Event Package: Brews for Rescues
I stumbled upon the “Brews for Rescues” fundraiser for the Animal Rescue Foundation of Tulsa. Being the type of person who squeals “PUPPY!” every time I pass a dog, I couldn’t pass up the chance to promote a local animal rescue. So, I created a complete event package with promotional materials for design practice.
I scribbled the event information I needed into my notebook:
Event: Brews for Rescues fundraiser
Company: Animal Rescue Foundation
Date and time: Thursday, September 16, from 5:30 to 8:00 PM
Venue: Dead Armadillo Brewery at 1004 E 4th St. Tulsa, OK
Why would people go: tickets include a souvenir Dead Armadillo glass, two pints of craft beer, tacos and chips from T-town tacos, live music by Gear Dogz, a silent auction, and split the pot raffle.
Where do you get tickets: online at arftulsa.org/brews-for-rescues/
Additional info: $40 tickets, 21+ event only
With all of the details written out, I spent a minute thinking about themes: bones, beer, brews, ales, tails, paws, dogs/cats/pups, bark (in the park?), arf or woof, pints, and rescues. Next, I searched Google for some inspiration, including “non-profit fundraiser posters” and “animal rescue fundraiser event poster.” Some of these posters were not great design examples, but they influenced my imagery. Before moving on with my sketches, I looked on Unsplash to incorporate real photographs instead of illustrations.
A dog licking an empty beer glass could be cute (though I don’t condone giving animals alcohol). I featured this in my sketch and added the QR code under the recycled ticket details across the bottom. After adding the remaining event information, I moved on to the next design.
I emphasized the image of a person holding a dog’s paw by [name]. I filled in the event information around the image and developed the ticket information into a list using the bone graphic as a bullet point.
I went to Canva to find relevant graphics and illustrations for these designs and found plenty (downloading SVG files with the pro subscription is truly a life-saver). Starting with Adobe Illustrator, I didn’t have a color scheme in mind but quickly decided on earthy tones. I added color to a graphic of a beer glass and overlayed the “ARF” logo onto the glass, but the logo was pixelated, so I recreated the logo with more SVG graphics from Canva.
I removed the background from the image of a person holding a dog’s paw. But with the dog licking an empty glass, how would that work? I could crop the image and remove the background, but that might look strange. So, I settled on illustrating this idea. Again, I went through graphics on Canva and found a boxer illustration and an empty glass. I combined these two ideas in Illustrator and edited the dog’s coloring to match my color palette. Now, the glass was floating in front of the dog and seemed strange. I drew a hand holding up the glass and let the arm stretch off the artboard.
The centralized glass looked bland in the first design and scattered the event information around it, making the hierarchy nonexistent. So I moved the glass to the side and let the image bleed off the page. The format of the event information fell into place on the left, and I added a paw-shaped QR code from Flowcode.
For the poster, I loved the paw-holding image because it felt genuine. To get the photo to fit width-wise in the template, I had to make the picture bigger than I sketched out. I let the “Brews for Rescues” tuck behind the dog’s nose, and the remaining information fit under the person’s arm.
Every good promotional event needs a t-shirt. In this case, it required two shirt designs. I used my cute illustration of a dog licking an empty glass for the first design and added a simple “Brews for Rescues” text. For the second, I used the ARF glass design with a quirky “Drink Beer and Rescue Animals” text. Then, using PlaceIt, I created mockups for the t-shirt designs.
How do you make your previous attendees and donors feel appreciated if this is an annual event? VIP invitations, of course. I fit these on 5×7 card templates. Using the initial flyer design as a base for the cards, I edited the text and graphics to fit the new dimensions and added more personal flair. Unfortunately, the ticket banner at the bottom didn’t work in this size, so I recycled the bulleted list from the poster design.
The best way to promote an event is through social media: it’s free, simple, and reaches various people. I used three images (the person holding a dog’s paw, a t-shirt mockup, and the beer glass illustration) for example promotional posts on Instagram. The first post included necessary information in the image since it would be the first and most informative post to cross someone’s social feed. The second image featured a t-shirt mockup, and the third image also had event details. Finally, the text contained all event information for each post.
Since I used it so many times already, the beer glass illustration was the central image for the entire package. Using Artboard Studio, I made a mockup of a souvenir beer glass with the logo for the event thumbnail. However, using the illustration in multiple designs made the real-life mockup image look out of place against the other promotional materials. So, I switched the event thumbnail to the illustration but kept the mockup glass image for a potential souvenir glass design.
