It’s for the children. Seriously.

For a number of years I supported the local Make-A-Wish Foundation with invitation design for their annual fundraiser gala. If you’ve never heard the story of a “wish kid,” it means the tears flow, your heart and wallet crack open, and for a designer like me, you double down on the pro-bono hours.

Each fall, I assembled a team of design industry talent — who were more than excited to pitch in — and together we’d work to deliver an invitation that begged to be opened from the moment it popped out of the mailbox. As you can imagine, wealthy folks get a flurry of invites during “fundraiser season” and many organizations jockey for their support. The invite has to be super special in order to get the RSVP’s needed to fill the room and fund the mission.

One highlight was teaming with super-talented writer Jennie Moore and super-talented designer Lane Tollefsen. Together, we created a rich, multi-piece invitation suite complete with metallic paper, embossing, foil stamping, varnishing and — best of all — custom lettering, icons and patterns created by design-industry superstar Jessica Hische. Jessica, who is a creative genius and has way more work than she can possibly handle, said “absolutely!” when we called and asked her to lend a hand. For that, we — and a large number of deserving wish kids — are seriously grateful.