A potential client just asked for more examples of my simple-and-modern baby announcements, so I pulled out this one that I did two years ago. It’s different than most of my other announcements in that it has a cool-jazzy vibe!

When Naomi and Magnus* first approached me, they couldn’t envision exactly what they wanted but gave me some good keywords—simple, modern, brown and aqua. So I sat down with those keywords and considered how to apply them to a meaningful design.

I came up with the idea of four intersecting lines to represent each member of their growing family. I wanted the lines to be fluid, almost as if two of the lines spun out of the other two. The result is smooth and sinuous; and the lines are not just symbolic, they also do their job as a design element by moving the viewer’s eye from one point to the next.

Luckily I got it exactly right in the first round (easy clients!), so we had very little work to do. The only thing they asked for is a second option—one without a photo, in case they couldn’t get a good picture of the twins right away.

We actually ended up using both designs, so that was nice.

*Names will always be changed. That includes the baby names. What, you thought someone really named their twins Warrick and Digby?

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know that I used to live in Chicago; if you know me personally, you know that I think Chicago is one of the best cities in the world. It’s where I met my husband, where we lived in our first apartment together, and where we bought our first home—an 8th floor, 700 square-foot condo built in 1964. It didn’t have a lot of charm, but it had a mind-blowing view of the city, which sold us on the place the moment we saw it. We lived there for about three and-a-half years before moving overseas.

Anyway, I just came across these pictures on my external hard drive and had to share! They’re not the best size or quality, so sorry about that. But I think you’ll get the gist!

View of the living room from the entryway.

IKEA glass vases, patterned slipper chair from Home Center, quilted puffy pillow from TJ Maxx.

Now you’ll know I’m not exaggerating when I say I’m a minimalist! (Except this is not the way I’d do it now. I’ve grown up a lot since.) Oh! And the wall color was Chocolate Froth from Behr paint.

My sister crocheted that awesome blanket. It’s one of the reasons we chose this color palette.

Cost Plus World Market Dining Set, IKEA floor lamp and painting, IKEA tall reeds (make it stop!).

View of the dining room from the bedroom doorway. We installed the ceiling fan.

Awesome Crate&Barrel quilt, IKEA tall reeds (blech!), and a mostly ridiculous painting by yours truly.

We were so proud of the geometric knobs we installed on the closet doors. Also, the wall color was Gobi Desert from Behr Paint.

IKEA lamp and dresser.

Floor lamp from IKEA, I think.

We renovated half of the bathroom ourselves and had a contractor finish it. It was so clean and pretty.

The wall color was Gypsy Magic from Behr Paint.

Our tiny kitchen. We were very excited about our new refrigerator.

We installed the light fixtures, countertops, sink, and dishwasher. We didn’t have to do anything to the original cabinetry—it was gorgeous and sturdier than most modern cabinets.

The wall color was Mountain Elk from Behr Paint. It was deliciously pleasing for a tiny kitchen.

I can’t wait for the day to own a home again. My design sensibilities have matured so much in the past five years!

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?