AIGA Design Archives

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Design Category
Promotional design and advertising, 2005
Design firm
Paprika (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
Collection
(2006) AIGA 365: 27

Description

Commissaires, a highly original Montreal gallery and boutique, commissioned Paprika to create an invitation for a VIP party to launch its second exhibition, “Noir” (“Black”), in which every piece presented would be black. Paradoxically, as we considered ways of somehow realizing the “color in darkness,” the idea of light emerged. So we decided to create a black-on-black invitation, silk-screened on an oversize sheet of black tissue paper, which could be held up to the light to reveal the printed text. The delicate sheet was then folded repeatedly and inserted into a black envelope.

Credits
Creative director/art director: Louis Gagnon
Designer: David Guarnieri
Writer: Pierre Laramée
Printer: Art-Séri
Printing method: Screenprint
Paper: Black tissue paper
Typeface: Trade Gothic Condensed
Client: Commissaires
Juror Notes

Bold and quiet at the same time.
Overused and tired visual language that is finally used correctly.