Designing an alternative wedding invitation
Skills/applications: Print design and production (invitation)
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator
The challenge: For my wedding invitations, I did not want to use one of flowery stock templates offered online. My husband and I are both artists, so I sought to create an invitation 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 an invitation that marries fine art with sleek design. My custom illustration makes the invitations feel highly personal, while contrasting colors deliver visual impact. I leveraged circles throughout the layouts to represent an unbroken bond.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Email: keleadholm@gmail.com