Eat your veggies, folks! With carrots this adorable, I will happily eat twice my portion. Amanda of Wide Eyes Paper Co. created these rustic illustrated carrot coaster save the dates for a wedding on a farm in New York’s Hudson Valley. The dainty cuddling carrot illustration is paired with a classic serif typeface with a sweet and simple save the date message. So perfect for a farm wedding!
From Amanda: As designers, we are always on the lookout for new avenues for creativity within the wedding stationery industry. We derive inspiration from tackling new projects like these rustic, farm-inspired, save the date coasters. This custom letterpress design was a downright fun project and a chance to offer a new product to future clients.
Lucy’s custom order brought our team into new territory and gave us a chance for innovation, but what was really great about it was that it was such a fruitful collaboration of different skills. As she was actually living on the breathtaking Stonegate Farm that was to be her wedding venue, Lucy was truly a well of agrarian inspiration. She had done her own illustration of what she wanted – two carrots growing together in a sweet, twisting embrace. It was great to get that running start on the creative vision and then head to work within our individual expertise.
First, we hand-illustrated the cuddling carrots in a style inspired by woodblock printing. Then, we paired the intricate line drawing with some graphic design magic. Creating organic-inspired pieces is often a balancing act; to counter the playful whimsy of the embracing carrots, we chose a serif font with a more stately feel to ground the design as a whole. The beauty of these coasters is really born from this delicate interplay of styles. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, in this case! Once we found a harmony between text and line, we fired it off to our letterpress printer.
For letterpress printed designs with multiple colors like these coasters, each color requires a separate plate. The metal plates are fabricated, coated in ink, and then run through the letterpress printing machine one by one. These hearty coasters were printed on 220 lb 2-ply Pearl White Crane’s Electra Cotton Letterpress stock; basically, the finest, ultra-thick letterpress stock available.
Thanks Amanda!
Design: Wide Eyes Paper Co.
Letterpress Printing: Clove St. Press
Wide Eyes Paper Co. is a member of the Designer Rolodex – you can see more of Amanda’s work right here or visit the real invitations gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!
Photo Credits: Kelly Wilde