new work: Save a Heart Ball
Not too long ago, every single patient in Thunder Bay and region who needed angioplasty had to go to another centre to receive treatment, such as Winnipeg or Toronto. Given that Thunder Bay is geographically isolated, travelling so far to receive treatment was inconvenient, expensive, stressful for everyone involved, potentially risky, and made recovery problematic.
In response to this crisis, the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation created the Northern Cardiac Fund to expand local cardiac care services. In 2005, the Save a Heart Campaign was conceived to assist in the fund-raising and awareness-raising effort, culminating in a gala event every November, the Save a Heart Ball.
Our design of the Ball’s logo and materials was intended to create a sense of refinement, grace, and intelligence, with a touch of playfulness that doesn’t undermine the seriousness of the event’s ultimate goal.
The overall design capitalizes on the logo of the event’s main sponsor, Downtown Volkswagen, as an anchoring element; every other element either hangs or pivots on that logo. The heart pattern is that playful but symbolically expressive element, with a single red heart among several grey hearts illustrating the ultimate goal of the ball and its parent campaign, Save a Heart. The Save a Heart Ball logo is set in the lovely Didot (as is much of the accompanying text), with Futura being the complimentary typeface.
The event website, saveaheartball.com, is a simple ‘brochure’ style site that mimics the print design (one of the few times it makes sense to do so), but takes advantage of some web-specific features. Of note is the use of fading jQuery UI tabs to separate event information, and a fixed animated GIF background that slowly reveals the single red heart. The typefaces are rendered via fonts.com’s web font source service, one of a number of similar services that are bringing typography to the web while maintaining standards.
Post-script: Five years on, 99% of cardiac patients can receive the treatment they need here in Thunder Bay, staying in their community and close to their loved ones. //
Credits
Concept: Krista Hansen, Daniel Hansen
Graphic Design: Krista Hansen, Kayla Quinn
Web Development: Daniel Hansen