The invitation rejection story

The client/designer collaboration is a helpful and necessary creative road. When I meet with clients, I love the initial boom of excitement that comes from starting a new design for them. Something about that special person makes me think differently about a new idea; personalities and event descriptions become symbols and pictures in my head which translate into paper and text. The first part of the custom invitation process starts with several idea samples that are either chosen as-is, or tweaked until they are just what the client wanted (even if they didn't have the words to describe it yet!). I work really hard at the initial design step, which is why I require a small design deposit. Most of my efforts are in brainstorming and tinkering with the ideas until I'm happy with a sample, the rest is just a matter of fine-tuning.

Here's an example of a design that I loved dearly. I loved it so much, I almost stopped designing the rest of the ideas in my head. "How could anything else be better?" I asked myself in the midst of the creative high. Luckily I know thyself better. There is always another great idea. And I'm glad I pressed forward because this was not the design that was chosen. It was great, but not quite right for this particular customer. I still love it, though, and I'm sure it will be just perfect for someone else. And don't worry about Joe, he'll be getting another kick*ss Bar Mitzvah invitation.

So. Margot, what do you love so much about it?
Well, thank you for asking! I used my Silhouette SD to make a simple die-cut of "JOE", which was a stylized font I manipulated, and then set it in the center of a foldover layer over the invitation. The fun part for me was creating the "JOE" inside to line up with the cut-out, while being readable on it's own once the overlay was lifted. It wouldn't work for all names, but I think it would work for many. And I also adore the super modern typesetting I created for the invitation. It's fun to push those invitation "standards".

So, if you know of anyone having a Bar Mitzvah with the name "JOE", let me know... :o)