Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Dual Anniversary Party



 I just finished up an invitation for a dual anniversary party that will be held in late May. It is for the client's parents, who are celebrating 40 years of marriage, and grandparents, who are celebrating 60 years of marriage. The party will be held at a winery under a gazebo in the afternoon.

A lot of things came to mind when brainstorming this project.  These are both huge milestone anniversaries. The client suggested something springy, she was thinking flowers so I started there.  No matter how many flowers I tried, I just couldn't make it work.  Maybe it was because I just finished the ideas for the gerber daisy invitations and I was all flowered out!  I did some more exploring.  I found out that the 40th anniversary gift is the ruby and the flower is the nasturtium.  The 60th anniversary gift is diamonds but there was no flower associated with this important turning point.  I tried my hardest to work these with elements.  No luck.  Rubies and diamonds really don't say garden party, even just working with the colors was proving difficult.  Only having a flower to represent 40th anniversary wasn't helping either.  Maybe I was taking all if this way too literally.  
I took a different approach.  It takes a lot of hard work and love to make a marriage last as long as these two couple have.  Strength and endurance is essential.  They enjoyed the good times, weathered the bad and lived to tell the tale!   It suddenly hit me, there is one icon in nature that projects this strength and everlasting beauty, a tree.  

I started searching and found a picture of a tree that I had taken in Central Park one spring.  It was perfect.  The leaves were just beginning to grow.   Strong branches and an old sturdy trunk supported these leaves and the tiny creatures that made it their home.  It took a lot of magic wand and pen tool to extract this pillar or strength from it's background.  I then had to use the rubber stamp to add leaves where the tree was cut off on the sides.  It was worth the effort, the tree came out beautifully and with the addition of a little grass at the bottom, this invitation really started to take shape.  

The fonts I used were Gill Sans and Scriptina.  The latter is a soft, swingy font that evokes thoughts of summer days spent relaxing under your favorite oak tree, daydreaming, or twirling around so fast that you fall down on the green grass, laughing so hard your stomach aches.  It encompasses the feel of this light and happy time. It also sets the guests of honor apart from the rest of the information, highlighting this extraordinary event.  

At this point the invitation was just about finished but it was still missing something. It needed one final touch.  I thought of a bird and knew that that is what it needed.  The placement of it on the line of type pulls the entire scene together and allows all the elements to interact.  This is exactly what it needed!

So, here we are again, waiting for a reply.  I sent this to the client last night in hopes that she approves.  Patience is a virtue, as my grandmother used to say!

 

Friday, April 03, 2009

Gerber Daisies


My current project is wedding invitations due in late August.  The bride expressed an interest in pinks and cranberry and she loves gerber daisies.  Actually, Jenny is a gerber daisy.  If people and flowers had kindred personalities, these two would be a perfect match.  Jenny is adorable, blonde and all-American.  She has freckles and bright blue eyes.  Her personality is upbeat and fun-loving.  Gerber daisies have that same feel to them, they are uncomplicated (not that Jenny doesn't have her moments), full of color and cheer.  They bring smiles and happiness. 

Taking all of this into consideration, I had to figure out how I was going to use those daisies in such a way that conveys happiness but shows a touch of sophistication as well.   I took tons of pictures of the daisies, I scanned them in on my scanner.  Then I started working with the photos in Photoshop.  Overlaying and de-saturating  wasn't giving the effect I wanted.  Deep down inside I knew that I was going to have to bite the bullet and trace each and every petal.  Once I exhausted all other options,  I started- one petal, then two, until about an hour and a half later the entire flower was traced and looking wonderfully pink, the pink we decided on.   I started working with this new image and then realized that another daisy would be great as well, so I opened up my file of daisy pictures and chose one that was in profile.  This one didn't take half as long.  

The type layout was key.  It had to be super sophisticated. The gerber daisy is lovely and sweet but does not have the grace of, say a peony.   The fonts I ended up using were Gill Sans or Cambria to counteract the complexities of the script font, Bickham.  After coming up with multiple type layouts that I was happy with,  I added daisies to four different versions of the invitation. 

I was really happy with how these came out.  I sent them to my client last night and now I am awaiting her reply. Hopefully she is happy and we can move on to RSVP cards, programs and place cards!   I'll keep you posted.  

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

TribeMind Records


I just wanted to write a quick post about the project I just finished, the TribeMind Records website.   

The music is a mix of electronica, funk and experimental.  I was truly inspired the pieces this company is producing as well as president, Yuri Long's clear vision of how he wanted the site to look and feel.  We decided on a color pallet of reds and blacks.  He was inspired by Bauhaus design and Industrialism.  This input showed a world of design that I had never focused on before.  It opened my mind to new ideas and styles for which I am truly grateful.   

Not only was the design process a challenge, but I was designing the site in a completely different way than I ever had before.  I was learning new code and experimenting with new styles in CSS.  It was indeed an experience, but what projects aren't a challenge?  

Anyway, please check out the site if you haven't already.   I'm very proud of it and maybe it will open your mind to new music and new discoveries as well.

Welcome to the Petit Fig Tree Blog!

I recently finished designing a website for the music production company, TribeMind Records. As I was working on each and every detail, I realized the importance of a blog. The TribeMind Records blog, Musings from the TribeMind, features projects, updates and announcements from the company. Petit Fig Tree Designs could greatly benefit from this kind of application. The blog will enable me to update you on projects and processes, post images of finished products, show you my inspiration for designs and maybe even comps on the way to a finished product.

Please, join me in exploring design and maybe even help you bring out your inner creativity. I look forward to your follow and hope to get some great comments and questions.

Oh, and thanks, TribeMind Records for the inspiration!