Design Tag

Hello folks! How has September treated you? I recently completed some design work for DCLC   and I’m really happy with the way they turned out. Lai asked me to design a roller banner for them to use for an exhibition coming up in October, plus two prints which will also be part of it. The theme for it was belonging and family in relation to care givers; what and how to you see yourself as a carer and how do you effect others around you? I’m sure it is definitely something that we can all relate to in one way or another.

Lai wanted my work to be integral to the design, so I worked with her to create artwork that was related to the theme as well as subtly tying my work into it. Overall, I’m really pleased with how they’ve turned out and I can’t to see some photos of them in situ!

Update: here’s some photos of the opening taken by DCLC.

If you would like some design work please get in touch with me about your project and I’ll get back to you very shortly. Thanks!

 

I’ve been waiting for so long to write up this post and, well, the moment you’ve all been waiting for folks: the WEDDING INVITE REVEAL! Yes, the day has finally come where I can show you my wedding invites- I’m super excited right now!

It’s been one of the best pieces of works I’ve done, not only because it’s personal and right from the heart, but I think it’s every designers dream to design their own wedding invites. The whole process took me over a month and a half from start to finish- I started it way back at the start of August of last year and kept on editing it over the past couple of months, but had to stop myself from doing anymore to it other I could’ve gone on and on!

The floral design for the background started off as a couple of small paintings and I then digitally edited the final image in Photoshop. I used inspiration from our travels to various National Trust places last summer and I was inspired by all the seasonal flowers during our time at these places.

For the insides of the envelopes I continued with the floral theme and designed an insert, as well as incorporating a floral motif for the wax seals.

Once I had the design I can use it on other things such as the menus, table seatings, table numbers etc. I wanted the text to be quite clear, bold and clean looking so I used a combination of fonts such as Futura, a hand written font for our names and a modern Times font to compliment the overall design.

My Tips for Designing your own Wedding Invites

  • Have fun with it!
  • Be creative with your design. Some people choose to opt for an email as printing costs can be quite pricey- go with what you want to do and whatever you feel happy with.
  • Decide what elements you want (e.g. text) and keep it simple.
  • Look at what colours go together and choose a couple, too much can look way too busy.
  • I looked online on how to write the intro but you can obviously make your own one up depending on how you want it to sound.
  • Look around for design inspiration, ask a friend to help you go over it i.e. spelling mistakes etc. as sometimes it’s quite hard to pick it up when you’ve spent hours on the screen looking at the same thing!
  • When deciding on the paper I want for something that wasn’t too heavy but still had some texture to it. Minted and Printed both give free samples so you can look at what paper they offer. There are of course lots of other printing companies that offer paper samples, just look around or ask around.
  • I bought the envelopes separately as I wanted to have a different colour as to what the printers were offering. Go with what you feel is best.

That’s it for now and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this. It’s not long now until the wedding- about six months to go now!

Happy Tuesday and enjoy the rest of the week.

Retro Pattern

 

Lately I’ve been really into design patterns that are pretty much 80s/90s inspired: throw in a bit of bad hair, weird fashion, Fanta, days hanging out in the sun with your friends… those kind of vibes.

I recently met up with my friend Amber, a print designer, who I’ve known for years. I was really inspired by her motivation and her reasons for quitting an amazing job she had at a fashion house.

I thought I would end the post on a positive note, having recently been quite down with things. Nothing is impossible. Sometimes you’ve just got to push through the hard times to succeed.