Branding Love
The ultimate design project: invitations and event branding for my own wedding.
A designers’ work can get very personal since what we do is a representation of our aesthetic taste and skill level. At the end of the day, however, we are commercial artists here to serve the needs of our clients, so we learn to not take it too personally. But when the client is yourself (and your spouse to be) the pressure is on — we’re designing for ourselves! The invitation design speaks volumes about our personality as a couple and it sets the tone we want for the occasion. And following through with design elements at the reception — signage, menus, wayfinding, gifts — can elevate the event to a truly unique occasion.
From the start, we weren’t interested in throwing a traditional wedding. There would be no wedding party, no tuxedos, no chicken marsala sit-down dinner, no cake. Rather, we just wanted a fun evening surrounded by all of the amazing people that have helped us become who we are. We treated the event like a design project and started with a solid design brief and mission statement: throw a party for our friends that we happen to get married at. This focus helped align all of our decision making. Eschewing tradition, we opted for an outdoor garden party, open seating mixed with lounges and bistro tables, craft cocktails and passed hors d’oeuvres for the cocktail hour, a help-yourself New Haven style pizza truck for dinner (it was a cool truck), topped off with a vintage travel-inspired dress code. It would be elegant, but not uptight. High quality, but not showy or expensive. Dignified, but playful.
With the above decisions taking shape, the graphic design flowed easily. We felt no need to use scripty cursive fonts and metallic inks. Instead, we wanted these to have an sense of adventure. Lots of texture. 1930s travel ephemera with a hint of art deco, add in the feel of oiled leather luggage with silk linings. A little Indiana Jones, a little Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a little Doctor Who, an ounce of steam punk. All of that went into the design.
Enough talk, here’s how it shaped up. We’ll start with works-in-progress where I was experimenting with different tyepfaces, patterns and verbiage, then photos of the finished designs.
The final design opted for a clean slab serif typeface, like a typewriter. We printed on a hand-made 3-ply card stock so they are super thick; stiff invites. The two outer layers have a nice linen finish; the center page is orange. We sent them in brown paper envelopes for a mid-century packaging look. And anchoring the whole design system is a simple “KORA” stamp that was used throughout the design system.
To enhance the vintage travel vibe, we purchased old stamps for the invitations. Did you know? Unused postage never loses its value, and you can find lots of old stamps on eBay. We bought a few sets and tried to select themes that relate to the guests we’re inviting. And because you have to combine several old stamps to meet modern postage prices, the invitations felt like hard shell travel suitcases travel stickers on them. Lastly, instead of a clean trim on all edges, we tore some edges to keep the handmade feel. When our guests received these invites they knew the kind classy, playful, vintage-inspired event they were attending. And all of them came dressed on-theme and ready to have fun.
The “KORA” logo was used throughout the event branding — signage, napkins, match books, etc.
The backside of the match books featured a scripture from Song of Solomon 8:6, “Love’s flames are a blazing fire, the flame of Jah.” Pun intended.
We used the art deco pattern and consistent typefaces on all of the the signage and menus.
My friend Casey volunteerd his ‘76 BMW 20.02 as a center piece at the event and put the KORA logo on the door.
Likewise, Darcie’s cousin Jared has a sweet vintage truck that we loaded up with flowers and applied to the KORA logo to the door. This truck and the ‘76 BWM delivered vintage charms and provided a nice photo op for the guests.
Wedding day photography by my awesome and talented friends John DeNicholas and Yana Issagholian. Images of the invitations by Drew Kora.
