Valentine's Day Invitations

On week 7, we were assigned to log in to Evite where we were to create a fictional Valentine's Day invitation for a receiver of our choice. Afterwards, we were to analyse our work by its substance and style (theme of the week), e.g. what our textual and visual choices tell about our purpose and how.

During our meeting on Tuesday 17th, our group created an invitation for a Valentine's Day dinner & pool party at our beloved campus. We decided to go with our own name as a group and invite a made-up group, Vaasa University Card Collectors, as guests. Altogether, the event would serve approximately 14-15 people and last from 06:00 PM to 12:00 AM, ending the night with an after party at Fontana. We decided not to add pictures, possibly to keep the invitation clearer and simpler.

From a multimodal point of view, the invitation combines linguistic, spatial and visual modes.

Textual substance & style
The substance of the text is cultural-social as our general purpose of the invitation was to gather a group of friends to spend some time together via food, sports (swimming) and chatting.  We wanted to have a small, relaxing break from studying as well as celebrate Valentine's Day. We also wanted to embrace some old Finnish traditions with the dishes and sauna. So, our main values included bonding, celebration and relaxation with a small traditional twist.

The welcoming spirit of the invitation is conveyed already in the title: the exclamation mark at the end tells about enthusiasm and the fun nature of the party. The receiver is addressed politely in the opening line of the text and the following 'we are pleased to invite you' makes them feel wanted. Describing the place 'glorious' gives it a powerful and lofty sound with maybe a small humorous effect  as well.

The program is presented in a logical order with some additional information and widely described with adjectives. The politeness and kindness is shown again as the receiver is asked to bring their swimsuit and towel with them ('please'). Including 'traditional' features in the program in form of food and sauna both convey a nostalgic feeling to the Finnish students and, possibly, give a new experience to any foreign students involved. Also, the term B.Y.O.B (Bring Your Own Beverage) is a sort of a pop culture-reference that fits well the event with university students. In fact, the soft nature of Valentine's Day and a wild pool party with alcohol create a rather unusual and interesting combination.

The ending line welcomes the receiver one more time and reminds them to have a break from their studies. In general, the purpose of the text is to inform the receiver about the event in a kind and polite manner with a certain tongue-in-cheek touch to spice it.

Visual and spatial substance & style
As there weren't really any templates combining card collecting, pool party and Valentine's Day, we went with a simple, all-purpose design. The design features the word 'love' in a hand-written type of font, surrounded by hearts, with the color schemes of red, white and pink. The host's name, title, time, place and attendance options are featured in this template with the invitation text lying beneath against a simple white background.

The design's colors and shapes convey warmth, friendliness and good will in general. The color red is also thought of as energetic and cheerful, thus fitting the young students involved, while the white and pink soften the atmosphere and convey love and relaxation. The 'love' font is old-fashioned and looks sweet and welcoming  while the title font, in contrast, is modern and youthful-looking, telling the receiver the event will be fun. There is also certain gruffness in the design (as seen in the hearts) that makes the invitation look original.

Spatially, the card is assembled somewhat expansively with the colorful upper part stretching wide to catch the receiver's attention. The invitation text is centred neatly below; however, it takes much less space, leaving the sides nearly blank.

That will be all for the fourth assignment. The funny thing was, as Valentine's Day had already passed and we were not allowed to make a past invitation, we had to set the time to 2016. Oh well, at least we will have plenty of time to prepare for the party next year!
                                                                                                                                     

E.L.