Lessons
Lesson Info
Inspiration & Approach
How do we design what we're building and how do you start? Because it's nice to look at a finished piece and be like, "Oh, that's beautiful. "I'm so inspired by that." But when you are sitting down and your client or your own wedding is the one that is being designed for, it's hard to know where to start. So, there are number of different places that you can start. I tend to start with shapes ideas and thinking, "Do you want us to create something that's gonna be square? "Is it going to be horizontal, or vertical, or rectangles?" And of course you have all kinds of other shapes. You can really get fancy and there's some die cut things you can do. There's a number of other things, and we'll explore that a little bit more when we do that digital invitation, but this is where I tend to start. So I can start imagining how I'm gonna place things or what graphics I might be working with and the fonts that might go well to support it. And you also wanna think too about whatever shape you migh...
t choose. You have to think if you're gonna be putting a reply card with it also. Is that going to pair well with it? So, for example, if you did this long shape right here, depending on what size you end up doing, typically, this would be maybe a four by nine would be maybe a standard size for that. So you may have a little bit of a trickier time putting a reply card. Like a four by five reply card wouldn't work with this. So you have to think, "Okay, what other size "would match with it?" So, how things work together is gonna also be something you wanna consider. And of course, do you want your design, your piece to be a folded piece. A simple fold like this is pretty easy to find. We will be doing, when we do that, non-traditional piece later. We're gonna have a very funky fold, so something really different. So there's lots of different folds you can consider. The slide is just a greeting card style fold. Or maybe you just wanna do something flat, then it's really simple. So that's what we'll be starting with, just that simple flat design. But you also wanna consider envelopes and certain things too. If you're doing a square shape, for example, then obviously you'd want square envelopes. And then a thing you really have to consider too is that square postage as extra. Not everybody knows that. But if you're gonna mail square things, there's a surcharge for that. So if you are really on a budget with your design piece, you definitely have to factor that in. Or if you're having a huge guest list, that little surcharge could really actually add up. So you wanna think about that, think about the envelopes, and they come in all different styles too. They can be pointy envelopes. You can have square flapped envelopes, a number of different materials, et cetera. You wanna think about paper stock. You can get paper with all kinds of different texture. Some people are really connoisseurs of paper so they're very picky about the type of paper that they choose. Other people barely notice the difference even if you point it out to them. So that is up to you, but there's a lot of different things you can look at. Another thing I like to think about in the very beginning too is colors, and what kinds of colors you're gonna be using, any color themes. If you have a hard time putting together color or color themes, one of my favorite tools to use is actually right inside Photoshop, and it's called the, it used to be called Adobe Kuler, but now it's called Adobe Color Themes. And it's a panel right insight of Photoshop that I think it's one of those little secrets not everybody knows about. So, we can take a look at that today. But it's awesome and what's super great about it is you can use it to create themes. Maybe you have one color in mind, you can sort of nail down one color, and then you can use this tool to create additional colors that will work well with that. My favorite thing I the Explore tab. You can actually search for a keyword, and then it crowd sources colors, themes that other people put together. So, it's just kind of exciting. If you really feel stuck and you're like, "I have no idea, and I need some inspiration," that can be really handy. Also, when I'm putting together these things, I like to think about, "Am I gonna be using "photos in this piece?" If you also design save the dates, those are typically done with photos. You could use photos in wedding invitation too. Maybe it's a scenic type photo. Maybe it's something from the engagement session. Maybe it's just sort of a generic, poetic something. Who knows? Or of course you're gonna be more illustration based. Or maybe you don't have any graphics, maybe it's all just type or something really, really simple. So a lot of things to consider. We'll talk about where you can find some of those elements. If you're not in illustrator and you are not gonna create those yourself, we'll talk about where you'll find them. I also wanna talk a little bit about vendors, because I think even when you have all of the stuff and you think you know how you want everything, you really have to know what vendor you're gonna work with, because you could have this huge plan and then realize there's not a realistic vendor that's gonna do that for you in your budget or whatever. So, one of the first things I do is find the vendor that I wanna work with, and I'll see what they offer. And then from that, it helps me narrow down where I wanna go with this. The thing that is sometimes most challenging about design is the wide open possibility. A lot of people find that paralyzing, myself included. When you have truly a blank canvas where you can do anything you want, it can really be stifling and overwhelming. So, some of the parameters that can help you narrow down your focus are choosing your vendor, and then just trying to work within whatever they offer. Having a budget limitation, as much as that's not fun to be like, "Oh, something is out of my budget." well, it's actually helpful to have things out of your budget, then you can just refocus on things that are in your budget, and that can help move the design process forward. So, it's nice to have find your limitations and find your framework that you can then work within. So when it comes to vendors, there's a lot of different options. You can work with photo labs. A lot of photographers do that already. This first example that we're gonna use is something that's designed to work with the photo lab, and we'll be using templates from a lab, and I'll show you how all that works. So photo labs are good. Printers, meaning like a press, like a press shop. So, locally, there are print shops that you can work with. There's also online print shops that you can work with, and even your local copy shop. And now I know people are gonna be like, "What? "That's ridiculous." but if you are a little bit, if you just are clever and you set things up in a certain way, you'd be surprised what you can pull off, and that was what I'm gonna show you with our second example. That was printed for 14 cents at my neighborhood Office Depot or whatever. I brought it here with me, and I'll show you guys how that works, but it's kind of awesome and I think you'll be surprised. You have to really know what you're doing to make that look good and work out well. That's what we'll talk about, but it is totally possible. And of course, then there's e-vite services. If you just wanna avoid printing all together, you can do that.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Lt. Cmnd. Data
Not only was this class very approachable and fun to watch, it is going to save me a ton of money designing my own wedding invitation. Highly recommend the purchase. Thank you so much Khara!
Bardha
Amazing class! thank you so much for teaching me a few new tricks. * I cannot find the templates on the mixpro website. Can someone help or guide me in how to download them?
MicheleCMP
Fun class. She's a great instructor.