Design project: Little girl pink piggie birthday party invitation

It seems that I haven't had a design post in quite some time. Probably because I have been so busy actually completing said design projects! Anyhow, this is long overdue, but it's too cute not to share.

Sometime back in September my friend Lauren of Something Blue Events reached out to me for design work for a little girl's birthday party that she was planning. It seemed that Lila was turning two in late October, which happened to fall at perfect timing with the family's annual fall festival on their farm. So naturally, a pink piggie party was themed. And what a theme it was!

There wasn't a single small detail that was overlooked. We designed invitations and coinciding directional cards and even a pink gingham band to hold all of the stationery pieces together. We also used a circle sticker to seal the outside of the envelope together and this same design was used to create a label for the water bottles at the party.

It truly was an adorable idea that was executed magnificently. I was so happy to be a part of setting the initial aesthetic for the birthday celebration. I only wish I lived closer and actually knew the family so I could've attended the event! Instead, I settled for the photos that you can also see here on Lauren's blog.

Design project: Four year old girls birthday party invitation

I was talking with J's sister-in-law recently one night after church about her twin daughters' upcoming 4th birthday party. She mentioned she hadn't really had time to get invitiations together, so they would probably just do an evite since it was going to be a low key affair.

Of course I immediately offered my design services. And even though I kept insisting it wouldn't be any trouble at all, I was pretty sure that she wouldn't take me up on the offer. But to my great surprise, I got a text from her a couple days later asking if I was sure I didn't mind.

After a couple of texts later I learned there was no theme for the party and she just wanted the invitation to be simple and that pink and blue were good color choices. I was able to get her to send me an idea of something she liked and I basically just improved on it a bit. It's not anything outrageous, but it's fun, cute, festive and (I think) exactly what the twins' mom wanted. So I think I did okay!

Disclaimer: Names, dates, etc have been changed.

Design project: Wedding programs

Photo: Matt Morgan

So I mentioned last Friday that I designed a couple of pieces for my friends Torry and Nicole's wedding. You've already seen the rehearsal dinner invitations, so now it's time to take a look at the wedding programs.

They sent me a pdf of their wedding invitations and basically said, 'hey can you incorporate some similar fonts and some of the same elements?' And I basically responded with a, 'yes please!' because their invites were just that beautiful with lots of lovely patterns, clean fonts and fun design embellishments.

We opted for a long, slender front and back program printed on heavy cardstock. See the final product below. I think it turned out quite nicely.

Design project: Rehearsal dinner invitation

So last weekend was a blast. One of my best friends, Torry, married another one of my (now) best friends, Nicole. It was such a fun & love-filled weekend with all of the framily in town together again.

You would think that things couldn't be better except that I was able to be a part of the wedding weekend in my own special way, which as you know usually involves some type of graphic design. I ended up designing both the rehearsal dinner invitations and the wedding programs.

The rehearsal dinner invites were pretty simple and straightforward. Torry had sent me several examples that were mostly typographic, so I thought I would create something similar and make it personal by using a little southern slang in the text. And of course, they must be navy and yellow.

Put it all together and you've got a nice, clean, no-nonsense rehearsal dinner invitation. Stay tuned for the wedding programs blog post!

Design project: Something Blue Events

I always love working on design projects, but I love them even more when they are in support of a friend. Especially when that friend is starting his or her own business. So I was beyond thrilled when Lauren reached out to me to design the logo and other collateral for her new special event planning company: Something Blue Events.

You might recall some of the other work that I designed for Lauren around this time last year for her own wedding. Knowing Lauren and her impeccable organization skills, I know she is going to rock it in the event planning business. Plus, I was a guest at her wedding so I know what a great job she does putting a big event together like that for a special day.

As I've mentioned before, Lauren's overall style is very traditional, classic and timeless. So when designing her logo I wanted to create something that reflected this. I think the fonts chosen and the damask image does that perfectly. And of course we had to use a shade of blue, so I chose one similar to that of Tiffany & Co., only more on the blue side of the color spectrum instead of green.

When Lauren told me she wanted a square business card, I was all on board for it. It just seemed to fit everything perfectly. A little fancy and avant garde, but not too much. And since we were going this route, I decided it would be a great accent to have a different pattern on the back of the card to add a pop of color and draw attention. Which of course meant that her website had to go on that side of the card. The end result was something that I thought turned out absolutely beautiful in print.

If you are in the southeastern region and looking for a wedding or event planner, look no further than Lauren Kelly at Something Blue Events. I have already witnessed her innate ability to coordinate some pretty incredible things and I know that she will make any bride unbelievably happy.

Something Blue Events business card

Design project: Retro wedding shower invitations

It's awesome when you have a close friend who happens to be a guy, because when he meets "the one" you instantly inherit another best friend. So I can say in this blog post that I got to design wedding shower invitations for two of my best friends who are getting married next month.

When the other hostesses and I met to plan the shower details, Amy had already done a great job researching a few themes and we all decided the retro beach/pool party idea sounded like a winner.

