I wanted to give Galina and Jon* a more cute, traditional announcement for baby Marcus. This is what we came up with (sans baby photos):

You can probably tell that there’s some kind of lined texture in the background. It was super easy to create! After making a new layer in Photoshop, I just drew messy, vertical blue lines with the paintbrush tool.

Then I filled the background layer with a slightly darker shade of blue, using the paint-bucket tool.

Once I added other design elements, it looked less like a messy mistake and more like an interesting, yet subtle, background texture.

Ridiculously easy! One of my favorite tricks in Photoshop.

*Names will always be changed.

We’re back from five wonderful, and slightly insane, weeks in the U.S. of A. The majority of those five weeks were spent either with our families or in shopping centers (not blogging, apparently, which surprises me—I mean, come on, all that free time! NOT), and of course everything led up to the highlight of the trip, my sister’s wedding.

Which was beautiful. My goodness, everything was perfect. The waterfront location, the weather, the dress, the ceremony—every detail from that day deserves way more than one adjective, but all I can think to say right now is “perfect.” Sorry to be such a tease!

Anyway, before I crash, let me just finish up my wedding-design entries by posting an image of the program:

as well as some of the other print collateral, such as the “guest book” (which was actually a poster that guests stamped with their thumbprints, choosing from peach, coral, pink, or fuchsia ink—cute, right?):

and the letter-sized signs that were affixed to the back of front row chairs for the wedding ceremony:

and finally, some of the other various signs that were sprinkled around the venue:

I’m so tired from the thirty hours of travel (I think I fell asleep sometime between uploading the last image and writing this sentence), not to mention the worst travel experience of our lives (think: two kids on a red-eye flight, barely sleeping a wink but with enough energy to whine or cry for a full ten hours) so that’s it for tonight. It’s good to be home. More tomorrow.

My about-to-be-married, creative/foodie sister and her fiancé threw an engagement party last week. They made it an Iron Chef party, and asked every guest to bring a dish containing the special ingredient: bacon. Fun, right!?

I wanted the invitation to complement the wedding designs, but only subtly. Below you’ll see the same colors, type treatment, and clean-whimsy style as the save-the-date and wedding invitation—without replicating them exactly:

It’s hard to believe that my sister’s wedding is now only a month away! We arrived on U.S. soil last Sunday as part of our five-week holiday leading up to the wedding. Exciting! Right now I’m at my in-laws’ place watching my husband play with our three year-old, and waiting for our eleven month-old to wake up from his nap. It’s like a normal day, but only better because we’re all together. This is going to be a great five weeks.

Naturally, once my sister’s save-the-date card was completed, we got started on her invitations. I wanted to use the same cute floral pattern and strong text, but because it’s the wedding invitation—part of, yet more important than, the save-the-date—I wanted to switch things up slightly for an element of surprise.

So instead of using the pattern as a border, I used it as a strip along the top, and to add something new and unexpected, I enlarged an ampersand and a curly bracket:

Now that we’ve added this new, enlarged-punctuation element to the design, it’d make sense to continue it elsewhere in the wedding; so now I’m completely fixated on where. Any ideas?

*These fake names are a stretch. Yes, I know.

If you assumed I’d be designing my sister’s save-the-date cards, wedding invitations, and programs, you were right! I’m knee-deep in her wedding design, and I love it.

Our starting point was some of my wedding inspiration boards. The two boards I really liked for her were Youthful Pink and White and Crisp Coral and White. We had a couple of back-and-forths about how to apply one of these color palettes, when it occurred to me that we could combine the two.

My sister really liked the idea of a softer color with something brighter and punchier, so I sat down to brainstorm how it would all come together. I wanted to give her a visual before going much further, so I created a collection of spring dresses from Banana Republic:

And a collection from J.Crew:

And voilà, we were done with the hardest part! With the green-light* on a coral and pink palette, it was time to come up with an overall motif for her big day. I wanted so badly to go with stripes—like you saw in the inspiration boards—but it just wasn’t connecting. My sister isn’t “stripes” as much as she is “cute flowers.” I had to trust my instinct by switching gears completely and going floral.

Initially expecting to design just a few cute flowers, I was pleasantly surprised as an allover pattern began to emerge! I haven’t done pattern design in years (such a shame, considering my love for it), so it was very exciting. Once again, green-light (yay)—so I refined the pattern to make it seamless.

While applying the pattern to our first project, the save-the-date card, it became clear that the girlish sweetness of the colors and style needed to be balanced by something more tough and masculine. So that’s how I approached the information.

Here’s the final card (with names changed, obviously):

*I’d just like to note that the green-light came from both the bride and groom. In case any of you were thinking there’s no way the groom would approve! Nuh-uh, this is a couple that works in total unity.

As is often the case, my husband and the kids are sleeping soundly in their beds while I’m tapping away at the keyboard. And, as usual, I’m insanely sleepy but pushing through it to get things done.

Although tonight I’d like to make it to bed before midnight. We’ll see.

Hopefully this is the last button I’ll press before going to bed. Publish!

I haven’t been taking that many projects lately, so sadly, I don’t have very interesting material to post.

This little ad isn’t much, but there are a couple of things I like about it. One, it’s not over-designed. A simple font, a simple color palette, and a really simple concept is enough sometimes.

Two, the paintbrushes are dynamic. It almost looks like someone threw a paintbrush and it’s spiraling away from the viewer, doesn’t it? Anyway, that one element lends movement to a potentially stale design.

In three short months, I’ll be sending my three year-old to preschool. On one hand I can’t wait, since being home with him all day has been challenging as of late. On the other hand I’d keep him home with me forever if I could, because I know there will come a day when I’ll miss out on most things in his life—so right now, I want to be there for everything.

Oh… was that off-topic?

Remember the logo I designed for this Stockholm cupcakery? I just finished a tri-fold brochure specifying their flavors and ordering information. We kept the front page simple, with just their logo and phone numbers:

I wanted the inside flap to be pure eye candy (eye cupcake?). Since readers breeze past that page, I didn’t want it to contain important information—instead, a photo from Camelia’s cupcake shoot is eye-catching, relevant, and drool-worthy:

There’s a lot of text on the inside, so I only included what was necessary. Then with the extra space I blew-up the logo and cut it off horizontally to make it a graphic element; it’s a way to emphasize the brand but with whimsy. I also excerpted a quote from the back of the brochure that was too important to be tucked away—the quote reads almost like a vision statement, so it absolutely needed emphasis too:

The back page contains the most unsexy, but most important, information—pricing and ordering. This page didn’t need a lot of graphic treatment. The fonts and colors of the brand, plus the cupcake swirl adding a tiny flourish, are just enough here:

We’re working on some other exciting components, so more to come!

I’ve been entitled to Mother’s Day since fall 2007, and I have two cute boys to prove it! Well, take “cute” with a grain of salt. We’ve had a few incidents lately where that was the last word on my mind. But for the most part, they’re cute and I’m pretty lucky that they’re mine.

Yesterday I was thinking about how we make annual resolutions for the New Year—most of them physical, like losing weight or eating healthier—and wondered if I should think of Mother’s Day as a time to reflect on motherhood and possibly make resolutions for the year on how I can do better.

But the list is too long. Too long and too overwhelming. There are so many ways I want to be a better mother, and thinking about it makes me instinctively curl up in a fetal position. (Oh, the irony!)

So then I thought that maybe I should just figure out, by next Mother’s Day, how to offer free printables on this blog. Right?!

That might be something I can actually do.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the loving, patient mamas out there. Nothing but respect!