October 25 -- Pancake Breakfast

More than 10 days ago, the big event that I've been co-organizing for the past few months finally took place ... and I've been recovering from it ever since. I've recovered from it enough that I'm dusting off the cobwebs from this corner of the Internet to provide you, dear readers, with some updates.

I was one of the co-organizers of a fundraiser/outreach event at my work. My boyfriend was kind enough to take some pictures during the event and share them with me afterward. The photo above shows a centerpiece that was on each of the tables. Believe it or not, the base is actually a red plastic cup. However, it has become more classy with the help of ribbons and leaves (As you can see, the event had a fall theme). The cup was topped off with a flat, clay pot, more leaves, and a tea light candle. Unfortunately, the candles couldn't be lit, due to the sensitive nature of the building (it's made of wood!).

In that picture, you can also partially see the program, which looks similar to the flier. You can also partially see the menu; have a better look:

The days leading up to October 25 were particularly busy. Among other things, I was responsible for much of the computer-based designing for the event. I especially liked how the donation drawings sheets turned out, which were used to showcase the different prizes that were available for people to buy raffle tickets. The prizes were pretty impressive -- who wouldn't want a chance to see a performance or visit an amusement for the fraction of the normal price?

Side 1

Side 2

Here's a picture of the dining room. Flags representing countries from all over the world are present, like at all of the previous Pancake Breakfasts, but my co-organizer and I wanted to focus on our theme and do additional decorations that were different. Warm shades of red, orange, yellow, and brown made up our color palette. Fake leaves and butterflies were hung from the ceiling with fishing wire, as well as on the walls.

The event really was like running a restaurant, with the residents of the dormitory helping out at different positions. The residents wear traditional clothing from various countries, and some of them perform, as you can see above. Overall, we served more than 300 people that Sunday morning.

I am SO glad that Pancake Breakfast is over. It was definitely stressful sometimes, and I didn't get very much sleep. On the other hand, we received a lot of positive feedback for the event, and it was a good personal experience when it came to event planning, which I'm sure will come in handy in the future.

10 more days ...

... until Pancake Breakfast, an outreach event / fundraiser I've been co-organizing at my work! At this event, the residents of the dormitory will cook, serve, and entertain hundreds of people during the morning of Oct. 25.

The residents wear clothing from different cultures while performing these tasks and interacting with guests. My workplace has some donated clothing of that sort, and Wednesday night was the first date that I started checking them out to people. 

It was interesting to see people trying on the exotic apparel -- sometimes it felt like a culture clash like the photo above depicts with the young woman using new technology while wearing a traditional dress.

I've already posted the Pancake Breakfast flier, and when they're finalized, I'll post other materials that I've made. I've designed the tickets, which will be simple leaves on colored paper. We've been so fortunate to have received so many great donated raffle prizes so far, and once all that has been finalized, I'll show you the prize information sheets that the people selling the raffle tickets will carry. 

I've also designed menus that will be on each table. Even though it's called Pancake Breakfast, we'll have three distinct buffets:

an American breakfast of pancakes and all of the related trimmings for that, scrambled eggs, bacon, beef sausages, and hashed browns

a Persian breakfast of lavash bread with toppings such as butter, feta cheese, labneh cheese, and mint leaves, and the bread is paired with a lentil soup called adasi

an Asian breakfast with pajeons (Korean pancakes) of scallions and kimchi that can be eaten with soy sauce and sesame oil and a Japanese miso soup

I've been so busy with the designing (gotta do programs too!), planning, and managing. Part of me is looking forward to Pancake Breakfast, while the other part can't wait until it's done and things have calmed down. Pictures from the event will be posted at this blog in the future, so stay tuned!

(Photo by

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rogersmith/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

)

A look back at the last Pancake Breakfast

This is the flier (above) and menu that I designed for the spring 2009 Pancake Breakfast at my work. The menu was on an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper that was folded in half and had the same image on each side.

I was aiming for a retro look and feel with the fonts, colors, images, and shapes. Besides the flier and menu, I designed the program, tickets, and donation drawing (raffle) information sheet.

I'll be designing all that stuff for this fall's Pancake Breakfast, which I'm also co-organizing. The event is on Oct. 25 -- only 17 days away!

Flier: Pancake Breakfast Fall 2009

A few days ago, I wrote in a blog post about fall, mentioning an event I'm co-organizing with a fall theme. After 10 drafts, with some of the changes more dramatic than others, I finally have a flier for Pancake Breakfast!

Over the past few years, I've designed newsletters (fall 2o08, spring 2008, fall 2007), as well as fliers and other printed material for my workplace. While I had some experience with QuarkXPress and InDesign from designing layouts for student newspapers, desktop publishing was something that I got into during the last few years, and I definitely enjoy it (even when it can be hard to go through multiple drafts).

When I check out Web sites such as Wedding Paper Divas, I think it would be great to create things for other people and their events. In the future, I'd like to post more of my work on this blog.