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A Colorful Gamble

By Barbara Bucci

In October 1997, Susan Clark, a graphic designer for the Players Island Casino, Lake Charles, La., was presented with the assignment to design a New Year's Eve party invitation for the casino's top-level players.

The piece, which won the Lake Charles, La. chapter Advertising Federation Award (ADDY), was mailed to three levels of the casino's VIP patrons.

"We knew in advance that Juice Newton would sing at the party and I was familiar with her music," said Clark.

Accordingly, she included the singer's picture in the invitation's design. Newton appears as the Queen of Hearts in a hand of playing cards that pop up when the invitation is opened.

Clark also used the casino's logo colors in her design. "Our logo has purple, magenta and reds in it. So I chose magenta. I wanted something bright to attract people's attention so that they wouldn't discard the invitation," she said.

At various points in the design process, Clark included information as it became available. "Certain information had to be included, like dates and times, disclaimers and different offers for each [player's] level," Clark noted.

One piece offers a room and a buffet. The other piece offers two buffets, a room and two dinners at the casino's five-star restaurant.

According to Clark, the sheets were printed in purple and red from four-color process inks before the red and gold foils were hand-stamped on the sheets. The sheets were then cut, the cards diecut and assembled in a fan shape in a semicircular die-cut slit and glued.

"The red- and gold-foiled cards could be removed. The Juice Newton card had a tiny box on it that said 'Remove this card.' Another text box instructed recipients to exchange the card for another card autographed by Juice Newton," added Clark.

The objective was to obtain maximum attendance at the New Year's Eve party. According to Clark, that objective was achieved.

"Before New Year's, the vice president of marketing told me that we were having a great response to our invitation," she noted.