emilie ink.

You may recall the ferry ticket save the date created for the adorable Jeanna and Tyler back in January! Well their wedding is only 6 short weeks away and we are excited to finally reveal the invitation trousseau for this cute couple and their July 17 nuptials on Peaks Island!

Creating an invitation from scratch is always a process, and with Jeanna’s happy spirit and positive energy it was a pleasure working on this one! We went back and forth with a plethora of ideas. We started with toile, and came up with a cute set incorporating the vintage and modern look the couple had suggested they wanted, but it turned out they thought toile was a little too old fashioned for their taste. We moved on to a series of designs ranging from a sea scape with a buoy and seagulls to a simple version with just text and some small motifs. The one thing that remained consistent was the navy and crimson color scheme. We settled upon a nautical theme incorporating stripes, a custom designed logo and a lobster and carried these throughout the whole trousseau. Each piece was letterpressed onto a pillowy paper giving the thick blue stripes a distressed look – perfect for this seaside wedding.

We designed this little tag (my favorite piece of the trousseau!) with their logo that was tied around each invitation set. Each set included an invitation, reply card and envelope and an information card. A correspondence card was also designed – perfect for thank you notes after the wedding!

If this eye candy leaves you wanting more – not to worry! We have yet to print the remaining pieces that will be present the day of and we will be sure to post that in the weeks to come! So stay tuned!

I just finished a logo for Studio 227 and have decided to show a little bit about my process when creating a logo for a client. Studio 227 is a workshop series created by the uber talented Emilie Sommer of emilie inc. photography and consists of regular small group learning intensives and workshops. The first workshop is taking place on February 25th and is for any and all business professionals who are 1): looking to create or better their brand and who 2): want to learn to communicate their brand and attract a bigger, loyal clientele with blogging. The name for this workshop came from the location of Emilie’s studio where the workshops will be held: 227 Congress Street.

Creating a cool logo and brand, of course, was of the utmost importance so we began by talking about what Emilie was looking for. Her description: something clean, business-like and possibly with a flourish, but not too feminine.

When I start any project, especially a logo, I open a blank document in Adobe Illustrator and I start writing the name of the business or entity over and over, trying new fonts and different spacing.  My ideas usually spill beyond the confines of the page and I sometimes have 3 or 4 pages full of ideas. Each page is usually a mess by the time I am done with this initial process and there may be some pretty ugly designs on there as well! This initial design process can take me a few days as I hash out ideas, thoughts and try to be as creative as possible while sticking with the wants and needs of the client.

Here is a screen shot of stage one of the Studio 227 logo.

I usually try to do all of this initial work in black and white so as not to be influenced by colors that I may or may not like. I also usually present the logo to the client this same way. This usually helps someone look solely at the design instead of what they may or may not like in a color. If you hate the color orange, for example, it may be difficult to look past this when viewing a logo that is mainly orange. I usually will present somewhere between 2 and 4 designs to a client. Once the designs have been narrowed down a bit, then I will start to integrate color to help with the decision process.

I presented 4 logos to Emilie, but she she decided that none of them were perfect. We almost immediately ruled out #6 as it just didn’t get across the feel Emilie was looking for. She loved #7 but thought perhaps it was a little too feminine for the workshop series. #2 was a good option, but we thought that it was a bit dated. #4 was her favorite, but we still felt like it needed some tweaking. We moved the 227 around, changed the font and tried tweaking the letters of studio, which is ultimatly what did the trick! We loved the orange dot for the i as it vaguely resembles the i’s in the emilie inc. brand. #1 was winner after all of that tweaking, moving, resizing and reworking. Below you can see the final stages of the process for the Studio 227 logo, after going through these changes.

It is quite a process but in the end it is worth all of the time and effort to have the perfect logo that represents your business the way that you feel it should be represented.

Here is the final Studio 227 logo.

To see this logo in action or to find out more information about the workshop visit emilie’s blog here.

Product design is important but what good is a fabulously designed item without adorable packaging? It adds that little something that makes receiving that item extra special. Whether it is something you purchase in a store or receive in the mail, packaging oftentimes can make the product!

Over here at emilie inc. we take extra special care to ensure that everything we send out not only fits within emilie’s brand, but is oh-so-cute and fun to receive in the mail. So was the case for emilie’s latest mailing. These fabulous gifts (small folios showcasing two of the couples’ wedding photos) were sent out to all of Emilie’s 2009 wedding clients to say “happy new year”. We all decided that we all would have been have been thrilled to receive one of these gifts in the mail!

The item was great by itself, but we decided to add something extra to make the opening of this gift a little more fun! We started by having some tags custom cut to fit perfectly on top of the folios. Emilie picked a champagne flute design (quite fitting for the occasion) and we stamped it on to each tag in “emilie inc. pink.”

