Anchorage, AK – Twenty years is a milestone anniversary for any independent business. For Snow City Cafe, it was an opportunity to throw a huge party to celebrate the occasion and to express its gratitude to the community that has made this downtown eatery an iconic fixture of the local restaurant scene.
Snow City Cafe’s crew rocked anniversary tees and sweatshirts at the event.
The cafe proudly displays dozens of handmade details added by two decades of creative staff, local artists, and professional craftspeople. For the party, Snow City added immense bundles of gold balloons and layered surfaces with gold streamers and gold tablecloths (to acknowledge their golden anniversary). A giant piñata in the shape of an enormous stack of blue pancakes (an image pulled from the event posters created by Mad Dog) swayed from the ceiling. A photo booth and party props greeted guests at the entrance.
[L] The party included music by local favorite DJ Spencer Lee, gold balloons, and a custom piñata that recreated the stack of pancakes used in the anniversary posters. [R] A photo booth and props greeted guests as they entered the celebration.
When Snow City Cafe approached Mad Dog for promotional event materials, we knew they would need to be practical, affordable, and immediately special. Design ideas started with the international shorthand for breakfast – pancakes. Twenty pancakes for twenty years, with birthday candles that paid homage to the staff’s coveted “State Flag” tee shirt design by working the Big Dipper into the candles’ pattern.
After Snow City and Mad Dog reviewed several options, the team decided to use Neenah Astrobrights, the ubiquitous neon paper choice for yard sales and community events, but elevate it to the level of the momentous occasion at hand. We played to the paper’s strengths, letting it show thorough unprinted parts as a design element. We also utilized a relatively recent addition to the digital printing world, white ink. A really exciting option was using an array of Astrobright papers; the ink setup was the same for each paper color, but given the semi-opaque nature of inks and the brightness of the papers, each combination produced a wholly unique effect.
Mad Dog’s designs were used for posters, fliers, staff clipboards, tee shirts and sweatshirts, social media graphics, and – of course – for that piñata.
Mad Dog used several unusual printing techniques to create a series of colorful posters and fliers for the event.
The celebration culminated with a party that included music by DJ Spencer Lee, miniature pancake skewers, and a huge crowd of Snow City staff and guests who’ve all been brought together for breakfast and community over the last twenty years by this little downtown cafe.
[L] Even the servers’ clipboards were decorated for the celebration. [R] Mad Dog printed a few posters on glossy metallic gold cover stock for an exclusive, high-end look.
Laile Fairbairn, founder and managing partner of Snow City Cafe, was on-hand to make sure everyone had a good time, and to celebrate two decades of success forged from hard work. “We had a great time celebrating our 20th! We had such a big party because to make it to twenty years didn’t seem possible in the early years,” said Fairbairn. “So for us, it was a huge accomplishment. It was incredible to see so many people from our community come party with us – staff, vendors, guests, and community.”
Happy birthday, Snow City, and here’s to the next twenty!
Rocket Red! Vulcan Green! Lunar Blue! Venus Violet! Finally, a really good reason to use the wildest Astrobrights colors from Neenah Paper!