Mood Board
I shall start off by doing a mood board of all of the RSVP cards within their stationary sets, because I found that it was easier to analyse them with their invitation counterparts. I found all of these designs on Oh So Beautiful Paper , a website/blog that showcases beautiful stationary sets. The last couple of designs I got from various Behance profiles.
Inspirational Designs
I had mentioned above how I’m not going to go into detail so instead I shall pick up the designs I find inspiration and write little bullet points beneath them, so that at the end I could summarise all of them and write what would definitely need to go on a R.S.V.P card.
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| http://ohsobeautifulpaper.com/2013/02/sarvenaz-graigs-art-nouveau-wedding-invitations/ |
- RSVP by the first of April - full words
- as we have reserved (_) seats in your honour
- M____________
- _ will you be there?
- _ sorry to miss it!
- Very casual wording used - will you be there, sorry to miss it etc
- Very minimalist design - no hint of illustration apart from the little "borders" around the RSVP
- Clean and professional - the type doesn't take up too much space and is placed directly in the centre of the design
- Duo colour scheme
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| http://ohsobeautifulpaper.com/2013/02/downton-abbey-inspired-wedding-invitations/ |
- Formal lettering - calligraphic and letterpressed
- "Your favour of a reply is requested by the first of May" - full wording of date
- Doesn't say "RSVP" at the top of the card (or anywhere on it at all)
- M_______
- _ Accepts
- _ Declines
- Doesn't really give any character to the design (e.g. friendliness)
- Beautiful cursive typeface has been used
- Quite a minimalist design - no illustrations apart from the border
- Duo colour scheme
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| http://ohsobeautifulpaper.com/2013/03/rebecca-varuns-lasercut-and-gold-foil-wedding-invitations/ |
- ...." of a response is requested by October Fifteenth" - full wording of date. Formal.
- Beautiful typeface used and worked well with the uppercase serif type
- M________
- _ .... accepts
- _ .... declines
- Once again, mimimalist design safe for the beautiful type and the borders
- Duo colour scheme
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| http://www.behance.net/gallery/Fourth-of-July-Wedding-Invitation/7345107 |
- Duo colour scheme
- Calligraphic writing combined with a serif typeface in uppercase
- RSVP at the top
- "The favour of your reply is requested by the....."
- M_______
- _ "Kindly accepts"
- _ "Regretfully declines"
- Number of guests attending _
- Floral corner borders
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| http://ohsobeautifulpaper.com/2010/07/vintage-inspired-san-francisco-wedding-invitations/ |
- "Kindly Reply" - written within an elaborate banner - the first time I've seen a decorative aspect of an RSVP card!
- "By August 7, 2010" - wow! First time someone has written the date in shorthand!
- "Name __________"
- _ "Accepts with pleasure"
- _ "Number of guests"
- _ "Declines with regret"
- Fairly casual - doesn't use the full date, but has "accepts with pleasure" etc.
- Duo colour scheme
- Sans serif typeface in uppercase (apart from the by august..etc)
- Quite decorative
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- Decorative border - floral pattern
- Quite "thin" for an RSVP. More landscape than portrait
- "repondez s'il vous plait" - used french words to possibly enhance the elegance of the invitation
- Cursive typeface but not as elaborate as the ones on previous designs
- "by the first of september" - full date
- "Name(s)________"
- "We have reserved _ seats in your honour"
- "_ accepts with pleasure"
- "_declines with regret"
- Then pictures of meat choices - never seen on other designs
- Duo colour scheme
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| http://ohsobeautifulpaper.com/2010/08/rachelle-todds-garden-inspired-wedding-invitations/ |
- Response - Serif typeface - surprisingly not calligraphic!
- "Kindly reply before July the 20th"
- M_______
- "accepts (_)"
- "declines (_)"
- Extremely minimalist in terms of wording; no elegant, formal words are used, everything is done in shorthand.
- Has some illustration on the side
My Findings
Wording
All of these invitations have something along the lines of "your favour is requested by the (date in full)". It's strange because the invitations often varied on whether or not to display the full date, but this means that it'll be safe for me to continue to use full dates so that there is a consistency in my designs (as I have used the full wording of the date on my invitation).
The words are quite formal as well because they don't simply say "reply before... etc" but "your response is requested". This shows just how elegant and important the wedding is because of how formal the words are.
The Mystery "M"
Instead of displaying "Name(s)" most of these invitations have an M at the beginning of a line where the guest would write their name before ticking whether or not they could make it to the wedding. I didn't have a clue of what this "M" stood for so I did some research and found out that it's because that's where the guest would write their title then their name. For example, Miss Lucy Black.
Below this some of the invitations then ask how many guests they are bringing with them, or they would've written "we have reserved (_) seats in your honour".
Yes or No
Most of the invitations write "accepts" or "declines", but the ones that really caught my eye were "regretfully declines" or "kindly accepts".
Colour Schemes
The colours used normally reflects that of the invitation, and they use no more than two shades.
Typefaces
Most prefer to use a very elaborate, scriptive typeface which is possibly to make up for the lack of intricate detail within the design overall. Although they did have borders, these were minimal as there is more of a focus on the type.
This scriptive typeface is then pairs with a sans serif one.
Conclusion:
By looking at these designs I have noticed that they are in fact very minimalist, and that not a lot of information is displayed apart from the date of reply, name of guest and whether or not they could make it. This has shown me that I perhaps don't need to do another illustration but could use parts of the border from my already-made design.
For my design I hope to include all of the aspects I have mentioned above. Here is an example of what I'll most likely put on mine:
- RSVP
- Your favour of a response is requested by the first of May
- M____________
- _ Kindly Accepts
- _ Regretfully Declines
- Number of guests attending _
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