inherently ephemeral:
an end-of-year gathering to honour the Leeds Arts University postgraduate students
While my dissertation explored how to make grief feel welcomed instead of ostracized at milestone events, I took the opportunity to practically explore the theory I had written about by designing an end-of-the-year gathering to celebrate & hono(u)r my postgraduate peers at Leeds Arts University.
Yes, this is categorized under event design, but there’s a clear link to branding, too.
branding breakdown:
This is the original design I created for promotion of the event: my handwriting over a bubble against the sky, filtered through the sheen of the iridescent material I was working with. Click on the images below (or the arrows to the side) to learn more about the process of promoting the event.
On the reverse, I printed the design with the QR code to the Instagram that I had created, and I cut them into circles and put them up all over the well-worn paths my fellow postgraduate students would walk in the university.
This invitation flyer, with its QR code to the Instagram account (RSVP link in bio), was displayed wherever I anticipated that my fellow postgraduate students would see it.
I printed a LOT of bubbles on acetate: some of them were blank, and some of them were used as wayfinding. The ones for wayfinding were placed in the hallway leading from the elevator to the event venue (a few were placed on the hallway walls but most of them were placed on the windows so the light played with the acetate bubbles). The blank ones were also used in the "bubbling over" activity.
The wayfinding bubbles, printed in different sizes, encouraged guests along the hallway leading to the event. My handwriting told them: "come on," "this way," "so close," etc.
Signs are important, especially at an event.
They tell you where to go, and even sometimes how to act at an event. Signs help designate zones.
You can see the event signage I designed below. These details all helped the event run smoothly — and kept it on brand.
As part of my invitation, I requested that guests who attended please document the event in whatever way felt natural and (relatively) easy for them.
Transparently, this was not meant to add any additional burden on my fellow students but rather provide an opportunity for me to experience the event through each of their unique perspectives — their interpretations, if you will.
You can see a sample of some of the guests’ offerings below — as well as on the @inherently.ephemeral Instagram account that I created and designed.
Each guest’s portfolio, website, or professional Instagram account is linked with their contribution below.
One of David Alex's contributions was this group photo of some of the guests.
Lydia Jacob illustrated me giving my speech at the event as her submission.
Elaina Florence Joy Swanson captured the "bubbling over" window wall, where guests shared all of the feelings (no matter how conflicting) that they were feeling at the time of the event.
![In this photo, Elaina Florence Joy Swanson shows a close-up of one of the bubbles from the "bubbling over" activity. [Her photo is found at the top of this page, as well.]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/65145032d2ee7a3533e4fc55/458408e4-f966-4ae5-b12b-29d3911c787a/inherently+ephemeral+Elaina+Swanson+i+miss+my+friends.png)
In this photo, Elaina Florence Joy Swanson shows a close-up of one of the bubbles from the "bubbling over" activity. [Her photo is found at the top of this page, as well.]
A guest puts a new bubble up on the "bubbling over" window wall, as seen in this photo taken by Elaina Florence Joy Swanson.
Elaina Florence Joy Swanson took photos of a close-up of a group of bubbles on the "bubbling over" window wall.
A guest writes on a bubble at the "bubbling over" station, as captured by Roman Boakye Gyinae.
Emma Paton painted this as her contribution.
In another of Elaina Florence Joy Swanson's photos, a guest plays with a bubble, blown from one of the many bottles of bubbles I had strategically placed around the room or included in the party favors.
Shweta Ponnu Subramanian designed this poster as her offering.
Here is a close-up by Elaina Florence Joy Swanson, showing the props I made for the "selfie photo booth."
Elaina Florence Joy Swanson documented the set up of the "selfie photo booth" I had designed.
Elaina Florence Joy Swanson shows 2 guests marvelling at the details, especially the latex-free balloons, of the "selfie photo booth" I designed.
Preethika Shanmugasundaram filmed a short documentary of the event, and she also submitted this group photo of some of the guests.
Gauri Rampal offered this contribution, showing a selfie with her and two other guests, with two guests posing in the background at the "selfie photo booth."
Maja Novak made this bowl as her offering.
A portrait of a guest blowing bubbles was taken by Elaina Florence Joy Swanson.
Mayo Farid illustrated this as her offering.
Gauri Rampal was kind enough to document the event activity schedule/party favors I designed. A small tube of bubbles was included for each guest (those who had RSVPed had a bubble with their name personally handwritten on it).
Lewis Brymner designed this poster as his contribution.
Roman Boakye Gyinae captured some of my signs in their place at the event.
As her offering, Shiva Babaei illustrated a symbolic representation of me giving the speech I gave at the event.
the documentary
As one of her contributions of her interpretation of the event, Preethika Shanmugasundaram filmed this short documentary.
This is the speech that I gave once the attendees had trickled in and gotten settled:
For those of you who haven’t met me yet, my name is Lauren Burch, and as part of my 705 MA Graphic Design project, I designed this event as the practical extension of my dissertation, which is called ‘An Invitation Addressed to Grief: How Event Design Can Hold Space.’ Thank you all for being here tonight. Thank you for the very kind and generous souls who donated their precious time and energy (especially right now when we’re all approaching panic mode!) to help me set up and make my vision a reality. Thank you to everyone who brought prosecco so we could have this little toast. And thank you to everyone for agreeing to capture this moment through your own uniquely creative (low stakes, hopefully fairly low effort!) perspective and lens. (Just a quick reminder to please send those to me by July 5th!)
This has been a really hard and challenging year for me personally (and I know I’m not the only one), and it’s also had a lot of wonderful moments. The defeatist voices in my head are constantly telling me I’m not good enough and I’ve had more intensive experiences with debilitating depression this past year than I have in the entirety of my life … but meeting you all has helped provide a counterweight to those voices, has allowed me to get out of my echo chamber. It’s such a privilege to be surrounded by such talented and open-hearted people. I designed this event for you. My intention is for this to be a kind of gift for us all, a chance to come together before the end of term to honor the time we’ve had together. The postgraduate exhibition show and the graduation are both traditional opportunities for the University to recognize everything that you’ve done and made and created this past year, and I wanted to create a way to acknowledge you all — not just what you’ve brought into the world, but who you are now because of what you’ve brought into being … how you’ve played and experimented, and who you’ve met, and how we have all impacted each other. Thank you for supporting me, thank you for supporting each other. I’m learning that the key, when we have the capacity, is to show up … just keep showing up. Here’s to you, to who you’ve been, who you’ve become, and who you’re becoming.
I designed an exhibit to display this project at the Postgraduate Exhibition.
I wanted the exhibition attendees to feel …
… as though they had also been present at my inherently ephemeral event. I divided up my area into “the event” (designated by a bubble on the glass that differentiated it as such, on the left side of the iridescent curtain) and “the interpretations” (designated by another bubble, on the right side of the iridescent curtain, and spilling onto the wall, including the video contributions looped on the TV monitor). There are tiny bubbles, each with a tiny number printed on them, attached to every submission from a guest, and the numbers correspond with each contributor’s name according to the list on the small poster I designed (shown on the front of the white podium here). I received many interpretations from the guests, and this — believe it or not — is the edited-down, curated version. I wanted that balance of submerging the exhibition viewer into the experience … without completely overwhelming them. I curated the chaos, organizing the flow.