And The Oscar Goes To... Nine Awesome (and Official) Academy Award Evites!

Planning on throwing an Oscar Party? Got you miniature statuettes? Your ballots? Your deli platter and your booze? What about the invites?





I always designed my own in the past, but with this wonderful new and well-designed online collection, I don't have to. And neither do you. Ranging from Pop Art to the Golden Age of Hollywood, these nine new invitations and matching envelopes were designed for Evite's new premium site by the actual designer of the Academy Award winners' envelopes.





Marc Friedland, the designer of the Academy Award winners’ envelope has designed the first-ever collection of Academy sanctioned invitations for Oscar Sunday viewing parties, which is now immediately available to download exclusively on Evite's new premium site, Postmark.





The nine unique premium Oscar party invitation designs are being made available online complimentary for party hosts to personalize and have digitally delivered as a way for Friedland and Evite to announce their association and preview Evite’s new premium site Evite Postmark











The Oscar Collection by Marc Friedland has something for everyone, from classic golden age of Hollywood to modern, fun takes on Oscar as well. There’s the nod to glitz and glam (complete with “Swarovski studded Oscar,” shown below) to mid-60’s inspired chic. Each design begins as an individually hand-crafted original, and then is magically transformed to be digitally delivered on Evite Postmark, making this the online debut of Friedland’s high-end signature craftsmanship work.




Each invitation in the collection has a matching designed envelope, custom stamp, and features the never before available Oscar statuette, use of Academy archival photos and images, and the use the of the “official” Academy Awards title.






“Partnering with Marc and The Academy to launch Evite Postmark in time for the biggest celebration in Hollywood not only perfectly captures Evite Postmark’s spirit, but it presents a huge opportunity to capture the imaginations of customers looking for new and fun ways to bring the Academy Awards into their own homes,” said Mr. Woolley.

Last year Friedland introduced the first-ever envelopes and announcement cards bearing the names of the winners for the telecast. It was the first time the Academy had a specially-designed envelope and card to announce the Oscar recipients. Friedland will be recreating them again for this year and next for the 85th annual broadcast. He will also be writing a blog titled “Oscar Party Confidential” offering party tips (complete with free downloadable Oscar Bingo cards for everyone to play at home) and suggestions for www.Postmark.com as well as www.Oscar.com



“In 2011 when I designed the first Academy Award winners' envelope, I wanted to create a modern icon imbued with a rich air of luxury, reminiscent of the glamorous golden age of Hollywood,” said Friedland. “And while it was only touched by a handful of winners—yet seen by millions—I wanted to see how I could make this piece of Oscar history part of the tradition of Oscar Party Sunday. With the support of both the Academy and Evite Postmark, this collection was designed to inspire those who love to celebrate the Oscars by way of a really fun, personal experience.”

Evite Postmark and Friedland are planning to roll out the full line of invitation and correspondence categories later this spring after more than a year in development. Evite Postmark is a premium online service featuring stylish invitations and correspondence for life’s special occasions. Reminiscent of traditional fine stationery, Evite Postmark offers its users a wide range of high-quality custom and personalized designs on a user-friendly, advertising-free interface, providing them with a modern way to stay in touch without sacrificing taste or etiquette.

Direct links to Evite Postmark will also be available at www.Oscar.com and www.marcfriedlandinc.com

Friedland is a Los Angeles-based custom invitation designer creating stationery arts for high-end clients. This year marks the 25th anniversary of his namesake business along with Creative Intelligence, his experiential branding agency counterpart.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network beginning at 4 p.m. PT/ 7 p.m. ET. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Remembering Eva Zeisel 1906-2012. Her Life and Her Work.

The world lost a legend on December 30th when Eva Zeisel died at the age of 105. In honor of her passing, I am reprinting a post I wrote on her amazing life and work in April of 2010.


above: Eva Zeisel, 2009, photos courtesy of Talisman Photo

103 year old Eva Zeisel continues to amaze. The Hungarian born designer just doesn't stop. In addition to being an enormous talent, she has a life story as interesting as her work.

She was born Eva Amalia Stricker on November 13th to Alexander and Laura Polanyi Stricker. At the age of 17 she enrolled in the Royal Academy Of Fine Arts, intent on becoming a painter, but was convinced by her mother to try a trade at which she could earn money. She then began apprenticing as a potter. In 1925, she started her own pottery on her family estate. In 1927 she moved to Hamburg Germany, where she worked at Hansa Kunstkeramic for 6 months.

In 1932, she visited Russia for the first time. She worked at the Lomonosov Manufactory designing dinnerware and at the Artistic Laboratory of the Lomonosov State Porcelain Factory (the former Imperial Porcelain Factory) in Leningrad.



By 1935 she was the artistic director of the Glass and China Industries in Moscow, Russia. It was soon after, in 1936, that the talented Stricker was falsely accused of being part of a conspiracy to kill Josef Stalin and imprisoned in Russia for 16 months, 12 of which were spent in solitary confinement.

Upon her 1937 release from prison (without explanation), she was put on a train to Vienna where she was met by relatives. In 1938 she married her second husband, Hans Zeisel in England (her first marriage was to physicist Alexander Weissberg and was dissolved). Soon after marrying Zeisel, they both moved to new York.

In 1939, she created the first department of ceramic arts industrial design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where she taught until 1952.


above: Eva Zeisel in 1940 with student work at Pratt. Image courtesy of Pratt.
above image courtesy of Eva Zeisel Archives

She then went on to design iconic pieces for Chantal, Sears, Red Wing Pottery, Hall China Company, Watt Pottery, H. Heisey and more. You can still find many of her vintage pieces at the Orange Chicken Gallery.

At the impressive age of 103, she is still actively designing. She has current collections of ceramics and silk-screened prints for Klein Reid, Classic Century ceramics and One O One earthenware for Royal Stafford, the re-issued Granit collection for Design Within Reach, pens, pen holder and card holder designs for Acme, hand blown glassware collections for Gumps , glassware, aluminum and more for Nambé, exclusive China pieces for various galleries, and a furniture line, and most recently a collection of three Tibetan wool rugs for The Rug Company.



above photos courtesy of Talisman photo and the Brooklyn Museum

Eve Zeisel Glassware for Gumps:


Exclusives for the Neue gallerie:
Fine bone china Baby feeder:

Porcelain painted Icebox pitchers:


Eva Zeisel for Royal Stafford


A coffee set she designed in 1940:

One O One:


Eva Zeisel for Klein Reid:



Eva Zeisel for Nambé:




Eva Zeisel Glassware for Bombay Sapphire:


Designed in early 2001, the Centennial Set consists of six impressively scaled celebratory goblets inspired by Eva's martini glass designed exclusively for the Bombay Sapphire's promotional campaign. Individually hand-blown by master craftsmen, these elegant works of art are made of the highest quality glass.

Eva Zeisel Originals (furniture and more):





Eva Zeisel for Design Within Reach:

Granit tableware:


Eve Zeisel For The Rug Company:

Fish and Lacy X:



Her work is included in the permanent collections of museums worldwide, including MoMA, the Met and the V&A. In 2005, she was awarded the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York.

The Wall Street Journal has a nice little interview with Eva Zeisel here.

Special thanks to the Eva Zeisel forum for additional information and links.

Eva Zeisel Books, Dinnerware and More