made by me

I realise I'm a day late...but better late than never!

Sometimes there comes a time when as a designer I have been faced with a challenge. Where I sit back and have many images flashing through my mind. Images that have been stored and photographed in my memory that are from design magazines, blogs, my surroundings, my life. I like a challenge, I like sitting there thinking of how to put what has been asked of me together. How to create it and make it unique. How to add personality and spunk and a touch of me as well as a touch of my client into the job. My challenge was the following-create a wedding invite (easy peasy) but use skulls! 

I happen to have had a stage in my life where I too was a very big fan of skulls. Not in the horrible death type of style, but in the way that something that has always been associated with death/tradgedy/a symbol of 'fear' can be presented sometimes in a very beautiful way. During this stage (and admittedly I do still somewhat have a tad fetish for them) everything that had a skull on it landed up being purchased by me or given to me as a gift from friends. Jewl encrusted skull keychains, skull t-shirts, skull rings etc etc. So when Ashleigh came into my studio and we started talking about her wedding invites, I wasn't put off by the fact that she wanted skulls on her wedding invite. I understood her, and like I said-I like a challenge. Ashleigh and Gren's words were the following: Vintage, quirky, modern with a twist of retro and..skulls!

Ashleigh & Gren design moodboard 2010 copyright me.design.studio

The designs started out without a set format of what the final invite would look like. Because they are both into music, design and fashion, I had originally started off with an idea of the invite being a poster.

Ashleigh & Gren design stage1 2010 copyright me.design.studio

While sitting down with Ash and going through my own design samples, she loved the idea of the booklet (as done for Liesl & Pete) so that is the format we landed up going with. The quirky-ness came about where at the back of the book we had the 'synopsis' of their relationship, the skulls were presented in a very soft manner by creating them into the heart shape, and the colours completed the whole look by  adding that delicate vintage aesthetic. 

Ashleigh & Gren design cover/back cover  2010 copyright me.design.studio

Gren met Ash in 2004. He was a DJ. She organised events. They became friends and started working together. He taught her how to DJ. He played House. She played Hip Hop. She loved fashion. He wore earrings. They spent all of their time together. They fell in love. They started businesses together. 6 years later he asked her to marry him. She said yes.

 

More personal touches came about and for all of the hand delivered invites, personalized badges were made. Working with a variety of fonts and focusing on the typography for this invite was a bonus for me as I love typography. And those skulls....they're not scary at all now are they!

* Ash & Gren...thank you for the challenge! I am constantly using your invite as an example to future clients of how anything they want is possible! wishing you both lots of happiness in your marriage. 

x 

me