We tied them on to the folios using bakers twine that Emilie found in the perfect shade of “emilie inc brown.” Each folio was then wrapped in vellum and finished with an emilie inc. seal. Perfect!

We certainly hope that the brides who got these were as excited as we were to send them!

As I mentioned in my first post, this is an exciting time for us at emilie ink as we are just starting to offer custom designed invitations. So, as you can imagine we were really looking forward to picking up our first save the date job at the printers, and boy were we excited to see the results! Created for the uber adorable couple Jeanna and Tyler (whose engagement session you can check out here on emilie’s blog) these invites were designed with a seaside wedding in mind and were made to look like ferry tickets, fitting since all guests will have to board Casco Bay Ferry lines in order to get to their wedding on Peaks Island! How fun!

I met Jeanna, her mom and Tyler on a chilly winter morning in the emilie inc. studio to discuss wedding details and invitation ideas. Jeanna came totally prepared with magazine clippings for color, fabric swatches for pattern and a notebook full of other wedding necessities! It was a great first meeting and when we parted ways I was more than excited to get to work on their save the date. With their request for a ferry ticket in mind, I started by browsing the internet looking for actual ferry tickets, most of which I discovered, are not that interesting. So from there I decided to peek around at other types of tickets finding particular inspiration for this project from art museum tickets. Once I found my inspirations, I just started to play and came up with several variations to show Jeanna and Tyler. With little delay between correspondence we went back and fourth just a couple of times making small changes to color and wording until we ended with these, and I am in love!

Up next are their invitations which I can not wait to start designing! Stay tuned for all of the yummy details!

Everyone has their morning routine and within that routine a morning respite. That moment just before heading out the door or after the morning commute, before diving into the endless emails and the daily grind, the calm and peace before the busy day. For everyone it is different. Maybe it is a morning cup of coffee and a bagel while checking out the morning news or weather. Or maybe it is a slice of toast with strawberry jam while catching up with your correspondence to a friend. It is nice to have that time to look forward to no matter what it is, as long as it is something that you enjoy doing.

For me it means sitting down with a hot cup of coffee and my laptop preferably on a comfy chair, maybe with a cozy blanket and going through my favorite blogs. I have a few friends that keep personal blogs where they share their thoughts and tidbits from their day. I visit these blogs first. Then I check emilie’s blog (blog.emilieinc.net). She is one of the busiest and most talented people that I know, so visiting her blog is always a treat, not to mention inspiring!

Today I thought I would share my favorite design blogs. These are where I visit next and spend most of my time. I find that I can gain inspiration and energy from seeing all the amazing things others are doing all over the world – from photographers to designers and even craftspeople. I don’t always go to the same sites, but pop from one to another depending on the day.

Style me pretty • www.stylemepretty.com

Style me pretty is a fabulous wedding blog that is full of amazing photography, invitations and wedding inspiration. It is one that I frequent and is a great resource for anyone planning a wedding or anyone in the wedding industry.

Design Sponge • www.designspongeonline.com

Design Sponge is a great resource for cool design. This blog features trends in fashion and home design, product and graphic design, plus they also feature amazing artists. It really runs the whole gamut, and is perfect for a morning read or a shot of inspiration.

Oh Joy • ohjoy.blogs.com

Oh joy was started and is run by Joy Deangdeelert Cho – a graphic designer herself. She even has a line of gorgeous stationery! The Oh Joy blog covers inspiration & design with a focus on home accessories, textiles, and fashion. She has great taste and it is always a pleasure catching up on whatever she is writing about!

So these are just a few, that you will likely see me reference  along the way. They are a great way to start the day – especially for me as a designer, but would also provide great inspiration to anyone planning a wedding!  When you get the chance have a visit and Enjoy!

After almost a year and a half of working for emilie inc. it is now official: I am an emilie inc. employee! And not only that, I was officially emilie inc.’s first employee! (A great honor!)  So being that it is my first week in the studio and it is a brand new year with many good things to come for emilie inc. (and emilie ink. too!), I thought I would write my first post and introduce myself and this new blog.

I am Christina, a resident of the fabulous city of Portland, Maine, and a lover of pattern, color and design. You can read a bit about my background on emilie ink here, or here on emilie inc’s blog. I am so excited to be a part of this great company and to be surrounded by such great people (meet Erin emilie’s other new employee here!) and I am looking forward to a fabulous 2010!

I have high hopes for this blog and am looking forward to updating it with my latest design projects. We are right at the beginning of a new design endeavor over here – offering custom wedding invitation trousseaux and business branding, as well as all the cards and announcements that we have offered in the past, including new designs. So there will be lots to post about.

So welcome! Enjoy, and stay tuned!

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