Letterpress Cards

Back in March, I really wanted to make home-made thank you notes for the baby gifts we received but as Shiloh’s due date drew closer I began to realize I didn’t want that pressure right before or after she was born. In turn, I began searching for the perfect thank you cards. When I saw these letterpress bi-fold pelvis cards on etsy by Communication Company I knew this was the perfect card. And of course it wasn’t going to be as simple as just writing a message inside, I had to add another level to it. The pelvis opened into a picture of our little girl just a few hours old. Weird, quirky…yes but I thought it was kind of funny.

If you are in the market for some unique letterpress cards check out  Communication Company’s etsy site.

Herrigel Kennedy Real Estate Logo

Recently, I did some graphic design work for the real estate company Herrigel Kennedy of Portland, Maine. They are affiliated with Portside Real Estate and were guided by the need to define their individual identity within that existing group. Their logo had to be unique yet work harmoniously with  Portside’s branding. I referenced elements of Portside’s logo but created a brand that is purely Herrigel Kennedy’s own mark.

FINAL LOGO and LETTERHEAD:

PROCESS SKETCHES:

I always enjoy seeing process sketches and drawings so I thought it would be fun to include them in this post. Here were some of the options along the way.

Vineyard Gardens Advertisements

It has been a very exciting year full of change. I became a mother and a Texan all in the span of a 3 week period. Two very big adjustments to encounter at the same time but both have been extremely fulfilling. Throughout the move, raising my daughter, being a wife, and exploring Austin I have continued to work as a freelance designer. Working from home with a baby has been a perfect way to keep my creativity flowing and be with my daughter all day.

One of my clients is Vineyard Gardens of Martha’s Vineyard. They hired me to do their entire advertising package for the year. Their vision was to take more of artistic approach in their advertising. Fortunately for me that meant combining my art background within the graphic design realm. One of the ways I did that was incorporating watercolor/sketches of their “plant of the week” specials. For variety, I created two different layouts to use as a base design.

Below are some of my favorites from the year.

 

Graphic Design

I just completed a graphic design project for The Peacedale Congregational Church of RI. They are organizing a community outreach program committed to serving children and their families, the alone and the hungry to come together at The Peace Dale Dinner Table. All are welcome to this table regardless of where they might be on life’s journey.

Their design criteria was to limit the logo colors to black, white and one other color. It will be used on stationary, flyers and a sign.  If the program is successful it may be applied to  aprons, cups, bags  etc.

Graphic Design

This summer I am helping the nursery and landscaping company, Vineyard Gardens of Martha’s Vineyard, organize and run gallery nights.  Every Friday night this August they will showcase local artists and artisans in an outdoor gallery-style reception set against the breathtaking backdrop of their gorgeous garden center.

The “Call For Artist” posters I designed.

Detail of the drawing I did for the poster.

 

 

 

Florian Nicolle

I was thrilled when I came across the incredible collection by Florian Nicolle‘s. He has a wonderful technique of layering different medias,  combining energetic and raw linework with newspaper, ink, paint, and digital retouching. Check out his process on Behance.

 

 

 

 

{via Colossal}

Our Wedding – the graphics

Yesterday we got the pictures back from our wedding photographer. They are incredible! It was so much fun looking through them and reminiscing about our amazing wedding weekend!

It was a jammed packed weekend starting on Thursday night with a bachelorette party thrown by my girlfriends; Friday morning we held a Wedding Day 5K run;  Friday afternoon we had the most incredible ceremony and reception I could have imagined; and Saturday night we held a “Thanks for Coming Lobsterbake” on the beach. Perfect weather, perfect weekend! Needless to say with all the time and effort it took to plan I could not be happier with how it turned out.

Since both Derek and I love designing, building, and making things it  inevitably carried over into our wedding preparations. I will begin with the graphic design work I did…

SAVE THE DATES

We designed, printed, and laminated each invitation.

THE INVITATIONS

We hand designed, printed, and laminated each invitation. Each guest had to cut open the invitation to find the RSVP and Lobsterbake invite inside. It ended up taking a lot more time than planned because our laminator broke…Derek ended up hand winding each invitation through! A little bit crazy I know but the end result is great!

We chose rock cairns to be the symbolic element throughout our wedding. Cairns are markers found along biking and hiking trails that show a route.  Since Derek and I are avid hikers and mountain    bikers we thought this was a perfect symbol to guide us on our new adventure…marriage.  Throughout the summer we collected rocks from the beaches around Martha’s Vineyard to create cairns of our own at the reception.

WEDDING INFO CARD

I designed information cards that went into the welcome bags that Derek’s mother lovingly put together for our guests.

THE BAR MENU

Since we had a fully stocked bar we created a menu to give our guests ideas of what to order. Derek made ginger infused vodka for the Moscow Mules and strawberry infused vodka for the Strawberry Margarita welcome drink. Both were amazing!!

To be continued……

Poster and Invitations

This summer I did some graphic design work for the Monadnock Conservancy in NH. They were hosting an event celebrating Monadnock Region agriculture, where local producers were invited to showcase their products and select farmers, including those who farm on conserved land, were featured speakers.

Their graphic design needs included a poster and invitations with the following instructions:

To keep with the Conservancy look — simple, professional while making the invites and posters feel special and visually appealing.  To be contemporary without being too modern and edgy for the NH audience. They could imagine a farm scene but wanted to somehow portray a “table”.

My concept:  a table setting using farming tools as utensils and the plate depicting the Monadnock “land”

 

INVITATION

POSTER

Handmade Postcards

I love to make my own cards. To me it is not only the creative process I enjoy but I feel it means a lot more to those who receive it.  Below are some of my most recent postcard creations.

 

A “doodled” thank you note

Front (Ink on Strathmore paper)

 

Back (the front is adhered to cereal box cardboard)

 

“Save the Date” Invitation

Designed in Illustrator (printed and laminated)

Front

Back

 

60th Birthday Invitation

Designed in Illustrator (printed and laminated)

Front

Back

Beast Pieces

I am designing and letterpressing our SAVE the DATE invitations for our wedding so yesterday I was in search of the perfect heavy recycled cardstock.  During this search I came across a company called Beast Pieces a Minneapolis Design & Letterpress company. I fell in love with the paper, the business cards, and the designs they created!

Beast Pieces describes their innovative technique “We printed letterpress metallic gold for the information and letterpress varnish on the logotype. We like using a varnish on dark stocks for a tone on tone effect. That gives a slightly better legibility than a totally blind, inkless impression. The stock is a thick 200lb Wausau Eclipse Black with metallic gold edge coloring.”

{via Beast Pieces}