home|what we do|how we do it|for whom| PORTFOLIO |resume|pricing|contact

---

books| magazines | advertisements | print collaterals | direct mailers | newsletters | ID campaigns | research | speechwriting and training

special events  The Grand Mystery Art Gallery Grand Opening ADDC Convention

A Grand Mystery at Preston Grand

Background: The annual Parade of Homes is the largest single showcase of new homes for major real estate developers in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Each developer arranges a party for its selected list of realtors.  The next day the event is open to the public.  Among invited realtors, the Parade is an expected event.  They come, eat, drink, and quickly scan the houses on display. The challenge was to create an event that not only actively involved realtors and the public in each of the showcase houses, but made Preston's Parade of Homes an event neither the realtors or public would soon forget.

Theme:  A fictional mystery based loosely on the board game Clue^®.  Ten priceless artifacts, each belonging to a famous American, have been stolen. One of these artifacts was in each Preston Grand Parade home.  Those who pilfered the 10 articles were Clue characters, one character in each Preston home.  Invited guests would received a Case File folder including Clue Cards and a Tally Card.  As they visited each home, the Clue character gives hints about the missing object.  Guests had to decipher the clues, identify the 10 stolen articles on their Tally Card and solve the Grand Mystery at Preston Grand.

Development: All collateral items, from ads to invitations, interpreted and/or reinforced one or more facets of the Grand Mystery theme:
           Invitation:  magnifying reading glass over fingerprint invite info
           Follow-up reminder invitation:  a subpoena
           Case file:  Clue Cards and Tally Card
           Display ads:  stylized 19th/20th century mystery writers' copy
Ten interior designers invited to decorate each Clue room using character's name as decorating theme.
Designer:    Todd Willis

The First Invitation Box
 

It was a dark and stormy night ...

Welcome to the Grand Mystery at Preston Grand.  Strange events have been happening ever since the opening of our Parade of Homes.  Ten priceless American artifacts have vanished without a trace, one from each of our ten homes.  Stranger still, we know whodunit!

It was that devilish Clue^® crew ... Mrs. Peacock ... Colonel Mustard ... Professor Plum ... and their colorful co-conspirators.  They've been a troublesome lot ever since they joined the Parker Brothers gang decades ago.

Here is our problem:  all of these rapscallions have been very cheeky about not revealing the objects they purloined.  The application of your deductive reasoning powers would be greatly appreciated.

In each of the 10 Preston homes you are about to tour, you will find a mystery room with a clue.  The Clue Card you pick up will identify the house, room and character giving the clue.  Ten houses.  Ten clues.  All you need do is unravel the clues, then write your answers on the enclosed Tally Card.  If your 10 solutions are spot on, you will be eligible for the Grand Reward drawing offered by the Preston Development Detective Agency.

That's enough talk. The game's afoot. Happy Sleuthing!

Client:       Preston Development Company
Business:   Real estate development
Objective: Create an unforgettable event for invited guests who attend Preston's annual Parade of Homes real estate party, where the developer showcases its newest homes in a designated Preston residential community.
Audience:   Realtors, business leaders, prospective buyers and general public

---

  Sogni d'Oro Studio Grand Opening

Client:        James LoParo and the Sogni di Oro studio
Business:   Fine Art - frescoist
Objective:   Introduce LoParo's frescos and new studio to art dealers and buyers
Highlights:  Researched frescos; discovered and documented how LoParo's signature fracturing technique connects Old World frescoes with the New World's 1,500-year-old Mayan bas-reliefs and the frescoes of the Native American cliff dwellers in New Mexico.
Titled each fresco
Wrote Artist Brochure introduction "Buon Fresco. Above and Beyond"
Interviewed artist and introduced public to fresco techniques in "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know         About Frescoes" brochure
Negotiated gallery contracts for artist's first national exhibition tour

Excerpts from Artist Brochure Introduction (shown above):

Buon Fresco. Above and Beyond.

James LoParo has given the world's oldest medium, the fresco, a contemporary metamorphosis. His work is a synchronous compression of the fresco's history, each piece capturing a dimension of the medium's rich past while redefining its promise for the future as a living bridge between art and architecture. His hallmark on the medium is a synthesis of four achievements:

• he precisely duplicates the materials and preparatory standards used 700 years ago by Renaissance frescoists;

• taking frescoes 'off the wall' and beyond the constraints of purely religious or political interpretations, he has made them more accessible and personal to a greater audience;

• his unique approach of carving and fracturing frescoes elevates the medium to new artistic and social imperatives; and

• giving the fresco a third dimension, he links the Old World to the New; his geometric designs are indicative of the medium's 1,500-year-old Mesoamerican roots — the limestone bas-reliefs on Mayan temples of the Yucatan and wall paintings found at the Bandelier and Aztec cliff dwellings in New Mexico.

LoParo prepares his frescoes exactly as did the Renaissance masters, using the same raw pigments mixed only with water, the same steps in mixing and applying plaster and lime with a hawk and trowel. Here the similarities end. His predecessors built a fresco butting piece to piece along a frontal plane of projection. LoParo builds a fresco layer upon layer following a vertical line of sight, then carves into and fractures the layers, lifting the medium out of its two-dimensional immobility by adding the critical third dimension — depth.

As Renaissance frescoists pounced or traced a cartoon into the surface of wet plaster, LoParo literally cuts into the plaster, pulling the design out of the multiple layers. This fracturing process is both deliberate and spontaneous, allowing the medium to be a vital, living part of the final message...

---

ADDC Convention

Client:        ADDC -- Association of Desk and Derrick Clubs of North America
Business:   Professional not-for-profit organization for women in petroleum, natural gas, and allied industries
Objective:   Create official theme and special events for the annual ADDC convention in Denver, Colorado
Wrote, edited and published all collateral print work.
Audience:  1500 ADDC members; local, state and national political and industrial officials
Highlights: Poker brochure developed, written and designed for ADDC candidates running for national offices to present individual platforms. Also highlighted guest speakers, keynote speaker, and honored guests.
Rogues Gallery written and designed to highlight five guest workshop leaders; historical photos of real outlaws used instead of speaker's photograph; copy written in style of an 1850 WANTED poster.
Commissioned official convention logo design, established theme development for convention brochure.
Collaborated on creation and execution of two multimedia productions.
Organized five workshops and seminars as new convention event.
Wrote keynote address presented by departing ADDC president.