Table Treatments

The nonprofit Imagine1Day—which supports education in Ethiopia—hosted its first gala, honoring Tracy Anderson, at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills on November 19. To label each seat, organizers placed stones emblazoned with individual guest names on tabletops.

At the Cooper-Hewitt's National Design Awards in New York in 2011, designer David Stark used colorful rolls of tape supplied by 3M as seating cards. The rolls were stacked on rods atop the tables.

At the luxury wedding summit Engage!13, Gifts for the Good Life used glowing birdcage lanterns as escort cards, which guests pulled from Todd Events' live hydrangea wall at the closing gala.

At the BizBash New York IdeaFest in 2012, Zak Events promoted its wares with a wall of potted succulents that doubled as both an attention-getting escort card idea and a takeaway with a solid shelf life.

At The New York Times's table at the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS' Dining by Design benefit in New York in 2004, interior design company Eric Cohler Design made a crossword puzzle using guests' names to serve as seating cards.

Last year, the Holiday Chic Suite popped up on Chicago's Michigan Avenue, where Debi Lilly of A Perfect Event oversaw the design—including seating cards pinned to green apples with sparkly tacks.

For another idea using apples, the National Association for Catering and Events 2012 gala in Washington had a "once upon a time" theme, with details from story books—including calligraphy seating cards that nodded to the poisoned apple in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Among the creative place card offerings from Cambridge, Massachusetts-based LoLo Event Design are ones meant to look like messages in a bottle with names on ribbons tied to the corks and numbers inside—suitable for an event with a beach or adventure theme.

Escort cards attached to paper cranes were displayed on a large triangular frame at a wedding designed by Janda. “It was a work of art that kept guests talking and talking,” she says.

Thick, bold stripes displaying the word "Hope" served as an eye-catching backdrop for Interior Design's vignette, which was designed by Ali Tayar in collaboration with SilverLining Interiors.

At a 2013 brunch for L'Oréal, designer and producer Joe Moller added subtle branding to the setup on the Viceroy Miami's outdoor terrace, adding L'Oréal lettering to the backs of chairs and using shallow gold vases filled with products as tabletop centerpieces.

The Women's Wear Daily Beauty Summit in 2013 had a sleek, all-white design from Shiraz Events. Guests sat in clear Miro chairs at communal tables topped with white linens and simple birch vases holding cobble moss balls.

“We have used linens by Party Tables in three recent events, including a party in Chattanooga [Tennessee], where I used a custom-made black-and-white pattern to fit the estate tables ranging in length from 16 to 60 feet. For a destination on Amelia Island [in Florida], Party Tables made custom jackets to fit over the venue’s existing wood barstools along with cloths for the highboys and pillows to accent the soft seating areas. It was one linen, three ways!” —Steve Bales of Bold American Events in Atlanta  Linens, price upon request, available nationwide from Party Tables

Designed by world-renowned artist Hunt Slonem, Kravet Inc.'s vignette featured bright paintings of exotic animals and tropical plant life.

Art For Life Chicago designed a table for Knoll. With a graffiti-inspired design and a yellow, black, red, and white color palette, the piece was inspired by the Richmond Mural Project in Virginia.