The stimulus for the Marsh* family’s birth announcement was an imaginary nursery. I imagined walls with a yellow-tonal stripe on top, solid blue on bottom, and white chair rail in the middle. Our first draft was essentially a simplified version of just that:

The Marshes loved the classic, happy-baby look but wanted it stronger and more elegant, so we changed the colors to blue and brown:

I like how it turned out but am reconsidering the diaper pin detail. I didn’t integrate it as well as I could have. Maybe each photo should have been pinned? Or at least pinned together? Maybe I should have dropped the pin altogether and kept it simpler? Or stretched the nursery concept and turned it into push-pins instead?

Another thing on my mind is baby Griffin’s adorable foot. Well, not his foot exactly, but his sock. Had we planned better, we could have ensured that his clothes matched his announcement, because when I look at the little red and black stripes, I can’t help but wonder what we could have done to echo those colors elsewhere.

*Names will always be changed.

I recently designed a series of nine e-mail announcements for an organization trying to raise water conservation awareness among its employees.

My execution was simple. Background images of water were blown up and overlaid with images of swirls and flowers, colors were kept in shades of blue, and text was basic and legible. I know it’s not the sexiest design project, but I’m posting it because it may inspire you to conserve water at home!

My clients were so happy with their engagement announcement that they came back to me for their “save the date” card. They wanted something elaborately illustrated, almost storybook-ish, and reminiscent of the unique location where their wedding would be held—Haifa, Israel.

So I came up with an interpretation of the famous Baha’i gardens in Haifa—tall cypress trees, trimmed hedges, red geraniums, and ornate lampposts—and it was a hit.

Not even two minutes after I got their approval, my husband looks over my shoulder and says, “What time of the day are they getting married? Because if it’s an evening wedding, maybe you should incorporate that.” Crap. That’s a good idea.

So I quickly called the couple and asked if they wanted to see a second version, and they did. They said they’d be getting married at 6:30 pm. Sunset.

So I was almost finished with that version, and then—I kid you not—my husband says, “Don’t kill me for saying this, but maybe you should consider illustrating the view from their wedding venue. I mean, wouldn’t that be nice? It’s like giving guests a preview of what they’ll actually be looking at on the night of the wedding.”

Crap.

I called the couple again and asked what they thought. They were open to it. Their wedding venue would overlook all of Haifa Bay, with the glittering lights of the city and the mountains of Northern Israel in the distance. I waved an angry fist at my husband for making me do so much extra work. Of course, if I didn’t think it was worth it, I wouldn’t have done it.

And it was definitely worth it.

Additional notes on technique:

The image was illustrated in Photoshop, using the brush tool. I paint in Photoshop just as you would paint on a canvas—constantly painting over the image underneath, layering color upon color until it feels right.

Once I was done with the painting, I overlaid the vintage floral pattern from their engagement announcement. It’s subtle, but it adds a nice texture. Also, since the save-the-date was such a departure from their engagement announcement, I wanted to find some way to connect the two designs.

The final design uses a couple of Photoshop filters—“paint daubs” and “rough pastels,” if I remember correctly.

The Hawns* had a cute idea. For their daughter’s birth announcement, they wanted to represent their growing family with penguins. A web search led them to illustrator Jessi Miller, whose “Penguin Family” painting was perfectly suited for their project. Naturally, they contacted her for permission to use it (always the right thing to do!).

With an ordinary Photoshop brush, I colored the bottom half of the announcement to look fluffy and almost snow-like. Then, by mimicking the brightest colors in Miller’s illustration, the design becomes joyful, whereas on the upper half, I toned the color down with a solid pastel to give it a sense of girlish sweetness.

*Names will always be changed.

Two years ago, the Kruger* family asked me to design their baby announcement. I asked for three adjectives to describe the announcement they envisioned for their little girl, and if I remember correctly, they said, “Light, joyful, and green and/or yellow.”

Taking that direction, plus symbolism important to the couple—for example, they nicknamed their baby “little star,” and she would born at the foot of Mount Carmel—I came up with this design:

So when the Krugers were pregnant with their second child, a boy, they asked me to design an announcement that would be as unique and customized as the first but would also complement it. That way, they could mat and frame the announcements together.

The major design elements are different—the colors, fonts, and picture shapes—but to unify the announcements, I used the same dotted lines and little stars. You’ll see that both announcements also have horizontal emphasis, in orientation as well as design:

Don’t tell the Krugers, but I’m hoping they come back to me someday with a request for baby number three!

*Names will always be changed.

When Mona asked me if I would design her engagement announcement, she barely finished her sentence before I started visualizing the design. She and Vahid exude the keywords that were going through my mind: modern classic, elegant yet fun. Rich colors over bold ones. Dignified without making it too serious. Sophisticated but with personality.

You can see that I added a gradient overlay on the floral pattern—the pattern gets lighter as you read, “We’re engaged.” I did that because I wanted the viewer’s eye to move right across the image and then down. The stripe behind “Mona & Vahid” has the same purpose, moving your eye back to the photo. A good design does that—it moves your eye from one place to the next and back around. The viewer should never feel like they don’t know where to look first.

Oh, and we did a second version of the announcement, which was sent to their inner circle of friends and is so perfectly them:

Kristin and Jean-Pierre* didn’t want a traditionally girly baby announcement. They wanted something unique and modern, and they definitely didn’t want it to be pink. So that was my starting point.

Of course, inspiration can come from multiple sources. That Kristin loves block-printing and that their daughter would be born in Paris aroused a ton of new ideas. It could be more than unique and modern—it could be, at the risk of sounding pretentious, avant garde! And to incorporate block-printing, it could look almost stamped.

This was my first draft:

I honestly loved it so much that I almost didn’t show it to them. But it didn’t seem right to use this announcement for my baby when it was, really, designed with theirs in mind.

Anyway, they liked it (darn!) but wanted to make some changes to the color palette. Instead of the 1950s-ish color palette I used, they preferred this one (below), which is perhaps more 1960s:

At first I didn’t think I’d like the new colors, but I did! I do. It was a bold change, and I think they made the right choice for their little girl. I love it when a client pushes me to go in a direction I didn’t think of, at least when I stand back and see that it works.

*Names will always be changed.

I guess I overestimated myself, thinking I’d be able to keep up daily blog posts after the birth of new baby. Yet two weeks later, here I am, barely connected but for a few minutes a day. It’s not that I don’t have time to get online but just that I’m not thinking much about design right now. Unbelievable, I know! I didn’t expect it, either.

Anyway, it would be silly of me to finally write a post and not at least post my own baby announcement, so here it is!* And let me just say, it’s really tough to design your own baby announcement. I’ve done so many styles for many people, varying from modern to whimsical, and I had a lot of trouble choosing which style I wanted for myself. So after consulting my two most important clients—my husband and my two year-old—we decided on 1) clean and simple, and 2) choo-choo train.

In case you’re wondering how I did the train illustration:

*Names and information changed.

Rebecca and John* didn’t have any specific requests for their second child’s baby announcement, but since it would be mostly sent to John’s colleagues, we opted for formality over whimsy.

A monochromatic green palette can be strong and formal yet still friendly. To make it even friendlier, I added touches of brighter, lime green in the striped ribbon and the text. The typeface is friendlier still, the letters of Century Gothic being round and geometric, but it’s balanced by an elegant William Morris floral pattern screened behind the baby’s photo.

*Names will always be changed.