We’ve been talking a bit about work this week on the blog, jobs, careers – the old nine to five. To follow on from Charlottes post on Tuesday I thought I would give a quick re-cap on what I did before becoming a wedding blogger. I was a graphic designer (still am really, but more about that in a bit). If you read Charlottes post about her work life outside of Rock My Wedding you’ll be well aware that Charlotte and I used to work together – that was how we first met. I was one of the graphic designers that she mentioned who sat in the office at the top of the spiral staircase (I hasten to add I was not the one blaring out Meatloaf that fateful day*)
Anyway, one day Charlotte popped up the staircase for a chat (and to ask me to turn the volume down) and to cut to the chase – a few months later Rock My Wedding was born.
So, most of the little graphics and bits and bobs that you see on these polka dotted pages are my handywork (so don’t say anything rude about them!) including our branding and site design – obviously I get massive amounts of input from Charlotte who is herself very creative, why only yesterday she could be found bragging on twitter about her GCSE grade “A” in Art…
But where is this leading? Well, today I have a bit of fun for you all – you get to help make an executive decision on a brand new bit of RMW branding, but first of all you are going to need to know the design brief. Allow me to explain…
The Rock My Wedding Real Bride Hen Do.
Our Real brides are truly representational of the fantastic community that Rock My Wedding is built on. They are always giving each other advice, sharing ideas, plans and generally supporting each other on their journey to become a “Mrs”.
This year’s brides have gone one step beyond and have taken it upon themselves to arrange a party, a big old get together before they disappear off and tie the knot. Our six real brides will be there, as well as most of the other brides-to-be who entered our real bride competition back in May 2011.
Much of the organising for this shin-dig has been done by real bride Shirley and Kim from The Pink Pumpkin, an award winning wedding design and planning consultancy – so it is bound to be a top notch got-to-bloody-be-there event. But that’s all you lot are hearing about it (for now!).
I was asked to do a bit of branding for the party, a party which we hope will become a regular event for all our future real brides. I’ve come up with 3 ideas, each with two variations. We want you to tell us which one is your fave and help us make the final choice.
The Design Process.
So, as you now know – I used to be a graphic designer and I love a bit of branding work. I know a lot of you guys are going to be getting stuck in with a bit of D.I.Y design for your own big days so I thought I would take you very briefly through my personal design process, you never know it might just help you out. Hopefully it won’t be too much of a “lesson” everyone is different after all and if it gets boring just skip to the next section where you can see the final designs.
For me a glam party means cocktails, so initially I thought I’d draw out something geometric in silhouette to represent that, then look how the shape may be able to interact with the text.
I should probably point out that I always work in black and white initially. Why? The more restrictions I put in place the easier I find it to focus and “be creative”. If you are thinking of design and creative ideas for your big day – it’s much easier to put some boundries in place first, be them budget based, colour based or material based. It all helps to focus your mind, channel your vision on what you can achieve and prevent what I call “blank canvas syndrome” (if you give me a blank canvas and tell me to do “anything I want”, all I will manage to do is panic and then run off for a cry).
So, moving on to the next design. I liked the glass concept so I thought I’d try a variation on that but try and go for something softer, a bit more hand drawn and scrawly. So, I reached for my old dusty copy of “The Twits” to try and get a bit of Quentin Blake style inspiration. Realising that I had been sat reading for the best part of twenty minutes (that Mr Twit eh? What a joker!) I put “The Twits” down and pen to paper…
The result? A few Blake-esque champagne flutes. I thought 6 in a row would be good – one for each real bride but then I decided do an option with just three flutes. Harmony is an important part of design, and for some reason we find a grouping of three items harmonious. Three is not a crowd in the world of design!
At this point Charlotte with her GCSE grade “A” throws me a curve ball, “I like the hand drawn effect – but how about we draw a little bride” and after failing to understand how she wanted it to look, she scribbles down her vision.
So, above you can see Charlottes scrawling *ahem* masterpiece, and my “re-interpretation”. I decided to do a variation by adding in a bridesmaid (one on each side for the sake of harmony again).
Compare And Contrast.
Nearly there now – all they need is a bit of colour – back to the design lesson folks… The concept of “Harmony” extends to colour as well as composition, we humans like to look at colours that harmonise on the whole. They don’t have to match perfectly but the closer they are the more unified everything will look, and we like that very much. However, we also love a bit of contrast – a small area of striking colour contrast can really lift the overall effect of your chosen colour pallette. Think about your wedding colour scheme – most likely you will go for a few key colours or shades that sit closely together… but you can’t beat a bit of colour pop here and there – like a bright yellow bouquet for example (see below).
Right, that’s the lesson over with – now for the fun bit.
The Final Designs.
I’ve put all the final designs onto luggage labels to give an idea for how the branding might be used… it also helps prevent the designs from looking like they are floating in mid air.
Please do let us know which one you prefer in our comments box – and don’t worry, we have pretty thick skin here at RMW so if you think they are all a pile of pap then feel free to let us know!
Design 1 – Cocktail Glass.
Design 2 – Champagne Flute.
Design 3 – Bride/Bridesmaids.
So that’s it – two variations of each design, a mix of composition, complimentary colours and a few doses of colour pop.
So, judge away folks and we look forward to telling you a whole lot more about the Real Bride Hen do in the near future.
Adam.
