Raffa's 2nd Birthday Invitations

It's only been a month since Raffa's birthday and party (oops! time flies) but I am finally sharing the fun invitations we sent out for his park party turned intimate rainy day at-home get together. I knew that I wanted to do hand-lettered invitations this year and the idea evolved in to a hand-lettered and illustrated set. On the front - the party details and on the back - illustrations of Raffa's most favorite things.

The party itself was a park and donut theme, which covered two of Raffa's favorites. The illustration on the back also included: Raffa's dump truck, his checkered Vans, his crayons, pancakes + syrup, Asher, Starbuck's iced green tea, his Finkelstein kitty, donuts, "coffee" (hot chocolate) from Huckleberry Roasters (the donut + "coffee" also cover Donut Monday, our weekly ritual at Huckelberry), his bunny, the park, his red trike, and reading books.

To accomplish the lettering and illustration, I turned to Shannon Snow. I have worked with Shannon several times and I was confident that she could bring my creative vision to life. I didn't want to do the lettering and illustration myself; I specifically wanted some one else to bring my ideas to life.

I paired the digitally printed, white and royal blue invitation with a small chartreuse, business card-sized enclosure with a photo of Raffa and an explanation that the invitation contained his favorite things. The mint blue envelopes were sealed with a custom return address sticker and some donut sprinkle washi tape. I hand addressed the envelopes and went with "From me to you" Forever stamps.

I had so much fun with designing these invitations this year!

See Raffa's birthday invitations from last year here.

Savory Institute Business Card Design

Last month I worked on these business cards under the creative direction of Sarah, Savory Institute's Director of Marketing and Communications.

The cards came as part of the non-profit's rebranding and new website launch. I really enjoy commercial work like this and have been focusing my lead generation efforts of late on capturing more work in the commercial space.

Logo Design // Lana Cordes, Realtor

Logo design is always some of my favorite work. I really enjoy the whole process, starting with hearing about the client's vision and translating that in to some initial design concepts. The process can be made even more fun, or maybe just a little easier, when I am working with some one I know well. When I know some one, I typically can "get" their vision even quicker and hone in on what they are wanting easier. Such was the case with Lana Cordes, a friend who I have know literally since I was born. Some use that phrase as a figure of speech but in this case it is the literal truth.

Lana became a Realtor specializing in the residential Denver market in January, and she came to me to help her with her personal Realtor brand. After we talked back and forth and she put together a Pinterest inspiration board, these are the initial designs I sent over to Lana ...

I feel like part of the fun on this whole process is seeing the initial design concepts and then seeing the final product. And, this is the final logo we arrived at:

And that logo is in a classy navy blue, by the way, as dictated by the accompanying brand guide.

And lastly, business cards:

I am super excited for Lana and this new venture. And, to work with her some more on a few more branding and collateral pieces. You can find out more about Lana on DenverSweetHome.com.

christmas cards 2014

My Octobers, Novembers, and Decembers are usually packed with holiday card designs. Each year I have plans of photographing each design, but in practice, time always slips away and I either don't get a sample of the printed cards or just don't take the time to have them photographed. With my family's cards, however, it is easy to get samples and have my sister snap photos of them. So inevitably, you can expect to find their's here on the blog and in my portfolio!

My mom desired a simple card this year, and she wanted the color photo to take center stage. That meant a simple type overlay of "MERRY CHRISTMAS" and our names on the front. On the back, a short note about the year's happenings and a couple more photos. The watercolor branch was originally meant for the front, but to allow the photo to shine (and due to all the foliage in the background of the photo), it worked best on the back.

My sister had a simple design in mind, too, incorporating some type and a diamond pattern. The dark green lettering complimented the greens and yellows in their gorgeous photo well. We went with a while envelope because we could not find a good source for dark, dark green ones (a first choice).

You can see more of my holiday card designs from years past here.

kane is one // birthday invitations, cake topper, banner, food cards

Inspired by Raffa's first birthday invitations, Tarika had me customize the invitations for Kane's first birthday party in San Francisco. In addition to invitations and return address labels, Tarika had me do some food table cards, a template for a banner, and a super duper cute cake topper.

It looks like this birthday party came together perfectly, and I love being a part of a special even such as a little one's first birthday party. My paper goods were beautifully complimented by the Golden Gate Bridge backdrop, and I would say they were over shadowed by the way-too-cute birthday boy!

Thanks, Tarika, for allowing me to share the photos from Kane's big day!

logo design // union jack freebies

Another logo for the sweepstakes sites I design logos for ... this one is a no-brainer as to which country it is for!

And this project was a super quick and easy one; we went from five concepts to the final logo in one round of drafts!

Obviously all the concepts worked off of a very strong theme of the British flag, or in the case of the lower left, the iconic Underground logo.