London Calling

My good friend, Megan, has been offered a position in London with her company.  She is leaving her home (and her friends) of many years in New York to start a new life in the UK!   She won't be looking for a place to live until she gets there and will be staying in temporary corporate housing in the meantime.  Because of that, she will have to send out an announcement with her new address, phone number, etc.  I thought, instead of doing something so impersonal, like an e-mail, why not send a postcard in the mail.  What a great gift that would be!  I started designing and this is what I came up with!  

The type, color pallet and boarder were inspired by vintage postcards.  I wanted to give it that 1930s/40s feel.  Big Ben and the Statue of Liberty were perfect icons representing her old home and the new life she is on the cusp of.  On the back, you may recognize the old '80s song by Simple Minds.  I thought this was appropriate.  

Now, Megan has a tendency to put things like this off because she is just so busy with work, and now moving on top of all!  If I could have printed her information on the card beforehand, I would have!  Hopefully she will send these out.  To be safe, I'm buying the stamps as well.  I better get one of these in the mail or someone is in BIG trouble!  I may just have to fly to London and give her a piece of my mind...

Pressing Letters

On Saturday I took a letterpress class in Union Square.  If you don't know much about letterpress, it is basically a form of relief printing that originated in the 15th century, invented by John Gutenburg.  It is crisper and cleaner than anything you could get from a laser printer.  When you run your fingers over the paper, you can feel the difference. There are no computers here, all the type is hand set and the final result is worth the effort.  Check out this link on Wikipedia for more information on the process and this short video on Youtube is very beautiful!  

The class itself was very informative and I found I really loved the process of setting each individual letter of type and learning to run the press.   It was all very therapeutic in a way that photography was for me in college, sitting in a darkroom, watching a blank piece of photo paper come to life.  Computers are much quicker and convenient, but there is something so beautiful about doing things by hand.   It saddens me that so many of these processes have been lost due to technology.  

Above are two of the three projects we did.  The quote was a group effort.  my camera doesn't do the embossing or crispness justice and letterpress must really be touched and seen with one's own eyes to really appreciate the beauty and craftmanship.  

The teacher of the class was a 40-something woman with a masters from NYU.  She somehow makes a living printing, designing and teaching this class without any outside income.  She owns the studio and presses.  She takes great pride in her craft, as she should.  She is a true fine artist which, she did not neglect to remind me of over and over throughout the class.   As we went around the room saying who we were, what we did for a living, why we wanted to to take the class, etc, I suddenly felt as though I was in college again.  I was made to feel inadequate because I chose a career that would put food on the table and money in my pocket as opposed to being a starving artist and drawing tourists' portraits on the streets of Times Square.  There are so many people out there that feel this way, that even a career in graphic design as opposed to being a painter or a sculptor is a cop out.  It's like I am a traitor to my artistic background.  So I told her that by day I work in television as an animator/ designer.  She proceded to tell me that TV graphics were annoying and busy (granted, they are a bit flashy, but that's just how TV works!).  I was looked down on for the the standard font we used because it was a "readability " font, in other words, nothing fancy or having much personality.  Of COURSE we use a readability font!  It is television!  It's on the air for three seconds before it is replaced by more information!  What?  Does she think we are going to use some intricate script font that people really have to concentrate on to understand?  This isn't print, these aren't wedding invitations!  I even told her the reason I started Petit Fig Tree was because I wanted to broaden my creativity.  Apparently, that meant nothing to her.   My favorite thing that she said, though, was that if she takes a designer's work to print and decides she doesn't like it, she refuses to do the work.  What a luxury it must be to refuse work or to argue with someone about their own tastes!  On the bright side, I made a friend who was also a graphic designer and got the same elitist vibe from her.  So, it wasn't just me!  Ok, rant over.

All in all, the learning experience was invaluable.  I'm currently looking online for presses, hand presses, not an electric one like the one we used in class.  In only a few projects, the press would pay for itself and the quality and beauty is unsurpassed.  

Wedding Details

Now that the invitation for the gerber daisy wedding has been chosen, I had to move onto the RSVP card.  Once the first element is finished, usually the rest of the designs fall into place easily.  

As you can see, if you look at my previous post about these invitations, I have made a few changes. I printed the invitation out on my home printer to get a feel for how it was really going to look.  You'd be amazed at how many issues you catch when you look at it on paper as opposed to a computer screen.  It also gives you an idea of how the colors are going to turn out.  

The first thing I noticed is some spacing issues and a missed period. I quickly fixed it.  The bride would not have been thrilled if I made a typo!   

Another issue that bothered me as I compared the invitation printout and the RSVP card printout was the colors of the daisies.  I used a much subtler pink in the RSVP card and seeing the invitation full size with those bright pink daisies glaring off the page at me was not working.  They were distracting, which would cause the reader to barely focus on the type.  That truly, is the most important part!  So, I changed the opacity to that of the one on the RSVP card.  It worked perfectly and tied them together so much better.  

For some contrast, I wanted to make the envelopes the darker pink.  To make the type show up, I had to use the cranberry color that we picked out for the details.  This seemed to worked but the envelope still seemed to be missing something.  I decided to add the profile daisy in a lighter cranberry pointing directly at the address, leading your eye to this important information.  I think the main envelope will be the darker pink as well, which will look nice with the black calligraphy adorning it. 

What do you think?  

Hiatus

Due to some personal issues, I had to take a hiatus from Petit Fig Tree Designs.  I, unfortunately, missed out on two potentially great projects.  

The first was a desk set with personalized logo.  It was for a retired teacher who was planning to do some work from home.  It would have included post-its, notepads,  stationary, etc.  The problem I was having (on top of my personal issues) was the fact that I couldn't find a printer that would print five post-it pads or three notepads.  Everything had to be printed in bulk. Because of this, the project was not very cost effective.

The second project that I ended up forgoing was a website for a real estate developer.   It was going to be a simple, seven page site showing the homes with details and pictures, a home page and a contact page.  The client wanted it finished in three weeks which would have been a crunch but I could have done it under different circumstances.  It's unfortunate that I missed this opportunity.  

So, it's back to finishing up the Merrifield wedding invitations.  The bride chose the vertical invitation with the two daisies side by side, shown here.  This weekend I'm going to work on the RSVP card and envelope.  I also have to order the paper which is a shimmery pale, peachy pink color.  I think I may make the envelope and RSVP card the darker pink used on the invitation, depending on how well it reads.  The final elements are not quite such a rush.  I have to lay out and come up with an idea for the program and start working on the seating chart and place cards.  

As a side project, I really need to redesign the Petit Fig Tree website.  Now that I have learned a decent amount of HTML, the site won't be half has difficult to update when I redo it.  I want to add a link to the blog and I have a few more pieces of work to add to the portfolio.  The news page needs to be updated badly as well.  I like the style I have on the current site and am going to try not to stray too far from that with the new design.  

All in all, things seem to be getting back to normal.  I may have missed out on some great projects but it will just make way for others that I can give 100% to.  

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!

 

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.  

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.