Liz Owen - Graphic Design and Illustration: FMP: Research

With my proposal all nice and ready I can begin searching for inspiration, and I've done this by first looking at existing designs.
Not only would this be good for inspiration but I could then figure out how they've laid out the R.S.V.P and other cards as well as the wording on the main invitation.

Existing Designs - Mood Boards
(I wasn't able to find all of the original sources for these, so if you know the designer of one that I have missed out, please let me know!)

Links: http://dribbble.com/shots/8235-Wedding-Invitation http://dribbble.com/allisongrayce/projects/2496-Wedding-Invitations http://dribbble.com/shots/48315-pennsylvania-wedding http://dribbble.com/shots/100780-Invites http://dribbble.com/shots/95430-my-wedding-invite-system http://vikifloki.deviantart.com/art/My-wedding-invitation-132884739 http://sethnick.com/Andrew-Aly-s-Wedding-Invitations http://www.behance.net/gallery/Wedding-Card/96383 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Vintage-garden-wedding-invitations/355236 http://www.flickr.com/photos/tugboatprintshop/2365502178/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/annamalie/2690092295/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/27511405@N00/4660528427/ http://dzineblog.com/2012/05/40-unique-wedding-invitation-designs.html http://www.behance.net/kathyager http://www.behance.net/thepublicsociety

http://www.minted.com/product/wedding-invitations/MIN-42P-INV/once-upon http://www.invitatiousdesign.com/portfolio/once-upon-a-time-invitation/ http://www.luulla.com/product/8638/fairy-tale---once-upon-a-time---wedding-invitation-suite http://www.bellafigura.com/letterpress/vendage.html http://www.beastpieces.com/2009/05/ornamental-wickerwork-carolina-wedding-invitation/ http://lydianichols.com/Pennsylvania-Wedding http://www.paperchainweddingstationery.co.uk/Collections_florence.htm http://www.paperchainweddingstationery.co.uk/Collections_flourish.htm http://www.beastpieces.com/2009/07/typographic-nectar-hummingbird-wedding/ http://www.behance.net/gallery/Jorge-Laura/6932087 http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-Rabbit-Monday-Misfits/5828989 http://www.elizabethannedesigns.com/blog/2009/12/14/planning-a-wedding-without-losing-your-mind-part-iii-the-paper/ http://www.elizabethannedesigns.com/blog/2011/02/21/diy-kraft-wedding-invitations/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tugboatprintshop/2365502178/ http://www.zazzle.co.uk/storybook_fairytale_wedding_invitation_pink-161630771460883694 http://www.zazzle.co.uk/flourish_scroll_storybook_fairytale_invitation-161301244404823129

Inspirational Designs
I have taken several designs showcased in the mood boards above and analysed them to understand how they are designed. This might also show me what information is featured on wedding invitations and how they are worded.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-Tale-of-Selviya-Anthony-wedding-illustration/4091011

The illustrations shown on this wedding invitation is one of the most detailed ones I’ve seen throughout my research, which is one of the main reasons why I’ve picked it as one of my inspirational pieces. The mixture between the intricate detail in the illustration and the simplicity of the type is a perfect combination, as it doesn’t make the design appear overcrowded. By writing “The Tale of Selviya & Anto” creates a sort of fairy tale appearance without having to use calligraphic type or black letter. This shows that not all “fairy tale” designs have to go with the stereotypical typefaces.

The illustration itself is, as I’ve mentioned above, very detailed despite the fact that the characters are cartoon-ish. The illustrator had put in a lot of effort in little details like the bride’s wedding dress, the ground, and the trees… In fact, almost everything has been done with the upmost detail. By doing this they have created texture and made the illustration appear alive.
The good thing about the detail in the lines is that they then haven’t used too many colours but have stuck to one colour scheme of gold/warm colours. These warm colours emit the couple’s happiness and reminds me of the summer sun where everyone is light and happy as they enjoy the sunshine. To emphasise the magical atmosphere the illustrator has drawn spiralling flowers around the couple as if they too are dancing. There are some sparkles and glowing petals as well, which reminds me of fairy dust or magic wands from Disney’s “The Sleeping Beauty”. I think it is this one thing – the sparkles – that really brings the fairy tale to life. The light in the distance could show the brightness of the couple’s future, and as it’s where the trees have faded it could reflect how no one really knows what will happen in future, but it’ll be a happy one.

