Design Work Life: Cataloging Inspiration Daily

Hello, every­one! It’s Maddy from Somewhere Splendid again, and today I’m going to bring you some of my favorite invi­ta­tion design inspi­ra­tion of the moment. Courtney and I first met when I was writ­ing the Inspired Bride wed­ding blog (which I sold ear­lier this year before I had a baby girl), and she shared her gor­geous invi­ta­tions with me. Today, I’m high­light­ing a few other fan­tas­tic designs that I hope you’ll love as much as I do.

As I men­tioned in my first post for DesignWorkLife ear­lier this month, I can’t get enough of the hand let­ter­ing trend in invi­ta­tion design. It breathes new life into the clas­sic cal­ligraphed or script face invi­ta­tion by giv­ing it a quirky makeover. This invi­ta­tion, designed by Molly Jacques, is no exception.

Speaking of quirky let­ter­ing: Ross & Jess’s invi­ta­tions use dig­i­tal illus­tra­tion and hand let­tered look type­faces to give it a more hand made feel that is per­fect when set with more tra­di­tional sans serif type. The per­fectly imper­fect pat­tern­ing and draw­ings also add to the look for an incred­i­bly gor­geous suite.

I’ve loved Megan’s work at MaeMae Paperie for a long time, and this suite has been one of my peren­nial favorites. I love the dar­ing use of color (because let’s be hon­est, not many peo­ple would pair lilac and orange), the adorable illus­tra­tions and the off reg­is­ter color fills that work together to cre­ate one of the most fun suites I’ve seen to date.

If left to my own devices with­out direc­tion, this is the area of the design world I live in: mod­ern, sil­hou­ette style illus­tra­tions à la Katie Kirk. It’s no sur­prise then that I love Nicole and Steven’s invi­ta­tions by Design Curiosities, which blends that style with pho­tog­ra­phy seamlessly.

While I’m usu­ally not a big fan of die or laser cuts on invi­ta­tions, I think this suite from Saint Gertrude Design and Letterpress is sim­ply stun­ning. The intri­cate tree design is off­set by sim­ple type and a lit­tle splash of color that keeps the design from going overboard.

I’m pretty sure every­one in the design com­mu­nity is aware of Erin Jang’s work at this point, but this is still one of my favorite invi­ta­tion suites of all time. Whereas a lot of invi­ta­tion suites are let­ter­pressed sim­ply because every­one loves let­ter­press these days, Erin makes the most of the trans­parency of the let­tepress inks by work­ing the lay­er­ing into the design in her pat­tern and illus­tra­tion work.

PHOTO CREDITS (from top to bottom):

01: Molly Jacques
02: Designed by Ross and Jess Bruggink via Studio on Fire
03: Maemae Paperie
04: Design Curiosities via OSBP
05: Saint Gertrude Design and Letterpress via OSBP
06: Erin Jang