Design Victoria Invitation

Design Victoria Invitation – Six ways to express eco-design

The challenge

Over a nine-month period between 2008 and 2009, Design Victoria hosted four seminars – entitled ‘What is eco-design?’ – for Victorian designers. The organisation wanted an invitation that communicated the seminars’ concept and dates, and that would be retained over the nine-month period reminding invitees to attend the events. It also had to be produced and formatted to capture the essence of eco-design.

The solution

We created an interactive, six-panel mail-out that incorporated an envelope, brochure, freestanding desktop guide, calendar and reminder cards into one invitation. 

The interactive nature of the invitation encouraged designers to think about creative solutions inspired by eco-design. As well as general information about the seminars, its multi-faceted aspect invited designers to use the invitation as a desk calendar, an eco-design guide for their own use, and reminder cards to be to be inserted into their diary. This ensured that the invitation was kept for the duration of the seminars, and beyond.  

The invitation’s eco-design was further exemplified by its clever incorporation of a DL envelope (no need for an additional external envelope) and use of one-colour printing (saving on ink and plates). Vibrant and lively, without the use of toxic laminates or metallics, the invitation was printed on 100 per cent post-consumer recycled fibre stock using vegetable-based inks by a commercial printer that is committed to reducing its environmental impact in every aspect of production. 

A comprehensive description of the eco strategies used in the design and production of the invitation was also worked into the end product in order to further educate invitees.