Oh So Beautiful Paper

I love it when designers experiment with different printing methods to achieve a unique look – and that’s exactly what Jen from Starshaped Press did with these beautiful Art Nouveau-inspired invitations! Jen mixed a linoleum cut illustration with antique metal letterpress type to bring the couple’s vintage book cover inspiration to life in their wedding invitations. So lovely!

From Jen: Sarv and Graig were keen on wedding invitations that would resemble mini posters and they had great inspiration in the form of a vintage book cover. Given that letterpress printing doesn’t have the opaque vibrancy of screen printing, we ran a few tests to see if we could successfully achieve two light colors on dark blue paper and were happy with the result; the colors were muted in a faded, old fashioned way.

We decided on creating a piece that was 7×10″ so that it would fold to 5×7″ and mail in a standard A7 envelope. The image worked perfectly as a two-color linoleum cut after a little adjustment to the overall size and placement. The type is set in a mix of deco-meets-nouveau styles to pull the overall design into a more cohesive and streamlined form. It is printed in gold to pop out from the navy paper.

The typesetting was very particular to achieve a subtle curve along the artwork. I loved having an opportunity to use our DeVinne type for their names; it’s a lovely and quirky typeface from the turn of the century that sadly doesn’t get enough play in the studio.

The invitation folds in half, and on the front panel (what you see when you pull it out of the envelope) is a snippet of the overall artwork with their initials rendered in our mortised initial caps and an ampersand from the 19th century typeface, Dakota.

The envelopes are sour apple green and the reply cards are pale yellow to give a little pop to the color palette. We continued the abridged image on the envelopes in gold (the return address is on the back flap) and carried through the multiple typefaces on the reply.

Thanks Jen!

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers and the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Starshaped Press

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1. Biggest Mistakes Made In Designing Wedding Invitations | Meridian Bride says:

   03/12/2013 at 11:19 AM

   [...] I had to reprint the wording panel of the invitation and reassemble them. There is a reason why proofs are sent out before printing begins and that is to make any changes before accruing needless expenses. The other important thing to check over is your address list. I have another story of a bride who sent me her address list in order for me to address her envelopes. Wedding Invitation Ideas | Oh So Beautiful Paper [...]
2. Designing Wedding Invitations | Meridian Bride says:

   03/09/2013 at 9:45 AM

   [...] Before your meeting with an invitation designer it is a good idea to at least look at some wedding magazines and have an idea of what types of designs you prefer. For example you may like a certain shape such as the square ones. You may like ones with a pocket. You may want ribbon or crystals. If you have done an inspiration board, bring it to the consultation. Wedding Invitation Ideas | Oh So Beautiful Paper [...]