NEW YORK—With the mind-boggling number of parties and events that have accrued around Art Basel Miami Beach, attention-grabbing invitations have become de rigueur. Alas, many of them arrived this year in the ecologically unimpeachable but sadly ephemeral repository that is the email inbox. Among those that did add their often considerable weight, bulk, and glamour to the art world's already groaning mail bins were five real standouts. Art and design truly have come together when one invite can be eaten, another simulates works of video art, and yet another can be used as a weapon.  

1. One of the lowlights of the Miami art blitz two years ago came during the Setai hotel's hot-ticket party for the Hugo Boss award. ARTINFO was told back then that a disgruntled guest angling for swifter entry smacked a press rep in the face with one of the party's invitation cards which, much to the press rep's disadvantage, had been printed on unusually thick stock. An even more dangerous, and considerably more gorgeous, invitation was sent out this year for a dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Two sturdy slabs of shiny plastic unfold in fan-like fashion to form an invite so weighty it required a box rather than an envelope.

An A+ for classiness and effectiveness in self-defense. 

2. An invitation from the Wolfsonian museum arrived in a very promising, shiny gold bubble–wrap envelope bearing a bright red sticker that read "Please open carefully for your Art Basel invitation." If it seemed like you were Charlie holding the famed "golden ticket" to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, you could not have been more right. Inside was indeed a chocolate bar—created by Stefan Sagmeister in honor of his Miami exhibition "Things I have Learned in My Life, So Far"—that also serves as an invitation to the show's opening. If there is one thing one ought to have learned in one's life so far, it is that when one receives a chocolate bar in the mail, one eats it, even if it is a great-looking object like this one, with words cut into it. But then the question is, if the bar is the invite, does one still get into the party? Hmm. By which one means, Mmmm!

An easy ten in the edibility department. 

3. Visionaire magazine can always be counted on to send out some snazzy announcements. For this year's special installation on sound, featuring artworks by the likes of Christian Marclay and music by U2, Michael Stipe, and others, the magazine sent out a circular card—it's like a record album; how quaint and retro!—emblazoned with a picture of a shiny unicorn galloping along.

A standing ovation for fanciness! 

4. When someone says Getty, do you think … antiquities? Not anymore, because the museum has sent out a super-cool invitation for the party to celebrate its exhibition "California Video." The invite is essentially a toy. Pull the top part of the card up and three video stills—one by Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn, one by Tony Labat, and one by Nancy Buchanan—successively fill a TV screen–shaped aperture.

A big winner in the interactivity department. 

5. The announcement card for the first U.S. edition of the Tokyo-based Geisai fair is like a regular announcement card—except it's really big! Also it has a special, snazzy design on the front that shows strips of works that will be in the fair. Is that a Richard Prince joke painting? Why, no, it's a fake Richard Prince joke painting done by Eric Doeringer! Cheeky. Geisai is a project of Takashi Murakami's company Kaikai Kiki, so one wouldn't expect them to skimp on design.

A gold star for eye-catchitude.

Sarah Douglas is staff writer for Art+Auction.

The ARTINFO Top 5 is published every Monday.