This Splash page was created by the team at 72U, 72andSunny’s 12-week creative residency focused on “personal and professional growth through collaboration and experimentation.”

Here's my Q&A with Maria Scileppi, Director of 72U at 72andSunny:

What was the event all about?

“'Lucid Candy' is a BØRNS concert experience designed and produced by 72U that transforms audiences into characters. The experience took participants through a tour of BØRNS’ subconscious, plunging to the depths of “10,000 Emerald Pools” and soaring to the galactic heights of “Seeing Stars.”

(I checked out Mashable’s review of it and immediately regretted I wasn’t there last April to witness this masterpiece.)

Who was the creative team behind the page?

•  Maria Scileppi, Creative Director

•  Karen Oliveros, Project Manager

•  Jonay Urbina, Designer

•  Brooke Fredrick, Designer

•  Darryl Sharp, Designer

•  Kevin Daley, Designer

•  Daniel Hall, Designer

•  Emily Fredrick, Designer

•  Andreas Schenkel, Designer

What was your inspiration behind the design?
“We designed the invitation to pique attendees imagination and let them know our event would not be an ordinary live music experience.”

My take:
I love 72U’s bold decision to make a GIF the entirety of the Splash page. The moving image says all you need to say to potential invitees: “This is going to be an insane event.” If you’ve got a moving image in your asset library, I highly recommend cranking out a GIF and making it your cover image. (At the very least, embed your Vimeo or YouTube video into the page!)

The Splash page was created by Glassful, a monthly wine subscription service founded by Adria Jover.

Here’s my Q&A with Arielle Feiden, Customer Service Manager at Glassful:

What was the event all about?
“Glassful hosted a party at SIXTY LES last June to celebrate a big milestone – our first year in business.”
 

Who was the creative team behind the page?
“The page was created by Maria Perez, a co-founder and Product Manager at Glassful.”
 

What was your inspiration behind the design?
“Bubbles and Boy George! We were so excited to celebrate our first year with great Cava and all the awesome people who helped us get there.”
 

My take:
When done right, GIFs are a brilliant way to help you convey a hilarious pun, portmanteau, or just a creative play-on-words. Cava Chameleon? Well done, Glassful. Well done.

The Splash page was created by Red Antler, a branding consultancy based in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

Here’s my Q&A with Rachel Higgins, Creative Manager at Red Antler:
 

What was the event all about?
“Red Antler partnered with Participation Agency to throw a karaoke night at Hoof & Anchor, the coolest spot in Red Antler.”
 

Who was the creative team behind the page?
“The Red Antler team!”
 

What was your inspiration behind the design?
“After discovering a shared love of karaoke at SXSW last year, Red Antler and Participation Agency decided to throw a joint karaoke party and needed a quirky invitation that made people want to pick up the mic and belt a tune.”
 

My take:
After seeing this page, I couldn’t help but wonder: Are GIFs the new 30-second spot? Using the power of an incredible custom GIF, Red Antler was able to let invitees know exactly what was going down at this event in less than 3 seconds. That’s the power of Splash + GIFs – they allow any event planner to convey the who, what, when, where & why of an event in a blink of an eye. If I got this invite in my inbox, I’d say “I want to party with those guys.”

The Splash page was created by The Lab Strategy & Planning, a creative strategy and research agency based in Melbourne, Australia.

Here’s my Q&A with Julie Nguyen of The Lab:
 

What was the event all about?
“The Lab hosted a launch party in July for their latest research report on Australian culture: “The Lab Report.” The event was all about getting clients to engage hands-on in the themes of the report – especially the theme of discovery.”

 Who was the creative team behind the page?

•  Julie Nguyen – Graphic Design

•  Melissa Gillespie – Creative Direction
•  Amelia Moulis – Creative Direction

What was your inspiration behind the design?
“A mix of everything: Travel/adventure, scratch cards, maps, "Choose your own adventure” books, flowchart quizzes (e.g., In Cleo, Dolly and Girlfriend magazines), The Lab’s values of inspiration and optimism. These ideas also informed the graphic elements of the actual event. Check out our event wrap-up video to see how we embedded our Splash page into the event itself.”
 

My take:
What I love most about this one is that with one GIF, The Lab was able to convey the theme, the mood, and the content of their event in one second. This is what I call an amazing "above the fold" strategy. It also has an element of surprise, which is a perfect event design strategy. At Splash, we're always encouraging our users to incorporate elements of surprise before, during and after every event. Bravo, The Lab.

The Splash page was created by New York City-based creative agency, gyro.

 Here’s my Q&A with Camille Cheeks-Lomax, an Account Executive at gyro.
 

What was the event all about?
“gyro was hosting a party to celebrate its new digs near Wall Street."

  Who was the creative team behind the page?

•  Howard Herrarte – Art Director

•  Brian Havig and Phil Kann – Copywriters

•  Camille Cheeks-Lomax – Account Executive

•  Steve StFleur – Sr. Digital Products Producer

 What was your inspiration behind the design?
“We wanted to capture the spontaneity and energy of a really great party. So we used a series of GIFs/memes that show different employees celebrating in various offices spaces in really random ways, including a game of beer pong as our GIF header that was designed to look like our company logo.”
 

My take:
These guys are my heros, because they created an event page that looks as if the party has already started. It's also another great example of an awesome above-the-fold event design strategy. The cover image GIF is so brilliant because it pulls you in right away, and then draws your eye to the RSVP button as soon as the ping pong ball settles in the cup. Planned? Who knows. But it worked on me. Awesome job, gyro.