As season slows and comes to an end in Naples, we have time to reflect on all that we have accomplished. We thought it would be a perfect time to share some of our more craftier projects at Absher Design. This annual project challenges us each year to design an invitation for one of the many private vintner and chef events for the Naples Winter Wine Festival. This year we took inspiration from the 1900’s Wizard of Oz illustrated book and recycled unusual materials to combine contemporary with vintage. The handcrafting took many hours to complete but was rewarding in the end with shining results. 

Each year, the Winter Wine Festival allows me to channel a more craft-like creativity to create unique, handmade invitations and menus. 

For this years project I wanted to recreate a vintage-meets-contemporary Emerald City effect—I multi-purposed the emerald, mylar [bubble] envelopes for the mailing and packaging, and then later trimmed down the same mylar envelopes for the back of the menus. 

By introducing the emerald acrylic box and jewels, my goal was to create a shimmering effect to bring the Emerald City theme to life. 

Now for the unexpected details: I then used a high gloss yellow box as my brick (from the container store) to mimic a Yellow Brick and embellished it with interior jewel printed flaps to hold a scroll of event details on a shimmering translucent paper. The acrylic box held a handmade, magical shoe to bring drama to the main party announcement—the glass emerald jewels then tied to the menu. 

The DIY handmade quality of using recyclable materials allowed for an exploration of  creativity and unique solutions—a trend I also see evident in photography and graphic design worldwide for marketing.  

—Lisa Absher, Creative Director of Absher Design

For more information about the annual Naples Winter Wine Festival, click here.