My Wedding :: Save The Date design

When you’re a graphic designer and you’re getting married… it’s hard to get out of some wedding design work. Not that I would want to. I’ve been very excited to work on my wedding stationary, and after a lot of hard work, we finally got the Save The Date post cards mailed out. Not that the design took long, but if you’ve been through this process… you know how difficult the address list can be.

In any case, I’m very pleased with the results. So here’s a look at the front-side layout:

A bit about the design :: Since it is a fall wedding, I wanted the colors to reflect that. Luckily the image I wanted to use already had a great, deep red background that was perfect for fall. I got a little inspiration as far as wording and general layout from a few different designs I’d seen in Etsy’s wedding section a while back, but I mostly wanted to keep it pretty simple. The birds are for my fiance´who studies birds for a living. You’ll see them carried throughout all our wedding stationary. I decided to go with a matte finish instead of glossy because I prefer the feel of the card in your hand, which (to me) is one of the best things about printed products.

[My own little touch -- You'll see the clock is set at 3 o'clock. Guess what time the wedding is being held? Bwahaha!]

But back to the photograph. I want to send a HUGE shout-out to my good friend, Jackie Reedy, for snapping some fantastic engagement photos for us! As a photographer myself, you can imagine that I have a few opinions on how photos of me and my man turn out. But I knew I could trust Jackie to capture some truly lovely images. And she didn’t disappoint! I used two of her photos in the Save The Date design–one of the front and one on the back.

As an attempt to save some time/money, we went straight through the USPS. And I must say… other than one early delivery mishap, I was quite impressed with their service — mainly because it was just so quick and simple. Uploading my Excel spreadsheet was a breeze, and then we had the added comfort of knowing the US Postal Service double-checked each of my addresses to make sure they were deliverable. So anyone with impending nuptials: take note.

And so you can see the actual layout once printed, here are some snapshots of the actual post cards. The matte finish didn’t hold up perfectly in the mail, but I think it actually adds a little character to it.

10-Year Anniversary Seal | PaperHost

Fun little graphic I put together for a client’s 10-year anniversary.

You can even see it in action on their website >>

Erika & Jay | Engagement Photo Shoot

I really love doing couples’ photo shoots… maybe I’m just a sap, but I have such a great time with it! Erika & Jay were my first engagement shoot (strange, since I’ve already photographed a wedding…), and it was just too fun as they became more and more comfortable with the camera. That’s the trick–getting subjects to let loose when you’re 5 inches away from their faces with a lens.

Some Recent Logo Designs

My design process is getting much more refined. More organized layers, precise vectors and greater comfortability with different files formats.

ThirdSpaces - a part of the Come Recommended family

Carr • Allen - designed for a friend

Connections With Heart (SM) | Web Site Re-Branding

Here’s a big project I’ve been working on with Yepser lately.

[NEWS: Perhaps I haven't mentioned on my blog yet... I have been contracting for Yepser since November 2009 as a Social Media Strategist, and in March 2010, they hired me on part-time to design, write, tweet, blog, answer the phone, etc. It's been good fun.]

But I digress…

We’ve recently finished up a big re-branding project for on online dating service called Connections With Heart (SM). My job was mainly to redo the header area on the home page, but then we decided it would be fun to keep the same header idea with different photos throughout the site.

Take a look at the old version of the Home page:

BEFORE

And the Home page after I got done with it:

AFTER

Riiight?? I think it really gave a whole new life to the site. Especially since it’s a site about human relationships, it’s extremely important to have that personal/human element rather than just illustrations or vectors.

Like I mentioned, we used different photos among the different sub-sections of the site.

You’ll see a few other elements of mine on those pages–the logo, buttons, etc.–in an effort to make everything cohesive.

A long project but a fun project. And I’m glad we spent the time we did getting it right because I think the result is quite nice.

Wedding Photography | Miles & Kim Groover

Some friends of mine from college got married last January and wanted a very small ceremony (i.e. 10 people). So for their wedding gift, I took photos of the bride getting ready, the ceremony and the reception — all on the house. Being the first wedding I’ve ever shot, I felt weird charging my good friends anyway. I’ve got to work on my business perspective.

But regardless, here’s a small sampling of the 150 or so edited photos:

I’m still working on an audio slide show for them to the tune of the Avett Brothers’ “January Wedding,” which is looking adorable so far. Another of Kim’s friends shot some video on a Flip camera, so I’ve got to string that video together as well. A bit of a guerrilla effort, but I think they’ll have some nice keepsakes to look back on. Just a ton of fun for me personally.

The Virtual Home of Stephanie Perrett | Blog Header Design

This is one of those projects I put together for a friend just as an experiment and a bit of fun. But it’s also one of those projects that was never actually used! Stephanie ended up getting a full-time job and letting her domain expire, which is only logical.

Still pretty happy with it though, so I thought I’d give it those fifteen minutes of fame on the Web.

Maureen E. Kelly | Portfolio Web Site

I recently just finished up creating a portfolio Web site for Maureen Kelly, who actually found me on Twitter and liked the idea of the portfolio Web site I’d created for myself. It’s always nice to work with clients you get along with, and Maureen was so kind and patient with me as we worked to make the site exactly what she was looking for.

[I actually also designed a  Twitter background as well as a new WordPress blog to match the site design.]

My Web design strategy is rather low-tech. I’ve managed to learn iWeb well enough that I can create a completely unique template. Because let’s be honest… the standard iWeb templates aren’t so eye-catching. I find it’s a great tool for me, as a designer, because I can fill the site with all my custom graphics without having to worry about coding it all. I suppose it is a bit of a cop-out though, so learning some XML or CSS is definitely on my to-do list.

It always ends up being somewhat bittersweet when I create a new Web site for someone. My learning curve on Web design has been exponential, and whenever I put together a new one, I always feel the need to redesign my own. But obviously I don’t have the time to redesign my site every few months… *sigh* Oh well, I’ll get around to it eventually.

Busy Busy!

Well wouldn’t you know it… I ended up getting out on my own and taking on too many clients, and then I ran out of time to update my working portfolio!

I suppose it’s a good problem to have though, so no complaints here! On a more personal note, I just recently got engaged and am looking forward to designing all my own wedding stationary. So that should be a fun and interesting endeavor.

But in any case, now that I’m more settled in my freelance gig, I am going to make a conscious effort to update this blog with my latest projects as they are completed.

Good things to come!

GoodieRecruit | Discount Post Card

Also to be handed out at trade shows and other similar venues. Thus, it was not designed as a self-mailer.