Joanna & Ian are Getting Married!

Over a month ago (wow - I can't believe it's been that long already), I finished this lovely wedding invitation suite for a couple currently living in New York City, who are getting married in Hawaii this upcoming May. The bride, Joanna, is originally from Hawaii and her fiancee, Ian, is originally from New Zealand. They wanted to incorporate a little bit of their roots into their invitations, without the invitations seeming too tropical. You can see the entire suite at the top of this post. It included a 5.5" square invitation and 4bar reply card both printed in one ink color (a sagey, turquoise-y green) and blind embossing on Crane Lettra 100% cotton Ecru Paper and corresponding, matching envelopes for both pieces, also from Crane.

Here is the invitation and invitation envelope together.

Joanna chose a cute, square shape and square flap envelopes for her design. The envelopes were printed with her return address in the center of the flap.

For the design of the invite itself, we chose to keep things pretty traditional and elegant, but add a few modern and whimsical elements to make it unique.

Joanna had liked the blind embossing she had seen on some of our other invitations, so in order to incorporate this into her design we chose to do a pretty simple blind embossed border all around the design. For the text we used a pretty and modern script face that wasn't too flourish-y for their names and a nice serif typeface in all-caps for the rest of the information. In order to incorporate a little of their roots I mentioned above, Joanna had us create a small palm tree and kiwi bird graphic element for both the invite and reply card. The palm trees were meant to represent Joanna's Hawaiian background and the kiwi was meant to represent Ian's roots in New Zealand. Here is a close-up of the motif:

Isn't that cute?!? Below are a couple of other detail photos that I took so you can see the blind embossing, impression from the letterpress, fonts and colors a little bit closer.

For the reply cards, we chose to go with a matching design that incorporated both the palm trees/kiwi motif and the blind embossing. This card is a traditional 4bar shape and incorporated both the script and roman fonts we had used previously on the invitation.

This card also came with a matching ecru envelope that was printed with Joanna & Ian's address on the front.

This suite came together so beautifully and Joanna and Ian were an absolute joy to work with! I know that their tropical Hawaiian wedding in May is going to be just spectacular! Congratulations Joanna & Ian!

Erin & Andrew are Getting Married!

It always amazes me how time does fly here at Twin Ravens during the early parts of spring. It seems like almost all (not all, but almost all) of our clients this time of year are having us design and print stationery for their upcoming weddings in the early spring and summer. We do have quite a few other projects in the works this time of year, including some very sweet baby announcements, an awesome set of Bar Mitzvah invitations, and several different sets of business cards and other business-related stationery, but by and large, this time of year seems to be dominated by weddings. While I truly enjoy this time of year and getting to work with so many amazing people, I must admit, it does make things very busy, which would explain my extremely inconsistent blogging. However, I do have some absolutely lovely things to show you in the next few weeks, starting with this.

Nearly a month ago we finished a really fun, yet classic set of invitations for a couple in North Carolina who are getting married at the end of April. Erin and Andrew had seen some invitations I had designed and printed previously on this blog and chose to combine/modify a couple of them to create their own unique invitation suite! Their suite included an A7 size invite with matching envelope, a 4bar size reply card envelope and a combined A7 size reply card and accommodations card that were perforated down the middle so that the reply card could be detached and mailed back. You can see all of the pieces in this suite together at the top of this post.

Erin and Andrew's wedding colors are navy blue and a light green and we chose to incorporate these into her suite with both her ink colors and her paper choices. Here is Erin and Andrew's invitation all by itself:

This invitation is an A7 size, measuring 5"x7" and has a fun, organic frame surrounding a mix of a classic serif typeface and a fun, modern script, all printed in navy blue ink. To give the invitation some additional texture, we blind embossed a series of vertical lines in the background behind the framed portion of the invitation. I love how a little bit of blind embossing can add some wonderful texture to a design, without being too overwhelming! Below are some detail images so you can see the texture of the embossing and printing better.

We had originally planned to pair this invitation with a green envelope (Erin and Andrew's other wedding color), but due to a very long backorder of the green from our supplier, we ended up going with a matching white envelope, printed with navy ink instead. Check out the cute heart detail below their address! Isn't that adorable?!?

For their reply card envelopes, we did end up using the green. This green is a light green color called "Balsam Fir" from Green Paper Company. Not only are these envelopes a fabulous green color, because they are made from 30% post-consumer waste, they are also "green" environmentally-speaking too!

For Erin and Andrew's two insert cards, we did something that I absolutely love, but have only done a few times before: we combined them. There are, in fact, two separate cards here, but they were designed and printed to be mailed as a single card (5"x7"), but perforated down the middle so that the reply card could be detached and mailed back.