I like how the type is perfectly aligned on both sides without there being a major problem with the kerning, as it seems that the designer had chosen the right typeface and size so that none of the letters looked squished or stretched out. I just love the fact that they wrote “The Tale of Selviya & Anto” and would like to do something similar in my design to create the fairy tale/love story setting.
The typeface itself is all in uppercase to emphasise the perfect alignment on both sides, and the subtle decoration in the serifs makes it appear elegant. Even the ampersand appears decorative with the smooth edges and the contrast between thick and thin strokes.

Instead of having it laid out like a book, the pages are folded so that they viewer opens it up from the centre. Now this reminds me of someone “opening up to another” and revealing their feelings for that other person, but in this situation it is the couple opening up to the public to tell them of their love story.

Information included on invitation: Story of the couple... Wasn't in fact an invitation, just a wedding book for the couple.

Conclusion:
I really, really like this design, as almost all of the elements have been perfectly placed and the illustration so detailed that I can’t imagine how long it took for the illustrator to do! What I like most has to be “The Tale of Selviya & Anto” because it’s simple but effective. I would like to do something similar in my design!

http://www.happymenocal.com/

The illustration on this, compared to the last, isn’t as detailed but there is still something about it that makes it appear elegant that it doesn’t need the detail to do it. The watercolour in fact makes it look delicate and light, like a lady’s delicate tea set. I think this is mainly due to the illustration not having any thin lines to give it structure so that people could focus more on the soft brushstrokes. The border around the Save the Date card is simple, but if it had any more detail then the viewer wouldn’t be able to focus on the main pieces of information. It could also make it too crowded… so, in my opinion, simplicity definitely works better than a detailed and crowded design. I like how each dot to make up the border isn’t “strict” and in a perfectly straight line as it makes it more authentic as if whoever designed the cards had done it all by hand and not by computer. This gives the invitation a more “organic” appearance and that more time and effort had been given to the designs.

This goes the same for the type; because of the fact it’s imperfect it appears as if someone had actually written all of the invitations personally, so whoever receives it is obviously dear to the bride or groom as they have been especially invited to their wedding.
It too seems to be done with a brush so that it blends well with the overall outlook of the design. I feel that if they did use a computer-generated typeface it wouldn’t have the same, soft and delicate appearance as the type displayed here.

The colour scheme they’ve used only completes the soft and elegant appearance because they’ve used very light shades, with white as the colour of the background. This makes the design appear heavenly as well or dreamy because the light shades aren’t too overpowering and “in-your-face”, but calm and pleasing to look at.

Information included on the invitation: Together with their families...etc; names of couple; date; location; no RSVP.

Conclusion:
This design has showed me that not all illustrations have to be extremely detailed, as simple designs can work really well alongside type. I feel that if the designer had used extremely detailed illustrations than they wouldn’t taken the focus away from the important information displayed on each card.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Jeremy-and-Lauras-Wedding-Invites/7229619

belindalovelee.com

Here’s a design I chose not because of the illustration (unlike the two above) but because how everything has that “organic” feel about it. It could be because even from this photo I could tell that she has used textured paper because of the ragged, yet neat, edges. Combined with the little rope to keep everything together this design reminds me somewhat of the sea or a picnic. It also reminds me of something that’s been in the family for a while in a little treasure box, where all of the memories have been collected together on these four pages.

It is the first time where I saw a logo designed for the wedding invitation with the initials of the couple. The typeface is very elegant and has the appearance of being handwritten with a fountain because of the contrast between thick and thin strokes as well as how they’re joined. It is cute as well because the joined stroke forms a little knot between the two letters, which could possibly reflect the couple “tying the knot”.
The way that the type has been placed allows everything to be seen just above the previous sheet of paper, so the person wouldn’t have to flick through the pages in order to figure out what they were about but could see everything as soon as they unravel the envelope (which had been very cleverly designed in my opinion).
The colour scheme Lee’s chosen has a very calm effect because of the pastel shades as well as the type not being pitch black but more of a soft grey. There isn’t too much going on in the sense of colour and this creates a minimalist effect.

Information displayed on invitation: Names of both parents (Mr & Mrs); names of couple; date; location.

