Taliesin West Formal Events
Project Overview
Client: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, School of Architecture, & Taliesin Fellowship
Years: 2012–2014
Services: Invitations, program, and menu design
Graduation Announcements & Event Programs
2013
The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture is unique in that it migrates between two historic campuses, Taliesin in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona. The May 2013 graduation took place in Arizona on the “prow” of Taliesin West, a triangular front terrace. I designed the graduation invitations based on the triangular shape of the “prow.” The deep cherokee red envelope matches the color of the structural beams of Taliesin West. Each envelope was wax sealed with the “Whirling Arrow” symbol of the Taliesin Fellowship.
I designed the event programs to include an outer jacket that reveals panoramas of both campuses when opened.
2014
Taliesin West hosted executives from Whole Foods for an evening reception as part of an organizational retreat.
The key design element in the invitation is based on a sculpture that hangs from the Taliesin West bell tower. The tower sits at the center of the campus and rang to mark each portion of the evening and gather the guests.
February 2013
The Taliesin Fellowship held monthly formal evenings inviting special guests to join the fellowship community for dinner and entertainment. This Taliesin Evening in February celebrated the color red; Wright’s favorite and the color most associated with love.
I designed the programs for the evening as “love letters” for each guest. When guests opened their envelope they received four separate “letters,” one for each course of dinner. Unfolding each letter revealed the menu as well as selected love poems, which were recited by students in different languages as part of the evening entertainment.
December 2013
For the first formal evening following the Fellowship’s annual return to Arizona, I designed invitations based on the idea of (re) opening the doors of the Cabaret Theater, where formal evenings often take place. The theater doors have an ornate dragon medallion which I replicated to use as the central symbol for the evening.