Toile wedding invitations

Courtney is one of my best childhood friends and the most efficient wedding planner I've ever met. She had almost everything in order close to a year in advance, the benefit of being a teacher and having the summer off.  I'm lucky enough to not only be a member of the wedding party, but also to get to design the stationary for her and her fiance, Mark.

The inspiration for the set came from the toile china that the bride's mother had.  Her flowers will be hydrangeas, picked from her grandmother's garden.  With those two things in mind, the design came together easily in my mind, executing it was another story.  I attempted photographing, photoshopping, and drawing, but nothing seems to get that toile look.  There's lots of toile stuff out there, but finding hydrangeas proved very difficult. Luckily I stumbled upon my saving grace, Wikimedia Commons, which offers freely licensed and public domain images (that means use them without fear of being sued). Nice!  A little photoshopping and the rest came together for a classic and elegant look.

Printed on bright white felt stock.

Tokens from San Francisco

I recently took a trip out to San Francisco to visit some friends and see why so many people are migrating to the Bay City. While I don't know if I could get used to the unchanging temperature and the rapidly changing weather, it is a pretty awesome place. And what trip would be complete without picking up some paper goods as momentos?  Sometimes letterpress is just too hard to resist.

This map-ish card is by Karen Jean Organics for Loose Petals

A bright skyline letterpress card from Hello! Lucky

"Growing Horns" print by Leah Duncan

Love the soft colors and organic detailing

Paper bird garland from Lamali. I still can't get over birds.

I also bought some of that blue paper that changes colors in the sun. It's been probably 20 years since I last played with this, so lets see if I can come up with anything more interesting than an arrangement of leaves found in my front yard.

Use this paper to trick children into doing chemistry.

Here are a few extra things worth including in this post. I was hoping to get more street art, but I stopped trying to take pictures while riding a bike after almost colliding with one of those Lance Armstrong types.  

In the Haight

This was just a picture I really liked that has not been photoshopped.  Taken in Alamo Square.

Those are my three friends, not aliens

Can't wait to go back!

Cityscapes are just shapes

It's been a very busy month, and I've spent many evenings crouched over the tiny desk.  But the second shift has produced some great work, starting with 5 city skyline illustrations made for the Philadelphia based stationary and event planning company Paper Rock Scissors.

Even as I heard myself say, "I can have them done in a week," I was simultaneously thinking, "Am I really saying this?"  But it's amazing how much you can get done when you stop watching reruns of Law & Order: SVU and get down to business.  And after extensive researching, sketching, and mistake making, I ended up pretty happy with the results, as did the client!  It was a challenge to reduce everything to simple lines and shapes—I swear I'll never look at buildings the same again.  The raw illustrations are below, the technique is India ink on watercolor paper.

Manhattan from the East River

Manhattan from the Hudson River

Philadelphia

Annapolis—my personal favorite

Washington, D.C.

Some close ups are available here.  Can't wait to see how they'll be used!