Conclusion:
I like how Lee hasn’t just designed the wedding invitations, but also the way that they are laid out and packaged. This shows that she really has thought about the design thoroughly to ensure that it’s easy to read for the recipient and that they wouldn’t have to flick through and read the whole invite to know what it’s about.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Alice-in-Wonderland-Wedding-Invite/4414149

I don't know whether it's because I'm a big fan of Alice in Wonderland or if this design is simply beautiful, but I'm love with it. All of the different cards are obviously linked because of the way the paper is presented as if it's an old page from a book, and there is a lot of detail in the illustrations even though they do not have backgrounds etc. There is definitely something Alice in Wonderland-y about this design and I think it's mostly because of how these illustrations are drawn to mimic the Victorian style during the time the book was published.

As I mentioned above there is a lot of detail in the illustrations. Let's first look at the "logo" for Natalie and Nathan; there is such detail in the entwining lines and roses. When I took a closer look I realised that there wasn't just roses on those vines but other objects that were important to the story: the smoking caterpillar, the Mad Hatter's hat, the flamingo that the queen of hearts used as a golf club, the butterfly... There are so many subtle details that tells the whole story in just one "simple", illustration. And all of these details link in with the theme Alice in Wonderland.
The amount of detail within this rose bush reminds me a lot of the elegance shown in the Victorian era, as they almost overloaded their furniture and clothing with detail and floral patterns were most popular (possibly because of William Morris). So not only has the designer linked in Alice in Wonderland in this design but also the era whence it came from.

They've used a serif typestyle which portrays elegance due to the contrast between thick and thin serifs. When I looked at the R.S.V.P card I realised that some of the letters are slightly - only very slightly - are positioned to mimic a typewriter as they don't all sit perfectly on a straight line. This reminds me of the really old books where the letters are sometimes so close together that they "bleed" into each other.
Although they've all been written in uppercase there is a bit of a difference between the first letter and the other letters following it, as if the first letter is the "real" uppercase letter and the others are the smaller versions of uppercase. So the x-height compared to the cap height is very small but the subtle height makes all of the difference between making the words look too bold and making it friendly and have that vintage feel to it.

Information displayed on invitation: Unknown, only shows the design for the front of the card.

Conclusion:
I just love how there's a consistent theme throughout all of the invitations even though they used different illustrations. The designer had brought together all of the aspects of the story into the invitation as well with subtle details such as drawing the smoking caterpillar onto the vines. I would love to be able to bring the story of fairy tales into my design as well.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Wedding-Invitations/247395

Here is an unusual wedding invitation, as it’s spread across a series of cards that tells the love story of two birds – who represents the couple – and it’s not until the very end that they have invited the reader to their wedding.

I like how they have started the story by stating that a couple is going to get married before going into a short story of their love for each other, as this would immediately reveal to the reader that it would be something to do with a wedding.

The typeface used for “A Love Story” reminds me of bird legs, as the cap height is very high, yet the width of each letter is small to make them look like stilts. Each letter then has a little serif, and it is this that reminds me of bird feet. The eyes and counters are really small as well and this reminds me of the bird’s body.

The other typeface in comparison is pretty traditional in the sense that they’ve used something similar to Times, which is a default typeface on every computer. However this only emphasises the aesthetic appeal in the other, main typeface.

When I looked closer at this typeface – as I wasn’t too sure if it was Times or not – I saw a slight difference on the last card. The J in Jennifer and Jeremiah has its descender go below the baseline, whereas the ascender is at the same level as all of the other uppercase letters. This is quite interesting because uppercase letters don’t normally have a descender below the baseline and this creates an interesting effect because it makes the other uppercase letters look as if they’re lowercase because of how small they appear against the J. These words don’t then overpower the rest of the words on the card because of the small cap height.

The type on the last card is quite spaced out to give each line space to breathe and also fill the page without making it look too cluttered. So although it seems to have a minimum amount of wording, the little illustration and the texture of the paper makes it seem “full” enough.

I really like the little illustrations as they are not overly detailed so that the reader could focus more on the story, and they look really cute because of the way they’ve drawn the birds with small round stomachs and happy eyes. This “cute” appearance makes the invitation light and casual, and by linking the couple to the birds the designer has brought about innocence as birds are portrayed as kind creatures that are their to aid the hero/heroin in times of need (especially in fairy tales).

Information displayed on the invitation: Full names of parents of the daughter; full names of couple; date, written out in full; location; R.S.V.P.

