Dinner at the Diamond hosted by Angelina College Foundation
2023-2025
Lead designer for the 2023, 2024, and 2025 events
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Collaborating with teams in the making of a large-scale, annual fundraising event
Some context
For one magical night a year, Angelina College Foundation (ACF) transforms the college’s baseball field into a dinner party, complete with twinkling lights, food, drinks, games and more! Their team brings the entire community together in support of Angelina College’s students, raising money through sponsorships and auctions to strengthen the resources available to them. The one night takes months of planning, with preparations beginning over six months in advance of the event.
In this case study, I will be talking about my work for this event over multiple years while highlighting the designs used for the 2024 event. Budget constraints led to minimized numbers of prints in 2025, including the simplification of the invitation. So, the work done in 2024 is my best example of the scale of work done for the event.
Establishing goals
When I began working with Lufkin Printing Company (LPC), I was told I would be taking on all of the design projects for this event. This included the save the date and invitation, sponsorship packets, business forms, and hundreds of signs used at the event. Then, upon meeting the client for the first time, I realized that their team also rotates, with different people often spearheading the event each year. So, they needed someone well-versed in the needs of their event to assist in organizing, creatively directing, and designing their prints.
In addition to the client and company goals, one big issue needed to be addressed. In the year before I began working for LPC, a server crash led to the loss of many design files in the company’s storage system. So, when I began, I was essentially starting from scratch, only working with printed samples, finished dies, and any old proof files I could get my hands on.
To be honest, I was in no way equipped to fulfill the client’s needs initially. I remember going into the first meeting with a freshly redesigned version of the previous year’s invitation and a slew of ideas, only to be humbled with many questions I didn’t know I would need to know nor had an answer to. But, with thorough planning and determination, I molded into the person they needed in the end.
Refreshing theme through color
Being that Dinner at the Diamond is an annual event, layout and typography choices in the designs were often consistent year after year. So, “defining the theme” each year was more of choosing the right main color for the prints that needed updating each year. I worked within the Dinner at the Diamond and overall ACF brand to decide on the color palette to use each year, cycling through preexisting brand colors and varying textures to keep each year’s designs feeling unique to the previous year while making sure information remains accessible, when needed.
Designing a self-enclosed event invitation mailer
The invitation to this large-scale event was sent out as a self-enclosed mailer. The outer “wrap” included the mailing, sponsorship, and other event information. It folded in on itself to enclose the actual invitation and had a pocket where the RSVP card, a return envelope, information letter, and credit card preauthorization form were included. For the 2023 event, I used the former year’s invitation as a reference for what information needed to be included and fully refreshed the layout for a different orientation by the client’s request. I got to really know the die, creating mini-samples that I cut and folded to use as a guide and sketch ideas onto. I thought deeply about how someone would interact with the mailer, strategically placing information to get the guests informed and excited about the event. With close collaboration with the client to refine details, the 2023 invitation became the guide for the invitation in 2024, with only minor changes occurring in typography and color palette.
Managing a large number of projects
In my first year working on this event, I quickly realized that I needed a way to be able to answer questions regarding specific projects quickly, and with over fifty different print projects (some with multiple variations) to keep up with, the usual system was lacking. So, to help make client relations smooth and information easily accessible, I created an Excel document with information regarding each project. In the first year, it was mainly just for my use, allowing me to answer the ACF team’s questions quickly. But the more they saw me referring to the document, the more interested they were to see it for themselves. So, I transitioned the document to Google Sheets, sharing it with their team and keeping it updated throughout as orders were processed. Over time, the document became the basis for how print project information was shared throughout the event planning process.
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There were multiple points to address regarding this event, including:
A former server crash led to the loss of many design files from previous years of the Dinner at the Diamond event. Many projects needed to be rebuilt from scratch with references coming from printed samples and old proof files.
While the core branding of the event was maintained year after year, the color palette was updated to make each event stand out while maintaining Angelina College Foundation and Dinner at the Diamond branding. This required creating an updated style guide and redesigning previously used designs to fit an updated theme each year.
A large number of projects and lack of specialized organization required the building of a project management system for the event, one that could be shared with and edited by multiple stakeholders.
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Designing for this large-scale event required close collaboration and a deep analysis of what had been previously used (when possible). In order to create a cohesive experience for the client, I executed the following solutions:
Working behind the scenes to recreate lost designs to be updated each year. This included recreating dielines from finished dies, deconstructing proof files for lost components, and the analysis of many fonts.
Decided on the main color to be used each year, bringing it into the design of many of the projects that change each year, including the save the date and invitation designs, auction signs, sponsor signs, and more.
Created a document where project information and progress was tracked and shared with stakeholders internally and externally.
Other services provided
Like it is with many projects, designing was not my only role in the making of this event. I worked closely with the client, in-house teams, and vendors to manage inventory, lead meetings, track and share progress on projects, presort mailing lists, provide color samples for printers, and even print projects when needed.
Reflecting on my work
With so much to keep up with and often minimal time to complete projects in, many would consider this event a difficult set of projects. While it was tough to keep up with everything on top of my usual workload, over time Dinner at the Diamond season became my favorite time of year. Everyone involved in the event worked hard to get each detail just right to create a truly special experience for the guests, and I loved every second of working with them to do it. I was even lucky enough to be invited to attend a couple of events and see the fruits of our labor in person. Each year brought a new unforgettable experience that I am truly grateful to have been able to contribute to.