Colby Society Celebration
Redesign of the Colby Society Celebration event material.
The Colby Society is a giving society that recognizes high-level donors to the Museum of Science. An annual awards dinner recognizes society members for extraordinary contributions to the institution.
In 2018, the Colby Society’s identity was refreshed to reflect the Museum’s new branding guidelines. The invitation appearance had been the same for several years, and with the introduction of the new brand, the Advancement division wanted to give the society a brighter, vigorous look.
The society honors Colonel Francis T. Colby, the Museum’s first supporter to donate $1 million. Col. Colby was an explorer, hunter, military officer, and traveler. His donation to the Museum also included a replica of his entire hunting room, where he displayed trophies and artifacts collected during his travels. The room was re-created inside the Museum of Science exactly as it appeared in his own home. One of the most iconic aspects of this room are the large wooden elephant doors used as the entrance to the space. These doors have been used prominently in the Colby Society’s identity through the years.
To refresh the look, we leaned even more heavily into the doors’ texture, but washed it with colors from the brand’s new palette. The format allowed the design to maintain the “old world” feel, but gave it a more modern appearance.
The previous templated invite used the ornate wooden doors on the cover, opened with a gatefold, and was wrapped with a belly band. I kept the gatefold and the belly band to connect with what the donors would recognize, but zoomed in on the door texture for a more abstract feel.
When the front panels were opened, the full doors appeared on the inside to border the main invitation copy. These panels then folded out again to reveal additional content.
I worked very closely with the printer to ensure everything lined up exactly as designed and that the belly bands wrapped properly.
The new look for the Colby Society was carried over to other event items, including a 12-page program, menu card, and society membership pin.
The Menu cards were personalized and served as place cards on the tables.
Table setting with menus, place cards, pin boxes, and programs in place.
BRAND GUIDELINES:
The Museum of Science brand guidelines include two fonts, Berthed Akzidenz Grotesk and Scala, and a wide variety of primary and supporting colors.
FORMER INVITE
Invite design for Colby Society invite prior to the brand refresh. Invite was printed in 2 colors, including a copper metallic ink, on a warm cream sheet.