Conclusion:

I really like how they set out this invitation as a story, with the details right at the end on the last card. The texture of the paper shows just how much they have paid attention to detail, and the illustrations and minimalist and cute.

http://www.beastpieces.com/2009/05/ornamental-wickerwork-carolina-wedding-invitation

This must be one of the most intricate designs I have ever seen, because everything within this invitation has that elegance to it and there has been so much attention paid to detail; just look at the little Latin words in the “background”, for instance… How long did it take them to design this?!

These Latin words enforces tradition to the design due to its deep connection to religion, and this is supported by the fact that the couple are to be wed at a chapel (so they are probably religious or from a religious background). Having the invitation addressed by the parents of the daughter is also traditional, so this invitation has an overall strong feeling of the parents and couple wanting to stick to the old ways of marriage.

Even the colours could reflect the strong bond between the couple as the background “illustration” is in gold and this brings about the connotations of wealth, power, and the royal family. The silver then dampens this powerful appearance and makes it fade to a gentler colour, and because the colour gold is similar to yellow my mind then jumps to the connotation of happiness. This could reflect the happiness of the two families that their children are going to be bonded by marriage.

The main typeface used in this invitation – in my opinion – would be the cursive style, and this brings up the connotations of elegance because the ligatures are very elaborate and each letter looks elegant due to the small x-height and the fact that they’re joined up.

The other typeface is a high contrast to the cursive because it’s been showcased in uppercase letters, with heavy serifs and short cap height. In fact this other typeface is also shown in italics so overall there are “three” typefaces, and this italic version has some decorative features in it (a good example is found in “n” of honour). I think that this makes the design seem slightly cluttered because of all of the different styles… In my opinion, a design should only really have two.

However because of the variations of the other typeface our main focus would be on the elaborately designed one as it’s style is consistent. It is indeed a beautiful typeface, and due to the decorative aspects the words take up a lot of space. This might make the design seem slightly cluttered with its decorative background.

Information displayed on invitation: Mr & Mrs (parents of daughter); full names of couple; date in full; location; reception to follow.

Conclusion:

I find this design extremely beautiful and well thought out because of all of the little details such as the bird holding the ribbon that goes around the gold illustration in the background. However I do find that using three typestyles is a bit too much, as the cursive typeface is already elaborate.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Wedding-Invitation/7878221

Although this invitation appears quite simple at first, there is a lot of thought behind it because the designer would have to carefully measure each page to ensure that they had the right amount of string, and that string would tie a knot as the guest opens the invitation. This string reflects the couple tying the knot as they marry, forming a complete bond as man and wife.

The string also reminds me of the Red String of Fate, a story from East Asia where we are each tied to our soul mate by a red string of fate and that no matter where we are, we will meet our soul mate. Even though the designer might not know about this they had unintentionally inspired the right kind of connotations by simply adding a string that knots when opened.

The way the invitation opens up could reflect the couple’s hearts opening up to accept each other and fall in love, and that they are now opening their hearts to the public to invite them to witness their love for each other.

The typefaces they’ve used contrast with each other – as one is serif and the other script – but yet this contrast works really well. It’s a mixture of formal and informal, and thus giving the invitation an overall elegance appearance.

The script typeface looks somewhat cute because of the smooth and “curly” form, especially the decorative ends to the crossbar of the A, and the stem of the P. After looking a bit closer I noticed that instead of using an ampersand to say A&P they’ve designed a little knot to connect the two letters that then links in to the overall theme of “tying the knot”. Very interesting, and clever! This shows that even subtle decorations can complete a design.

The other typeface allows us to concentrate on the script typeface a bit more because there is a lacking in decoration, as it’s got a simple, serif form that resembles something like Times. Even though the letters are all in uppercase there is a slight differentiation from that and the “real” uppercase letters in height, although it’s very unnoticeable.

Conclusion:

Even though they've used a beautiful typeface for the logo, I feel that the serif one is a bit too "strong" because of the fact everything is in uppercase. Had they been in lowercase then the design would appear friendlier and more casual.

I love how they've sealed the ribbon with wax, and I would like to do something like this but it would probably take weeks of producing and also cost quite a lot. Besides, I don't even know where I could do such a thing!

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Monday 1 April 2013

FMP: Research - Wedding Invitations

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