As you can see in the above photo, an accommodations card that is similar in design to Erin and Andrew's wedding invitation is the top half of the joined card, and a cute, navy-blue-on-white reply card is the bottom half.

The accommodations portion of this card also featured some blind-embossing: this time diagonal lines behind our cute frame. The interior of the frame featured information about where to stay and were to find Erin & Andrew's website. If you look closely at the above photo, you can see the perforation in the card right below where the blind embossing ends. Isn't this just cool?!?

The lower portion of this card is their detachable reply card.

Erin and Andrew included a space for guests to write in their names, check-box options for the actual response and an area for guests to initial what their meal preference is for the reception. I just love this combined-card idea. It saves money for the couple on printing (by printing effectively one card instead of two) and it's a great way to keep all of the enclosure information together until the reply is ready to be sent back.

Erin and Andrew were wonderful clients and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them on this suite! Thanks so much Erin and Andrew and congratulations on your upcoming big day!

Shanley & Christopher are Getting Married!

Check out this elegant set of wedding invitations that were recently completed for a lovely couple in the Atlanta, Georgia area who are having a destination wedding in Colorado this coming April. Shanley and Chris are having a lovely, early spring wedding in the Vail, Colorado area where they will wed and hope to enjoy some spring skiing! Their invitation suite includes an A7 size invitation and an A2 size reply card, both printed in one ink color (chocolate brown) with blind embossed details and envelopes to go with each! Check out the whole suite at the top of this post.

Here is Shanley and Chris' invitation all by itself.

Shanley chose a simple, classic serif typeface in all caps for the main text of her invitation and we used a slightly more decorative script face for the couple's names, which were featured prominently in the center of the invitation. We kept the design fairly simple, but created a lacy, blind embossed border around the names to set them apart from the rest of the text. It wasn't my original intention, but I think that the lacy pattern reminds me somewhat of a mountain range, like where Shanley and Chris will be holding their wedding, as well as formal lace, like on a wedding gown, at the same time. I just love the way clean, crisp letterpress printed type sinks into 100% cotton paper. Check out these detail photos to see it for yourself:

Isn't that just lovely? We paired the invitation with a matching A7 size envelope from Crane & Co. in Pearl White and created a custom liner for it in a shiny eggplant purple, fabric-weave paper. It's difficult to see from the photograph, but I love the way the purple liner adds an extra splash of color to this white and chocolate brown invitation suite.

We then letterpress printed Shanley's parent's return address on the flap of the envelope.

Shanley and Chris' reply card was designed to coordinate with the invitation. In order to do this, we enlarged part of the lacy, blind-embossed pattern from the invitation and placed it at the very bottom of the card. We then used the same fonts to create spaces for guests to respond to both Shanley and Chris' actual wedding ceremony as well as to their Aprés Ski event which will be held the day after.

Isn't the blind embossing extra pretty when enlarged? I really like it. Here are some more details of the reply card so you can see the fonts, blind embossing, impression, etc. a little bit better.

This card was paired with a coordinating A2 size envelope with Shanley's parent's address printed on the front. We had originally wanted the reply envelopes for these to also be from Crane, but a mix up with the supplier over the holiday caused us to have to choose another envelope from a different company. This wasn't the easiest mix-up to deal with, especially right after my accident, and we couldn't find an exact match, but the one we found was mighty close. Check it out:

Having to choose an alternate brand for this last piece wasn't the most optimal situation, but Shanley and Chris were really wonderful with the whole situation and the suite turned out gorgeous just the same!

Thanks so much Shanley and Chris! I know your wedding in Colorado is going to be fabulous and really really fun all at the same time. Congratulations to you both!

Business and Calling Cards Galore!

Happy almost Christmas Eve, to those who celebrate it! I realized the other day while writing this post, that it's been a little while since I posted about business or calling cards, so I figured it was about time. You may remember that we had a month-long special on business and calling cards back in October (Don't remember? That's okay - you can read about it here), which was really great. If you missed out on that particular special, fear not, we will be doing the same or a similar one again, and you will be able to find out about it right here on this blog as soon as we do! Not all of the cards I'm about to show you were a result of that special, but they are all a great little taste of what is possible in the business/calling card realm from Twin Ravens Press!

Below is a little round-up of nine different business or calling cards that I designed and/or printed within the last year.

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Calling Cards - Alexandra Horn

Alexandra (who goes by Ally) is a friend-of-a-friend that I printed these business cards for a while back. Ally is majoring in Spanish at the University of Oregon and will be finished with her degree and out on the job market this spring. She wanted a professional and classy calling card with her name and basic contact information to hand out to prospective employers that wasn't too industry-specific. This sweet and simple calling card design featuring two green aspen leaves sure fit the bill! I letterpress printed Ally's name and the leaves in an earthy, green ink and her phone number and e-mail address in chocolate brown on Crane Lettra 100% cotton paper in Ecru. I love how clean, simple and classy this calling card is without being too job or industry-specific, and the texture and colors are just awesome!

