made by me

Every design has to start somewhere. I have these FB's (future brides) who come to me with their wedding tid-bit collection albums and this is generally where we start from. There are pictures of colours, of cakes, of decor...dresses...everything that has caught the FB's attention makes it into her little collection of images and she therefore brings it along with her to our first meeting. We sit and discuss the look and feel of the wedding day that she envisions in her mind, we talk about her 5 words and where and how they have influenced the style she wants to go with, and we go through my library of images where I sit back and see what her reaction is to a folder full of images that I have set aside for our first meeting. I pick up on the little 'ooh's' and the 'aah's' and trust me there are even quite a few 'eeews' thrown in there that I take note of. 

For this particular invite, Tina came to me with an image of an invite that she had in her album. This is what she wanted, and then when we started going through the albums, a different vision filled her head and she let me in on the fact that her fiance, Drew, is a keen cyclist. Inspiration hit, and I opened up another folder of illustrations that I have in a collection and we started looking at vintage bicycle illustrations. Along with her words rustic, vintage, timeless and elegance and her colours apple green, black and white, this is where the bicycle inspiration took over and a much more personalised invitation was created.

Tina & Drew Moodboard (copyright Me Design Studio 2011)

Tina & Drew Stage 1 Designs (copyright Me Design Studio 2011)

Stage 2 Design - refinement (copyright Me Design Studio 2011)

By Stage2 a set look was already established. The illustration style was chosen and minor refinements on type was taking place. The format of the invitation was also established, there would be 2 A5 size cards with the information and map to the venue. Brainwave idea's come along as I am designing, and I had the bride and groom send me side profile pictures of themselves. I re-illustrated the illustration so that it was them on the bicycle. A nice personal ingenious touch-if I may say so myself.

Stationary extra's. Thank you card series, order of service and menu. (copyright Me Design Studio 2011

The whole process of designing the invite was pleasant, and also set the standard for what the rest of their wedding stationary would look like. Menu's, order of service, table seating numbers as well as table seating cards and thank you cards were designed and carried through with the same style. A wedding invitation is therefore NOT just a wedding invitation, but it is the start of what the guests full experience will entail up until the end of the wedding.  

* Tina & Drew, it was great meeting you both. I enjoyed working on your full stationary set and smile each time I look at them, especially knowing how happy you both were with the end results. 

x 

me

today i was inspired by...

There is a quote in one of the compartments in my head since my art history class days back at varsity that I recalled today.  "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see".- Edgar Degas
Today I saw colours. I woke up just as the sun was rising, very unbelievable, yet true. Walked into the kitchen in my half dazed state to turn my friend the kettle on and get my other friend coffee into me very quickly, and while I was slumped over the kitchen counter attempting to not fall asleep my eyes caught the view outside. Its not yet summer, we are reminded of that in the evenings here in Cape Town. But it is getting lighter earlier these days and I caught the beautiful pink hue's of morning light sweeping across the neighbourhood. I grabbed my camera and attempted a pic, or two, but my camera also acts as my phone more than it does my camera, because my real camera was sleeping due to flat batteries(and the cold!) 


It seemed as if colour followed me the whole day though as my fellow design friend (i shall refer to him as the-guru) introduced me to a wonderful blog that he follows. And THIS...was my day's inspiration. www.kristinaklarin.blogspot.com

To see colour is to smile for me. To see many different colours placed with each other in such an aesthetically pleasing manner actually makes me show teeth when I smile! I have been too excited about this new blog to have much of a chance to do my research about who she is, what she does and 'get to know her' but I do know that very soon when there is more than a spare moment in the day, I will be drowning myself in this website and catching up on all her previous bloggings. Kristina's use of photography - and colour, makes me see many things and is one very inspirational 'look-see' into her world of colour. ps-she makes all those necklaces too!

(...Kristina if you happen to read this, please update your about page-or mail me back :) I would love to know where in the world you are with all these beautiful inspiring settings)

x 

me

made by me

I have mentioned before that I create quite a few wedding invites. I enjoy this direction of design as each Future Bride (aka FB) who comes to me has such a unique idea in her head of what she wants for her wedding day to look like and feel like. Sometimes this vision has been with FB since she was a little girl,  or from when she attended a friends wedding and decided on all the things she would never want happening at her own wedding. My job is a simple one, to create and help expand on the vision that is in FB's head into a reality. I always start off with asking FB to give me 5 words to sum up the look/feel/style of the vision she has in her head. From there I create a moodboard, just so that we are both visually on the same page, because purple to you means purple, but purple to me means lilac, violet, mulberry, lavender and a whole lot more! 

It was about a year ago this time that I started working on Liesl & Pete's invites. Liesl's words were, whimsical, gatsby, colourful, fun and rustic. Besides for these words there wasn't a clear indication of where the invite design would start from. All Liesl brought me was a single quote that she wanted incorporated into the design. 

Liesl & Pete Moodboard (copyright Me Design Studio 2010)

Stage 1 Design - incorporates wording from moodboard

At our first meeting, a single image stood out and became one of the options that I presented to her in Stage 1 design.

Stage 2 Design - refinement

What started out as a flat double sided invite, became a unique booklet, with library card insert (that held further information about the wedding) they even got their own personalised barcode at the back of the book. Hand-delivered invites got personalised with each persons name-tag, and each postal invite had the recipients name and address printed on. 

