Cavallo wedding #2

Finished these Save-the-dates for another Cavallo wedding this time in August. Vintage/Americana themed paper goodness with a folded map and custom pattern inside. Lovely calligraphy in gold by Neither Snow with an assortment of vintage stamps collected by the bride.

Envelopes were hand-made, just folded text weight navy paper, glued the seam in the middle and ran one side through a sewing machine. We closed by folding the other end and sealed with custom letterpressed address labels.

We came across this envelope addressed to the White House while assembling. Apparently if you send the president an invite you will receive an official congratulatory letter. How fun, right? The bride and groom have a great sense of humor. I love this notion :)

Will be walking these up the street to the post office tomorrow. After spending so much time designing and crafting a set like this, letting them go is always so bitter-sweet. But the idea that people will be receiving these lovelies in the mail always makes me smile. So all the hard work is always worth it.

I own a press, therefore I can make books!

This past week has been one of the most production-heavy I've had in a while (if not ever). We hand bound 175 booklets that I made for an upcoming wedding...

But it went so smoothly, thanks to the awesome team I recruited to help me. I couldn't have planned it any better. Thank you Hillary, Stephanie, Maya, Julia & Ofri. Yep, it took six of us to get this shit done in record time ;)

Here are some process pics! Hopefully I can share more after the wedding in a few months.

Behind the Scenes

Thought I'd share some production photos of the New Buffalo wedding I worked on last year. I find that sometimes the process is just as interesting to see as the final design. This invite in particular was very involved in terms of assembly. Almost every piece was custom, down to the postage stamp. The envelopes were handmade, I had a monogrammed wax seal (in hot pink!), a hand-bound booklet, stitching on the invite (by Mira Aster), calligraphy in yellow ink (by Georgia Deaver)...You name it, we made it work!

Lake Michigan Rehearsal Dinner

A couple of months ago I blogged about this chalkboard project I worked on with calligrapher Nancy Hopkins. The ladies at Alison Events just posted pics of the event on their blog--thought it would be nice to share the final outcome with ya'll :)

Full post can be seen here (there are 3 parts to the post so make sure to check them all out). And just to be clear, this is just the Rehearsal Dinner--the night before the Big Day! Such an amazing display, every detail is worthy of the actual wedding dont'cha think?!

Photos by Thayer Gowdy

Design + Print: Wedding Menu

Here's a sneak peek of the menu I designed for a wedding reception this past summer. More paper goodies to post about from this New Buffalo wedding for next month so stay tuned!

The shop will be closed all week for Thanksgiving--I'm off to visit my sister in Portland with the whole family in tow! Thought this menu seemed appropriate so Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

xo

Calligraphy by two of my favorites: Nancy Hopkins & Georgia Deaver

Martha Stewart feature Kathryn & Jeff

This past spring I worked on a wedding with the AE team for Kathryn & Jeff. The event took place at the Solage Resort in Calistoga and was featured today on the Martha Stewart website! Kathryn had a specific style in mind--something in between traditional and modern, graphic but not ornate, simple but with a little bit of unexpected thrown in. Inspired by bold patterns with a cool palette of blues, greys and pops of yellow, I was definitely up for the design challenge :)

Here are some photos of the entire wedding suite taken by B&N photography--some of the paper good shots were styled by my sister :)

Invite & thank you card suite (calligraphy by Nancy Hopkins)

Writing process

Thought I'd share these process pics of Nancy writing on the chalkboards for a menu project. She used a chalk-pen (as opposed to actual chalk) which you can purchase at any art store. The writing needed to be semi-permanent so it wouldn't get erased during shipping--it comes off with windex or soap and water.

She drafted the wording on paper first to get the proportions right and made pencil lines on the chalkboard to keep the lettering straight. Lots of prep-work to get it perfect!

Chalkboard menu

One of my favorite calligraphers, Nancy, rolled up her sleeves and worked at my studio a couple of weeks ago for a rush job. She did some hand-lettering on these giant chalkboards for an event. It's amazing how steady her hand is when writing. So fun to see her in action!

SF Wedding Map

I designed this custom map poster for SF couple, Wayne and Marina, who wed a couple of weekends ago on Feb 6th. They already had wedding invites sent out and came to me specifically to design some wedding-day paper goods.

Minor adjustments

Just recently I hired one of my favorite calligraphers, Nancy Hopkins, to lend some of her amazing skills to a wedding invite job. I felt that instead of using a script font, that it would be a nice touch to use her handwriting instead. So I asked my client to choose a style from Nancy's portfolio just like she would choose a font from my library.

She ended up choosing this lovely free-flowing font called "Jordan"

On Press: Wedding Programs

I'm in crazy production-mode for the next 2 weeks--creating all the wedding day collateral for my clients who will be getting married at Playa Del Carmen in Mexico on the 23rd of this month. We are going all out!

Here's a sneak peek of the program covers. They will be hand-bound with a leather string saddle-stitch bind. The cover (shown here) is a faux suede paper with a blind deboss letterpress of their logo. The idea is to make the programs like a travel journal/notebook to give as keepsakes for their guests. There will be a bunch of blank pages in the end for them to jot notes, scribble, etc. during their travels.

Can't wait to finish these...

Beautiful words

I know I said my previous post was the last one, but I had to sneak this one in! I'm procrastinating and I should probably start packing for my trip. But...I came across Laura Serra's photostream from my flickr and want to share some eye candy :)

I love how these sayings are illustrated so beautifully, almost like they're coming to life right out of the page...She's an artist/graphic designer from Berlin, make sure to check out her site here.

Pretty lettering

Lovely French hand-painted signs from A Dangerous Business's flickr stream.

Open Studio: Anna and Blue

I had a fun playdate with my friend Anna Ji and her pup Blue for open studio the other day. I met her through a previous client who thought it would be a good idea for us to meet and network. Anna and I have a lot in common-both graphic designers who have gone through formal training with old-school mentors. Hers being in calligraphy and mine with letterpress.

SO friggin' cute

Ok, gonna relish in some girlie-ness just to warn you...Found this embroidery book cover on Bird and Banner (whose work is also equally super cute) and just had to share. It's that perfect blend of vintage-crafty-modern-fresh-fun-simple-timeless look that's just so attractive and so difficult to pull off (unless you're from Scandinavia)!








































If you can't get enough like me, check out some more Swedish craft book eye candy here.

I love type thi------------------s much.

This is pretty amazing. Artist Mark Webber is carving out a typographic map of Paris on a linoleum block approx 5' x 6' in size. Yes, I meant to type feet NOT inches!

I love this picture, where you can see how he's camped out by his carving...


















He has been working on it for around 8 months and it's almost ready to be printed. Although finding a press large enough is causing some delay. SO, if any of you have ideas or know of someone who might have access to a gigantic press, contact him at markawebber@googlemail.com.




















Here's a map he did of Amsterdam for all you type geeks out there :) Make sure to check out his website for more of his artwork and his blog for updates on his projects.





















via Creative Review. Thanks for the tip Taylor!

ABC Renderings

This forest typography series by artist Teagan White is simply drool-worthy. Ink on paper, the linework is exquisite.





































via typography served

Yes, I'm a Fan...

Already had a post on Emma Watson, earlier. Since it's Harry Potter season, here's another one from designworklife about the wonderful lettering seen in the series. Couldn't resist :)

fUn wiTH TypE

From Brooklyn-based designer Mike Perry.

Heavenly Type

When designing, you often deal with images and letters as separate entities. When there is type involved, you set it in a way that compliments the image while still conveying the information clearly. I love it when the line gets blurred--when the type becomes the image or part of it--like these beautiful constructions by Si Scott.