DESIGN CHALLENGE - Designing for a Designer

Printed and ready to go!

Recently I completed a job that had to be one of the biggest challenges in my career. Consider this:

Client: My best friend and fiance to my husband's best friend
Job: Wedding Shower Invite
Parameters: To stay within the theme of the wedding in terms of design, color and concept

Oh, and did I mention that my friend is herself not only a graphic designer, but a designer that I highly admire and respect? Her work is stunning and enviable...not to mention that she and her business are appearing in a book that will be published this fall.

Eeek.

So, how do you accomplish this task? How do you create an invite that impresses people, attests to your experience as a designer, but yet doesn't overshadow the WOW factor that is typically reserved for the wedding invite?

Just like any other job - dive in, do your research and know when to pull back or to push the envelope in deciding what will and won't work.

And even though some might look at this and think, well that's awful simple looking, I would like to point out just how much research went into this. There are countless hours involved behind this design (Trust me, designers don't just work when they are in their office. We think about design when we are relaxing, watching TV, taking a shower. Countless hours of thinking about a particular design is not uncommon) To list just a few thoughts I considered when starting on this job:

• what layout will work best to fit with the theme of the shower yet will also reflect theme of the wedding?
• will this layout work in a conventional envelope or will I need something special? And will that special envelope cost more to buy and to mail?
• will the paper choices and final assembled piece be within certain mailing weights for cost effectiveness?

And once all that is decided, that you have to start researching and considering all the components for the actual design. Some of the requirements I set for myself were:

• font choices were to be based on fonts used during a specific time period
• the art chosen needed to reflect the style fo what would have been used during this time period as well
• and because printing was being done in-house and I needed to follow a certain color scheme, the paper chosen need to work with the available printer, the layout and the overall theme of the piece. I need to make sure the paper houses would be able to supply the quanitites I was looking for and the weights I needed

So, please, when you look at something and think that it looks "simple", take a moment and stop to think about all the separate parts that went into making it and you'll realize that "simple" design doesn't equal easy design.

Overall, I am really happy with how the piece came together. Plus, there was a BONUS! Since I was assembling these by hand and printing in-house, I got to have some fun and delve into a few really interesting add-ons: belly band, grommets, and what turned out to be my fav - envelope liners! In the end, all the hard work paid off.

The bride herself called and gave me probably one of the best compliments I have ever received in my whole career. I was beyond relived to know that I nailed this job on the head and that she, a designer herself, loved them.

A great design and a happy client. Challenge met and accomplished!

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The Art of Design

This Third Friday, June 17th, I will be the featured artist at a local gallery, The Artist's Consortium, in Millville, NJ. I'm pretty excited and have been having a blast getting my works together and promoting the show.

I'll be showing a sampling of my design work taken from the last several years. Finished designs, along with some of the techniques and thought processes behind what goes into a commercially designed piece, will be shown.

Corporate collateral pieces to personal promotional work will all be featured along side what one would consider a more traditional take on fine arts. And whereas commercial art has long been considered an art form unto itself I will have to say that even I have been amazed at the whole new life a piece can take on when it is properly framed and presented.

So, won't you join me and come experience what is the art of design.

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