custom oliba-inspired dinner menu design in portland, oregon
this was for a lovely dinner at White Pepper PDX & i was honored that they reached out to me to make a custom dinner menu for their event. I worked with their team to put together this beautiful “oliba” (for olive) dinner. i had a lot of fun crafting this custom dinner menu with a simple illustration i put together. we split the menu for the happy hour & the dinner portion of the night.
using my calligraphy skills, i wrote “oliba” by hand on each menu. this was a fun & easy way to make each piece more special & different. everyone also got their own custom place cards written in my modern calligraphy style.
i also wrote this little calligraphy piece with a calligraphy script & then a calligraphy type to round out all the pieces. it was a quote that was used on the inspiration mood board for all of these pieces. it brought all the pieces together!
White Pepper threw a delicious course together, they are so good at their food!, and i was delighted to bring my husband with me. my favorite thing about that night was the cute cocktail bar that they had put together, where you could add fun extras to your glass - think mint leaves, cardamom, lime slices. it was very cute & fun idea which has become a staple whenever i throw parties (which these days, is not so much). these pictures of the night & of my calligraphy pieces bring back such sweet memories, a classic good night!
looking back at this suite almost 5 years later (wow) i am so proud of it & so happy with the design choices. i love how muted it is, with the simple line drawing & paired with my loose calligraphy. i like the calligraphy piece that i made, it’s so bouncy & fun with the loose calligraphy and such a nice pairing against the small caps. the plain green place cards are interesting, with their longer place card shape, but let’s the calligraphy get loose & wild and it still feels balanced against the paper itself.
all in all, it’s so fun to look back at past work that i made that actually was used for an event! so fun! and i had basically full creative control over this suite. i keep coming back to how simple the pieces + design are, which make a lot of room for my calligraphy to be fun, whimsy, & twirly. now, i am going to start manifesting that i can do some more work for restaurants & special events - if you like this, you know where to find me!
enjoy all the gorgeous photos from the night!
Photography: @littlealejandra
Venue, Catering, Bar: White Pepper PDX
Florals: @seedsofclay
Rentals: @partyplacepdx
Paper Goods, Lettering: everglow handmade
