The Grand Rapids Downtown Market has quite an impressive food education program. It was created to offer culinary and nutrition education, entrepreneur opportunities, a place for local food production and greenhouse growing, all centered around the goal of creating a healthy community lifestyle. They do this seven days a week, 365 days a year. And, with the ability to offer scholarships, they do it for everyone.
To continue offering such a robust program, the Market decided to involve the community by throwing a fundraiser. It was a wild night of great food, crazy entertainment, and a lot of generosity. It was incredible to see so many people support the program through donations, bidding on auction items, selling tickets for the event, and being overall champions of the Market, food education, and the community of Grand Rapids.
That being said, I got to brand everything!
LOGO
Naturally, food played a big part in the branding and event planning. The visuals, however, were inspired by vintage French circus elements.
VARIATIONS AND ICONS
PRINTED MATERIALS
There were a few moving parts involved in this project, and all had to look consistent and fun. Through a combination of in-house printing and a few offset pieces, it all came together as a cohesive set! French Paper's Midnight Blue and Fuse Green served as color inspiration, and was even used as the sponsorship booklet cover and belly band! Other items included: Promotional coasters, drink tickets, event tickets, invitation mailer, event program, and thank you gift!
EVENT WEBSITE
The event website needed to explain the cause we were raising funds for, describe the agenda for the night, link to our generous sponsors, show all silent auction items, and of course, sell tickets! I kept it pretty simple so we could highlight the sponsors and a few infographics to illustrate the issue.
EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY
The entertainment included monkey butlers, accordion players, confetti canons, wine bikes, strolling table ladies, and swan processions! There were over 30 different types of small bites created by the education department's in-house instructor/chef such as crab cups, fried polenta, mini crepe bowls with duck Duck à l'orange, bruschetta, macaroons, lemon curd tarts, and many more.