Stage 3 - Final digital invite design

Final Invite, printed and ready for delivery!

Working on this invite I realised one thing that I wanted me.design.studio to strive for, and that is to create beautiful, unique and inspiring invitations. To push the boundaries slightly away from the conventional white, scripty font invitations that have dominated the wedding industry for so many years. And most important of all, to incorporate the bride and groom into the whole process, for their 'stamp' to be visible, because at the end of the day, it is not my invite, it is their invite and they have to be happy when they send them off to each of their guests. 

In the span of 1 year, me.design.studio has created over a dozen unique personalized wedding invitations. I can't wait to share them all over the next up-coming made by me mondays! Many exciting things are continually happening in-studio, and soon there will be a 'ready-made' collection for future brides (and grooms) which will still have a touch of uniqueness but pre-set look to the design. 

* Liesl & Pete, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to create your invite, I had a great time capturing your idea's and creating them into the final product. And...thank you for becoming such good friends too!

x 

me

the REsurrection diaries

*korres products are amazing! - *kayak ice-cream, its pure magic - *aztec style scarf image from thisnext - *aztec inspired dress image from mifashionblog.com - *image of feathers from superstock.com

In Greece one will often hear a person (generally a male) call another (male) by a short word - 're'. It is slang and literally means - you.  ie "Ti kanies re" translates to "What you doing" and "Re malaka" translates to "you -dot dot dot" and if you don't know what malaka means, ask one of your moussaka eating Greek buddies to explain it! 

Re. It is a word that sits on my mind as those two short letters have so much meaning even if it is in another context or language. This is the recap of my short term sabbatical that I was recently on. I renewed not only my love for the Mediterranean but for my own personal spirit.  I revisited places, in my mind and physically, pushing those little boundaries. I re-energized my batteries (by solar power) and I re-evaluated many aspects of my life as well as my blogs life.

To the untrained eye it would seem that I was just lying there, on a beach lounger, dipping my toes in the turquoise clear ocean while sipping on a frappe cocktail and staring at the 'view', that I was in true holiday non thinking mode. But that is not so. Beneath my Tom Ford aviators my mind was in a whirlwind of decision factors regarding what exactly my next blog write-up would be about. Would it be in the blogs best interest for me to comment on the various fashion factors taking the Greek isles by storm this summer season? Do I mention how aztec patterns have influenced their way in and are creeping into textiles and fabrics? This trend was even brought through with the use of american red-indian style feathers and beading on flat sandals. Do I pass comment on how it seemed like the Gods truly knew what they were thinking when they brought the wedge/platform heel back into fashion. It's as if they were smiling down on me and lending me a helping hand for walking down those cobbled streets (if they wanted to be laughing down on me they would have chosen stilettos!) And just because I have a slight fetish with shoes doesn't mean that is the only thing I was looking at from a design perspective. 

The interior design of many of the authentic restaurants, better known as tavernas, seems to also have come a long way. In the past I recall it was the higher priced places that felt to be authentic didn't mean having to have the cookie cutter postcard style image. They actually attempted using a different shades of blue, green or red to the normal taverna style and obviously their extremist take on what is typically Greek has now filtered through to the average priced establishments. In my opinion it seems like an even more authentic look has therefore been achieved. As if those restauranteurs called up their grandmothers and asked for crochet curtains. Walked into a paint store and took the daring chance of going with a different hue of blue. Or went up to their remote mountainous village and filled their car with hand painted pot-plants filled with the most pleasant smelling basil/thyme/mint and then placed those strategically around their restaurants. The glorious food coming out of greek kitchens these days could rival the 'invention' tests sprung on contestants in a Master Chef programme! Vegetarian dishes have always been in greek households, but now many secrets are finding their way onto menus. Meatballs (keftedes)? Soooo 2009! How about a tomato ball (tomatakeftedes) or zucchini ball (kolokithokeftedes)? - it sounds so wrong translating these beautiful greek tongue twister words into english! Spinach pie (spanakopita) or cheesepie (tyropita)? Hell no! Try a Paros style mushroom pie (manitaropita). Trust me, I did try and even got looked at strangely the following day by the waiter when I went back to the exact same restaurant and ordered the exact same items as the evening before! There's even a new take on the traditional gyros at some places as they add rocket and lettuce! I don't know if this is due to the economic crisis hitting their shores at the moment, but at first glance I was not liking it, until I took a crunchy bite, then it all made sense! And for heavens sake, if you are ever in Greece, hunt down Kayak ice cream! Jasmine, ginger and lemon all infused together as a single mouthwatering and very asian inspired flavour. Mastixa (gum mastic-google it!) flavoured ice-cream...not my favourite flavour but they have done it right and it is a completely greek inspired flavour! And no, I didn't just eat and eat! Well...not that much anyways.

I'm not a food blogger. I'm not a fashion blogger either. I am a designer who is influenced and absorbs my surroundings like a sponge. And then I blog about it. I don't have a set style that I can define and pinpoint as my own. Instead I am like a chameleon and I enjoy changing my colours because it's those many items in my daily living that inspire me. That is what I realised on my vacation. The stressing and worrying about where I will find ONLY design related inspiration from to blog about was around me the whole time!

x 

me