I’ve worked with the hosts of the biannual Masquerade ball for several years now. The masquerade balls are always a celebration of the Columbus Architecture and Design community. They took a break from hosting due to COVID and wanted to come back with a splash. In 2023, the masquerade ball was inspired by the Beaux-Arts avant garde costume ball traditionally hosted by students of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. The masquerade was hosted at a local historic landmark built in the 1920s, Green Lawn Abbey.
Process:
The age and architecture of Green Lawn Abbey helped inform the design of the invite and collateral, I pulled inspiration from the ornamentation of the building and from common decorative motifs of the 1920s.
After presenting the initial design direction to the masquerade hosts, they asked me to rework the designs with a cool-toned palette, emphasizing mints and teals.
Following the second round of revisions, the hosts decided they wanted to move ahead with the third design direction.
After designing the save the date and invite, I worked with their team to design colalteral that would promote the event and generate interest. To build excitement for the return of the masquerade, the hosts kept the location a secret from their attendees. I created an email marketing and social media campaign that dripped hints and clues about the event location that encouraged attendees to interact with posts and guess where they thought the ball would be hosted. We built this excitement into a reveal of the historic location two weeks before the event.