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Calling Cards - Dominic Tringali

Dentist by day, problem solver and international man of mystery (or something) by night, Dominic Tringali is another one of my Eugene acquaintances who desired a stylish and classy calling card to hand out to friends, lovers and potential business contacts. I love how this card is classy and masculine all at the same time! We chose a classic serif font in all caps for Dominic's name, a smaller lower-case italic font for the tag line, and another classic, roman font for the contact information. Both the typography and the silhouette motif were printed in black ink on Crane Lettra Bright White 100% cotton paper. Aren't these totally great?!? I love 'em!

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Business Cards - Kerplunc

I've actually posted about the design and print work that we've done for the web design, development and hosting company, Kerplunc, before on this blog. You can read more about them, and the work we've done for them, in this post from last January. Kerplunc is a two-man team based in Canada and the UK. We originally worked with and printed cards for one of Kerplunc's team members, Matt Hall, last January, and later this year we printed cards for Matt's business other-half, Nick Barrett. The design of Nick's cards is the same as the design of Matt's, for corporate consistency purposes, but the back side was updated with Nick's information.

I love how clean and modern these cards are! Nick was so excited when he received his cards that he put up a little post about them over on his blog, here. Go check it out and check out the link above for more info on Matt, Nick and Kerplunc. They are awesome folks with an awesome little company, so go check them out!

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Calling Cards - Marilee Enright Gordon

Marilee Enright Gordon is a friend of my mom's and an L.C.S.W., or Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She splits her time between Wilson, Wyoming and Montecito, California and these calling cards were a surprise gift for her from my mother, as she had once mentioned to my mom that she needed new calling cards badly. They feature her name, both towns where she resides and her e-mail address. Her previous calling cards had a small half-moon and star motif that we chose to continue in the new design. These were printed on Crane Lettra Pearl White 100% cotton paper in navy blue ink. Once again, I love the way a clean and simple, yet elegant design can really convey a person's personal contact information, oh so nicely.

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Calling Cards - Edie Walker

Speaking of my mom, here are a couple of different calling card designs I created for her this past June as a surprise birthday gift. My mom is a very smart woman of many talents, who has had many different careers throughout her life, so it was really difficult, in a way, to come up with a single design for her - so I created two. Both designs feature her name, telephone number and e-mail address as the primary information, but the design of both cards are really really different.

One card featured a Japanese-woodcut-inspired wave pattern in light blue ink with her contact information in black. Like Ally Horn's business card above, I love how clean and simple and non-specific this card is, while being fun, pretty and elegant all at the same time. This set of cards was printed on Crane Lettra 100% cotton pearl white paper.

The other design featured a lovely blind-embossed pattern and a floral design printed in chocolate brown and burnt sienna (orange) inks on Crane Lettra 100% cotton ecru paper.

In my opinion, this design is a little more feminine and elegant than the first design, but both are really really beautiful. I love how the blind-embossed circle pattern at the top of the card really adds an extra bit of visual interest and texture to the overall card design. My mom loved both cards, but which was her favorite, you ask? She preferred the second one with the flowers. Great choice, Mom!

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Calling Cards - Elisabeth Mason

Elisabeth originally sought me out when she was in search of business cards for her law practice. We ended up deciding that trading our services would be mutually beneficial, however, when we got to my end of the trade, Elisabeth decided that she would rather have a pretty, personal calling card created that she could hand out to non-business-related contacts, rather than one specifically for her work. She mentioned that she really liked hummingbirds, which I thought was great, so we used that little tid-bit of inspiration to create the personal calling card you see above. Elisabeth's cards were printed in metallic copper ink on 100 lb. speckletone starch rain cover stock from French Paper Company. I love how the little hummingbird and flight path motif is somewhat whimsical and really compliments the free-flowing, whimsical font we used so well!

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Calling Cards - Nami Bigos

Nami is a Portland, Oregon-based graphic designer who designed her own awesomely modern calling card and hired Twin Ravens Press to print them! I love how simple, professional and modern Nami's design is. It's clean, straight-forward, and totally down-to-business. These cards were printed in bright, rhodamine red ink (which, in all honesty, is really a bright magenta color), on crisp, 100% cotton, bright white Crane Lettra. Very nice!

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Calling Cards - Evan Lally

Last, but certainly not least, are these fabulous calling cards, created for a good friend of mine, and self-proclaimed metro-sexual, Evan Lally. Evan's a pretty classy guy. He dresses super-snappy, lives in a very chic, downtown studio apartment in Eugene, and is just pretty much awesome. Evan's cards feature both modern and 19th century styling and typefaces, combined with a super-classy cherry blossom motif. These cards are vertically oriented and were printed in two metallic ink colors: silver and copper on 100 lb. Speckletone Wine cover stock, also from French Paper Company.

