is a quirky little paper that demands enagement: “HOLD ME UP TO THE LIGHT.” When you oblige, the snowflake cutout appears, as if by magic.
"Let us" greets you as you open the envelope. The invitation invites you, encourages you to open it fully.
While I made each envelope, handwrote everything, and designed all of the components of the invitation for the holiday party, I did not make the sticker.
I designed and cut unique snowflakes to suspend from the ceiling.
The shadows they cast on the walls were lovely during the day ...
... and the night, especially with the warm glow of the tree.
I had hand-lettered signs dispersed around the party, informing guests where the recycling was, etc. I knew I couldn't be everywhere at once, so I wanted to create ways for the guests to feel at home and comfortable in the space.
As the invitation indicates, this event was a pot luck, so everyone contributed a little something. In keeping with the bright, cheerful burst of citrus on the tree, I made clementine segments dipped in dark chocolate with salt sprinkled on top.
I made a paper wreath for the door of my flat, using cardboard that I reused and repurposed from a delivered package and regular, uncomplicated printer paper.
It's incredible what can happen with a few basic materials.
I made traditional English orange ornaments as a gift for guests to take. They’re threaded with fishing line, just like the snowflakes, so they appear to be floating when suspended from the tree branches.
I hung them on the tree (near the door) ...
... with a hand-lettered sign on the door at eye level with a reminder for guests to take one home when they departed for the evening.