Hutch Holiday Gala

In 2012, New York's massive Robin Hood Foundation Gala got a subway theme, where nontraditional centerpieces atop tables were printed with information on the areas the charity serves. The table toppers also served as placeholders for the IML interactive devices through which guests could donate on the spot.

In November last year, the 10th anniversary of Keep a Child Alive's Black Ball included locked jewelry boxes on tables. At a designated point, waiters placed a key with each donor's name on it onto the table. The keys unlocked the silver boxes, which contained personal thank-you notes from Alicia Keys and unique gifts like origami paper elephants.

Doodlebooth is a Chicago-based company that puts a hand-drawn spin on traditional photo booths. Illustrator Jana Kinsman, who has designed custom illustrations for clients such as CB2, sits with guests and quickly sketches their portraits as take-home keepsakes; the images can also be scanned into online albums that guests can digitally share. Pricing is $650 for three hours, and there’s no extra cost for transportation to events in Chicago and nearby Evanston and Oak Park. Kinsman will travel to events throughout the country for an additional fee.

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.