Day 1: Thanksgiving Down Under

Guess what you're having for Thanksgiving dinner?

My friend Jonathan has a tradition of throwing "international themed" Thanksgiving dinner parties every year. The food and wine is always great, and the company is usually a random group of 20-30 somethings that are without a family on the holiday. Oh, and one of the most important ritual of the event is that the person that get the most inebriated picks the country for the next Thanksgiving party. It happens.

I designed the card last year for the "Brazilian/Puerto Rican themed dinner, which was a bit of challenge,  (I'll show that design in the future.) so Jonathan asked me if I wanted to do it again. I had just returned from my honeymoon and I was tired but itching for a new project that was unrelated to the wedding. I accepted it immediately, but thought since this was a yearly tradition I should probably set up a template to build off of for the future. Something where the invitees open the card and know that this is not your mother's thanksgiving dinner. Something that said something about the food and the culture of the country. Jonathan pretty much gave me free range to do whatever I want with the design, but asked to list the past countries celebrated and to "bring a coat" on the inside of the card.

I really wanted to showcase the foreign animals of the outback, but wanted to find a vintage painting that extenuated how unusual this land was. I found a painting on the web called "Australisk fauna" that did the trick. Then it was really easy to find the right modern and bold typeface that would juxtapose against the illustration. HELEVETICA! Helevetica is one of the most highly recognized typeface in modern typography that it's almost annoying to most designers. I don't care. I love it as much as I love it's familiarity as much as Coca Cola and the Kardashians.  (Okay, maybe the Kardashians are like Comic Sans than Helvetica.)  I digress, I selected Helvetica Neue 65 Medium for the word "Australia" that is positioned in the center of the Australian animals.

The inside of the invitation.

Next year's theme is "North Korea", which is interesting because it was chosen before the death of Kim Jong Il. So many ideas already come to mind... I can't wait to design it.