Case Study: Urbanland “Structure” Award Event

Urbanland is a new development company based in Cambodia with a bold view of the future of its capital, Phnom Penh. They are dedicated to designing and building high quality structures with a special emphasis on customer needs and creating a lasting contribution to the landscape and surrounding community. Their newest high-rise condo development, Embassy Central, boasts a top-to-bottom vertical green wall, elevated open gardens every four floors and the highest quality European fixtures in all of its units.

Early in 2016, they won two categories in the Cambodia Property Awards; one for best condo development, the other for architectural excellence. When Urbanland came to Branderz for help with a launch / award party we were excited to bring the elegance and modernity of their latest building to the event. The scope of the party was small, an intimate gathering of 30 to 40 of the city’s creative and entrepreneurial elite, held at their downtown showroom. As Art Director it fell to me to visually execute our vision for the client’s soiree. Though with a two week deadline, we had to act fast!

After a few fruitful brainstorming sessions with the entire team, we pitched three themes to Urbanland. They chose Structure. For a night celebrating their two architectural awards and the amazing design of their newest venture, we too thought this would be a fitting theme. Once that we had the that dialed in, it was time to quickly execute.
 

The Urbanland Structure Invite

Along with and e-invite, I wanted to also deliver a physical invitation to all invitees. Through them I wanted to carry the idea of structure, elegance, and an element of the hand made. It had to make our guests feel special and wanted. To achieve this, I designed a 3D pop-up, three-layer fold open invitation, sealed with a paper band that was sure to impress. The outer layer was comprised of black rag paper with the Embassy Central logo in gold on the front, the interior section was an iridescent silver that was visible beneath the pop up elements of the eggshell white interior art paper. If looked at in a certain angle guests could see the hidden message, “You’re Invited”.
 

The Food

For our structural edibles we collaborated with Timothy Bruyns, owner of The Tiger’s Eye, one of Phnom Penh’s most accessibly elegant eateries. His geometric and layered canapé creations were sure to fit our vision for the night. We also commissioned a building-inspired red velvet cake based on a 3D mockup model I created in Maxon’s Cinema 4D software.

Crafting The Scene

The event kicked off with a speech from Urbanland’s chief architect paired with an engaging multimedia presentation I coordinated for Apple Keynote. An x-stand we designed greeted guests and celebrated Urbanland’s awards and we arranged for a few of Phnom Penh’s finest musicians to stage a pop-up performances throughout the night for our guests.

The night was a rousing success, both for us and our client. The mood was perfect, our guests felt welcomed to what may well be their future home and Urbanland gathered multiple credible leads for condo sales.

Are you looking for art direction or consulting on your next event? Contact me for a quote.