The cards feature the cherry blossom motif and Evan's name in a wood-type inspired typeface towards the top of the card, and his contact information in another classic typeface towards the bottom.

The center of the card features an oversized, bracketed tag line that is separated from the name and contact information by two stylish flourishes. We printed these cards with three different tag lines, which you can see in the top photo: "Totally Metro", "Not British, no really, I swear" and "Certified Show-Stopper".

I know that these tag lines may not mean anything to you, but trust me, if you knew Evan personally, you would understand. : )

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If you enjoyed this little business and calling card round-up, check back again soon as I have many more 2009 calling cards to write about in the very near future!

If you would like more information about ordering calling or business cards of your very own, please feel free to contact me at any time!

I may not be blogging for the next few days, so to those of you who celebrate it, have a very Merry Christmas! Ta-ta for now!

Kate & Erick are Married!

First of all, I must send a huge thank you out to everyone who came and said "hi" yesterday at the Meet Your Maker Holiday Show. The show was a great success, and we had a much better turn out this time than at the one we did in November, so thank you to everyone who came!

Next up, I have a really pretty and very unique wedding invitation suite from earlier this year to show off to all of you! This suite was created for a New York City couple, Kate and Erick, who were married this past September in Middletown, Connecticut. Kate desired a simple, yet elegant invitation that really took advantage of all that the letterpress process has to offer. What we came up with was a gorgeous, single-color, A7 size wedding invitation and a 4bar size reply card, both with extensive blind embossing, and a set of coordinating envelopes for both pieces. You can see all four pieces in this invitation suite in the photo above and below is the invitation all by itself.

When Kate originally hired me to design her invitation suite, she showed me the digital file she had created for her lovely save-the-date cards. Kate and Erick's save-the-dates featured a really fun and whimsical honeybee and honeycomb pattern as well as some lovely fonts. We chose to utilize fonts that were very similar to the ones on the save-the-dates and continue the bee and honeycomb theme for the main invitation suite. These invitations were printed in chocolate brown ink and featured the bee motif at the top and the invitation text below. We chose a traditional layout and used a pretty script face for Kate and Erick's names and the "Cocktails, dinner and dancing to follow" line at the bottom, and a classic, roman, serif face for the rest of the text. In order to incorporate the honeycomb pattern we blind embossed the entire background of the invitation with little honeycomb hexagons. Now, let me tell you, blind embossing a pattern this large over an entire sheet, was no small feat. In order to do this we had to pull each invitation manually on a cylinder letterpress (rather than doing the blind embossing on our platen press) and register each and every sheet by hand for the embossing. Despite the extra work that this took, the embossed pattern turned out beautifully and really gave this invitation design an elegant and rich texture! Here are some detail photos so you can see the fonts, impression and blind embossing a little better:

For the invitation envelopes, Kate chose a European pointed flap envelope from Waste Not Paper in sage green to accompany her invitations. We custom lined these envelopes with a slightly darker green liner that we had offset printed with a white honeycomb pattern. We then letterpress printed Kate and Erick's return address and another honeybee with a little flight path on the back flap of each envelope. Check it out:

Here is Kate and Erick's reply card and reply card envelope. For the envelope, Kate chose to stick with the sage green color and we letterpress printed the couple's address and a little bit of the honeycomb pattern in chocolate brown ink on the front.

The reply card itself featured some more honeycomb-pattern-blind-embossing on the left side of the card, and another little brown honeybee with flight path letterpress printed over the top of the blind embossing. The card featured a line for the guests to write their names and then a place for them to indicate which event(s) they would be attending. Kate and Erick planned a Friday night welcome and a Sunday morning brunch, as well as their wedding ceremony and reception, which was held on a Saturday. They also included a space where guests could write in a song that they would dance to at the wedding reception.

One of my favorite things about this reply card is the little hexagon-shaped check boxes we used for the different options guests needed to indicate. It's such a small detail, but I love the way it ties in with all of the blind-embossed pattern that we created! It really goes to show that taking extra special attention to detail when designing a piece can really add so much to the finished package. Here is another detail photo so you can see more of the gorgeous blind embossing and the sweet honeybee!

I love how gorgeous, elegant, sweet, whimsical, classic and unique this wedding suite is, all at the same time! Kate and Erick were fabulous clients to work with and I imagine that their wedding this past September was really beautiful and amazing!

Thanks so much and congratulations Kate and Erick! All the best to you!

One more note for today: this week is the last week to order holiday cards from our Etsy Shop. If you'd like to order holiday cards, please place your order by this Saturday, December 19th in order to receive them by Christmas! Happy Holidays!