As I started to design the invitations, the color palette was an easy choice because we had talked about using Torry and Nicole's wedding colors (mustard and navy) for consistency, but also adding some red to make the party just a little bit different. I also decided to use very little beach or pool design elements just in case our theme turned into mostly just a retro theme in general.

For whatever reason, my very first thought was to use an old school hotel type sign annoucing the party. But I still needed a little more inspiration so I looked at a few retro beach movie posters for fonts and an overall style that I should use. Finally, I googled slang terms used in the 1950s and 60s that I could drop in for added nostalgia and that's how it all came together.

We sent them off in beautiful matching yellow envelopes and I'm hoping they made quite the splash in everyone's mailboxes!

Design project: Baby (boy) shower invitation

It's always fun when I'm approached at work to design party or shower invitations because I am required to design them "on the clock." Yes! Guilt free creative design sessions are the best. So I was stoked and gladly pushed offered my design skills to a coworker when she started organizing another coworker's baby shower.

Since there really were no parameters or creative instructions given or expected, I asked about "Michelle's" (I've changed everyone's name of course) color palette for the nursery and was pleasantly surprised to get a picture of her actual bedding.

As soon as I saw the cute and simple pattern on her crib bedding, I knew I wanted to recreate it and then also mix another pattern with it. So I opted to make her bedding pattern on the back of the invitation and then threw in just a tiny bit of chevron on the front. I also added a shade of green just to give a little pop of color.

Here's the final product:

 

Anyhow, I think it turned out pretty cute and I definitely plan on playing with patterns more in the future—with both graphic design and fashion.

Have a great weekend yall!

Design project: Ashley's wedding programs

photo: Matt Morgan

I feel like I have been talking about my best friend Ashley's wedding for months now. Well, that's probably because I have! But there was just so much surrounding that big day that it was kind of hard not to. Now that the wedding has come and gone (it was yesterday!) I wanted to share the programs I designed.

You might remember her invitations I posted here. Well, we wanted to keep the same design elements and of course color scheme. But Ashley also wanted them to be simple, so we did just a front and back on a half page of cardstock. The result is a classic (aka very "Ashley") wedding program. I was definitely pleased with the way they turned out and I think the bride was, too!

Design project: Bridal tea invitations

A month or so ago I was approached about designing bridal tea invitations for a girl who's getting married soon down in New Orleans. The client wanted the invite to be "tea" themed since they were going to be holding an actual tea for Claire—the possibility of hats included!

So I pulled the beautiful shade of green Claire is using for her wedding day and a couple of other colors suggested by my client, grabbed a few tea appropriate images and viola! A lovely ladylike tea invitation was created.

Design project: Ashley's wedding invitations

Oh happy day! One of my very best friends in the whole world is getting married and I was honored to design her wedding invitations. As you can see from the photos of us above, we have been there to cheer each other on through a LOT of adventures (and a lot of hairstyles! oh wait, maybe that's just me). But I am thinking this will be the greatest adventure yet that I get to be there to support Ashley and "cheer her on" during.

I think the best description of Ashley comes from Nick, her fiance, who said she is the "perfect blend of a little bit dorky with a whole lotta class." Oh man, couldn't have said it better myself! So naturally, Ashley and I would create an invitation design that would put these words on paper. Ok, well, we used a lot less of the "dork" and more of the "class." But we did at least let the RSVP postcards have a little bit of playfulness to them.

Below are the final designs that we created and I couldn't have been more pleased. This is definitely one of my favorite designs to date!

(ps....dates & names have been changed to protect the innocent)

And now, here's to Nick and Ashley as they get ready to dance their way through the rest of the journey that God has planned for them!

Design project: Lyrics as art

I mentioned recently my homemade gifts for friends this year where I took lyrics from a Head and the Heart song to make a sign for home decor. As I said in that post, I also made another design project piece of art. Mostly because I wanted my friends to know the entire song and why it makes me think of them and all of the lyrics just couldn't fit on a sign. So I made a cute lil postcard with the lyrics in the shape of the state of Alabama, which is where we all met and started our beautiful friendships together. Then I attached the post ard to the back of the sign so they could have it framed or post it on their fridge if they wanted. 

Once I had made this, it occurred to me I should use this same idea for other instances as well. Luckily I had the opportunity to host two amazing musicians in my home a few weeks ago for a house show. If you haven't heard of Carolina Story yet, I suggest you listen to them now. Yes now. Go here and press play and then come back to my blog. 

Where were we? Oh yes, Emily and Ben of Carolina Story were coming to play a show in my house and I really wanted to do something special for them. So I took the state of North Carolina (where they fell in love) and filled it with lyrics of one my favorite songs of theirs "53 days." It just seemed to fit.  I loved it, they loved it; it was a hit. 

Obviously this is fast becoming one of my "things" I do. So get ready to see many more state outline, lyric-filled graphic design projects in the future. I'll go ahead and apologize for the redundancy now.