Designing an alternative wedding invitation
Skills/applications: Print design and production, web design
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Figma
The challenge
For my wedding invitations, website, and accoutrements, I did not want to use one of flowery stock templates offered online. My husband and I are both artists, so I sought to design assets that reflects our creativity and personalities. Because a wedding is an important milestone in one's personal life, I also wanted to make meaningful design choices informed by real moments in our relationship.
The result
The end result was a visual ecosystem that marries fine art with sleek design. Photos and my custom illustration make the designs feel highly personal, while contrasting colors deliver visual impact.
Layout
Our first date took place at one of the Lake Michigan beaches, so I used that visual as a starting point for establishing a layout. I represented the landscape through geometric forms and high contrast colors, which led me to pursue layouts based on circles and sections of circles. The circle also offers many apt visual metaphors for this project: a wedding ring, an unbroken bind.
TYPOGRAPHY
When selecting the type faces for this project, I selected All American Gothic for display type and Myriad Pro for text type. All American Gothic's curvilinear features contribute to a visual rhythm with the layout's use of circles while its heavy weight creates visual impact. Meanwhile, Myriad Pro's sleek, sans serif look increases readability. I introduced different weights to develop visual hierarchy.
Illustration
The first iteration of my designs felt too corporate and lacked personal touch. To remedy this, I decided to create a custom illustration of my husband and I. The illustration gives the design an air of fine art, while the rest of the design elements make the invitation feel modern and sleek. Together, they strike the perfect balance of elegance and originality.
Color
The colors I selected balance creativity and risk-taking. I contrasted a warm colorway against black to give the invitations a modern, bold look, allowing for seamless and consistent visuals across every facet of the invitations.
EARLY Color exploration
A new colorway
As the wedding day approached, we began to home in on the colors for our flowers and my dress. These hues — purples, reds, pastel greens, cream, and black, drove the new colorway for the wedding website, table cards, and name cards. The new and final colorway is organic and modular, allowing for new and unexpected color combinations.
Mood board for new colorway
Table cards
CIRCLES 2.0
The layout for the name cards, table cards, and website reference the circle motif without repeating it to the point of exhaustion. Now, ripped up circles become facets of digital collage; a cut-out of a rose lightly references a circle; the website implements rounded rectangles. I felt preserving the circle motif without leaning on it too much helped create continuity between the designs without getting stale.
Table card front
Table card back
Table card and name card
Name card front/back
Name card inside
Name card
Name card
Email: keleadholm@gmail.com