Save the Dates: Step Three - The Final Product

Signed, sealed and delivered! The final step in my save the date creations were complete over the weekend. My dear friend and roomie Tracey helped by ironing the hankies around the save the date cards. She then tied a think silver cord around each one. While she put together the hankies and cards I addressed all of the navy envelopes (purchased at Paper-Source.com) with a silver gel ink pen. Carefully I put each package together, sealed it with a dark pink/fuchsia return address label and then they were ready to be delivered. Now that the save the dates are finished I am looking forward to designing and creating our wedding invitations!

Save the Dates: Step Two - The Card

Step Two: Finished! The save the date cards which will accompany the printed hankies are now printed and ready to be put together! The cards are A6 in size and printed on a thick paper stock. There was no varnish or UV coating used in the printing process; therefore a matte look was created. The back of the cards have a baroque style pattern in a navy tint. I'm so excited on how they turned out! Next step... addressing all of our envelopes, which will be navy with silver script.

Save the Dates: Step One

I began creating our Save the Date's for Zephyr's and my upcoming October nuptials this past Saturday. Being a graphic designer, I was tormented by so many ideas and things I wanted to create that I needed to finally lay everything out in front of me; or better yet post it on my pin cork board (not the virtual kind) and see what I was drawn to most. I am also trying to keep with my theme of Vintage Lost and Found. With this in mind our wedding will be held at the Glen Foerd Mansion along the Delaware River in Northeast Philadelphia; a grand estate built in the mid 1800's.

When going to the mansion on a tour with my fiance Zephyr I fell in love with all it's antiques, books, grand staircase, art gallery (boasting an original Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Monet!) as well the beautiful surrounding gardens and landscape. I felt as though I was transformed back into an era of romance, beauty and simpler times. I wanted to design our save the dates to have a similar feeling. A mix of lost and found with vintage style fonts and graphics.

We started this process with a mission to search for vintage hankies. My soon to be mother-in-law is a pro at this, she collected over 200 vintage hankies and sifted through them weaning out the stained, holed or ones that were loved so much over time that they just would not be usable. Our search was successful with easily 150 to 200 vintage hankies in decent condition!

After finding the hankies was my next task of creating a monogram for Zephyr and I. After many hours of playing with type and rearranging letters I figured out what would work best for this project. As you see in the above photo. I sent the monogram to a stamp company to have a rubber stamp made for printing. I'm hoping to utilize this stamp in many of the projects I do for the wedding... from favor bags to menus.

I then enlisted my amazingly creative friend Bonnie, who is co-owner of Kaye Rachelle Designs (www.kayerachelledesigns.com) She is an expert at printing on fabric and we had a blast creating all of Zephyr's and my save the date hankies. Bonnie dealt with the ink and stamping the monogram onto the hankies, while I was in charge of ironing and hanging all the hankies to dry. We used a navy blue oil based printing ink and a roller to transfer the ink onto the stamp. I couldn't have done this with out her. The process was completely pain free, even our test hankies turned out awesome!

And here is the final product for "step one"....."step two" will follow in the next post! Stay tuned.

60th Surprise Birthday Party for Two

Engagement Announcement Post Card

Here is my personal engagement announcement post card I designed. My fiancee and I were engaged while in Jamaica. The front shows photos from the location of the engagement. The theme of our wedding will be vintage lost and found. I chose to put a warm orange filter on the photos on the front and use antique style fonts on the back.

Destination Wedding Invitation

Martha knew exactly what she wanted her wedding invitation to look like. She wanted a simple monogram with two starfish. Since they were getting married in Mexico the simplicity and beach theme went perfectly together. The card stock (although you can not tell above) was a very light ivory.

DeGroot Handbags Postcard Design

Here is the front and back of a mailer postcard
for DeGroot Handbags.

And the inspiration for the postcard...

Couple's Baby Shower

A Change of Address...

For this change of address card, I found an original map of Pennsylvania from 1881, then I cropped and focused in on the county the couple live in and the cities they were moving to and from. I like the feeling of this announcement, it's a big event in this couple's life (building a new house and moving their young family) and I wanted the change of address card to be nostalgic in a way. A little piece of history just for them.

Birth Announcement

Christening Invitation

Logo Design for Baxter Energy:

When beginning to design a logo for someone I ask a few standard questions... What type of work does the business do? Is there any colors that you like/dislike? What do you envision when it comes to your logo? But with those questions the owner of Baxter Energy had one main idea in mind, he wanted a mountain in the logo. As an avid hiker his favorite place to go is Baxter Mountain. He felt that he could use this symbol and connect it to his business; which is testing buildings and homes for air leaks. He suggested the idea of wind across the mountain to symbolize and air leak. Several ideas and concepts later I came up with the design you see above.

Baxter Energy Logo Concepts:

You can click on the above image to enlarge.

Cayman Open 2010

For the past few years I have been designing the participant t-shirts for the Cayman Islands Tennis Club's Cayman Open. The event held every winter is sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, with the addition this year of BritCay and Scotiabank.

Here is the t-shirt design, you can click on the below image to enlarge it on your desktop.

Custom Children's Mural

Plane Ticket Themed Save the Date:

The above design is for a bride and groom from two opposite areas of the world. For them I designed a map and plane ticket themed save the date cards. Unlike most couples they are planning two weddings in two different countries; therefore the map and plane ticket tell the viewer which city, country and date each of their weddings will take place.

Please note you can click on any of the above designs to enlarge them for better viewing.

Some Holiday Humor

Here's one I just got finished designing. This one is for my girlfriend's back home. I know it will put a smile on their face when they open an envelope to see this little 5" x 3" card.

Baby Announcement:

This birth announcement was for a family who just welcomed their second child. It consisted of white 100% cotton paper with the information printed on it then layered on top of sage green card stock that folded over the top of the announcement; as well as a layer of transparent paper to give the text and picture a soft effect. Finally the top flap and layers of paper were all put together with a white grosgrain ribbon tied in a knot at the top. And finished off by being placed in long blue colored envelopes that matched the text that spelled out the new baby's name.