If you are regular follower of our blog, you know that each year, we give back to our community by volunteering for the March of Dimes Signature Chef’s Auction. Personally, I was co-chair for two years and collectively we have produced all of the publications for the event for the past three years.
It’s a great event and admirable cause to contribute to; in fact, our participation has also included heading up the decorating efforts and silent auction portions of the event, as well as sponsoring a table so that our team could attend each year.
So, yes, we love the great work that the March of Dimes does for families in Central Minnesota, and we love being a part of it. But this year, some of that love was returned to us.
Our theme for the 2013 event was a quilling project we created. Whether you recognize the name quilling or not, I bet you’ve seen it. It is a paper art that involves using strips of paper that are rolled, shaped and glued together to create decorative designs.
Our team of designers decided to take our food-themed logo for the event and recreate it using quilling. Sounds cool, right? The process was painstaking, that’s for sure. But with spirits high and creativity flowing, we finished the piece over the summer months, one strip of paper at a time.
March of Dimes Quilling from Gaslight Creative on Vimeo.
We then photographed the art piece and used it for all of the event’s branding pieces, including invitations, posters, programs, and multi-media presentation. It even inspired the decorations for the event and made an appearance at the entrance of the well-attended fundraiser.
We affectionately call this piece of art Harry, because it is Marcela and Amy’s baby, and if they were to have a baby together, they would name it Harry.
But I digress.
We entered little Harry into our local American Advertising Awards competition where it won a Silver Award. We were pretty pumped that our hard work for such a great cause was recognized, as were our partners at the March of Dimes. But we knew Harry could do better. So we sent him to the District competition where he did us proud and came home with a Gold District Award.
District winners are selected from all of the best works forwarded from the American Advertising Federation clubs in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Because Minneapolis is in our District, Harry was up against work from Target and the Minnesota Twins, among other big hitters.
I am so proud of our team, not just for winning awards for this work, but for giving this pro bono project the same creativity and attention-to-detail they give to all of our projects. And for sharing the same passion Jodie and I have for healthy babies, our community and giving back. That’s more important to us than any award.
Check our Portfolio or Behance for full details about this project.