President's Holiday Card
One season ends, and it’s time to plan for the next year’s creative. In January, the seeds of the 2018 presidential holiday card were planted. My office wouldn’t typically have any involvement in such a project. It would have fallen to the main Comms office at IU. Because the theme requested for the card was an initiative my department was leading, the IT Comms team was engaged. In the initial email from the university’s Chief of Staff, it was suggested that I be brought on board as the designer.
The mission of the Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative (MDPI) was to digitize a subset of the thousands of archival audio, video, and film objects in IU’s collections and make them available to scholars around the world.
After months of prep and prototype creation, the team and I presented my two design concepts to the president. The simpler and more cost-effective concept was ultimately chosen--the silent movie film reel. The accordion-folded card was printed on translucent vellum stock with die-cut sprockets lining the edges. The card slid into a translucent vellum sleeve that fit into a translucent vellum envelope. The sleeve was necessary to create enough opacity for the addresses to show well on the envelope.
When film degrades, the blue and yellow dyes fade first, leaving the cellulose acetate a pinkish-red. Additionally, the sprockets can split. These details were added to the film reel to create the feeling of age and damage. To keep the sentiment light and festive, decorative holiday elements were added at the request of the president.
Written by: Amanda Chambliss
Designed and project managed by: Maria Morris
Printed by: IU Printing Services
