I can’t help it – I am a total stationery nut job. Whenever I get given a business card, before I’ve read it i’ll have have gauged its thickness and assessed the finish between thumb and finger. When a brand new print job arrives hot off the press, the first thing I want to do is give it a smell…
*Ahem* confessions over – let’s talk design…
Two of the most popular emerging design trends in recent years have undoubtedly been typography and illustration. The evidence is all around us – in the media, in our glossy magazines and even lining the streets upon which we walk.
The Not So Olden Days.
A few years ago if a designer had presented a concept for a new billboard campaign that solely relied on a few well chosen fonts with no images at all, they’d be laughed out of the boardroom with a P45 wedged up inside their little beanie hat (all designers wore a little beanie around this time – outdoors, indoors and regardless of season). Likewise, if asked to create some loosely hand drawn imagery for a new brand or product launch, said designer would scratch at head through beanie hat and wonder why you hadn’t gone to talk to an illustrator instead.
Of course the art of typography and indeed the art of illustration are not new ideas – they are art forms from a bygone era, a time of letraset, letterpress and pens, ink and paints – a time long before MacBooks and Adobe Photoshop. But, just like with fashion, trends cycle and what was old becomes new and today’s designer has to be au fait with all of these disciplines to stay on trend, and the wedding stationery business is no exception.
Let’s have a look at how these two very different trends are starting to have a real impact on your W-day design.
1. Typographic Design.
Typography is very much an art from. Font choice, letter spacing, line spacing, colour and placement are key to a successful design and these subtle skills of judgement are not to be sniffed at. If you don’t get it just right, quite frankly it can look rubbish…
And this movie inspired typographic design above from Yield Ink is anything but rubbish! The spacing, stripped back colour scheme and the way the various fonts interact all appear effortless – a sure sign of the craftsmanship required to produce a design as clean as this. Yield Ink utilise traditional crafts and even have a vintage letterpress on which they produce much of their work. Snazzy.
In the example above the emphasis of the work is firmly placed upon the text. They say that a picture paints a thousand words, but it’s a shame to miss out if the thousand words are all as pretty as these ones by RSVP Candy.
A real stand out wedding of 2011 for me was the marriage of Ruth and Rob. Both designers at Raw Design Studio, they branded their wedding to perfection. Typography became a theme that ran through the whole event. They even created a little R&R logo. Very sweet, very creative and absolutely bang on trend.
Next up, combining text with a single repeated heart shape in various colours and patterns gave the invitations below, designed by Rose Mountague, a country garden bunting-esque appeal that totally nailed the brief.
In this beautifully decorated wedding that we featured back in August 2011 you can see how typography suits a back garden rustic affair just as much as it does a cool contemporary wedding.
2. Illustrative Design.
The other design-trend-of-the-moment can be as basic or as intricate as your imagination (or perhaps your designers imagination) will allow.
The great thing with illustration is that we can all have a go at it, and with modern printing and production facilities it may well be the case that, if you posses at least one creative bone in your body, you may well be able to knock up some wedding stationery that is actually pretty good, and of course very, very personal to you. Try it – you might surprise yourself!
Bryony and Jamie created an illustration that they reproduced throughout their extensive range of home made wedding stationery. Just like Ruth and Rob, they created themselves a little wedding brand. With the right choice of materials, knowing your limits and by playing to your strengths, your home made branding can look absolutely spot on.
We recently shared with you the wedding of Caro and Simon – and they received such a response to their umbrella themed hand finished wedding stationery, that Caro and an illustrator friend, who designed and created the items have decided to start offering the service to others – if you would like more information then you can drop the girls an email at foldedpaperdesigns@yahoo.com.
I also love the design below, in a similar vein of illustration – almost a call back to the simple and innocent quality of a school exercise book doodle. This is from another RMW real wedding and the design is by Kate Blake.
Right, I have one last thing to show you today, and if you are digging the free style, simple and fun illustrative vibe we are on, you are going to LOVE this.
The Little Peach is a brand spanking new wedding stationery designer, specialising in screen-printing. I took to these designs like a designer to a beanie hat – because having done a bit of screen-printing in my time (I went to art college don’t you know 
) I truly do understand the time and skill that goes into creating each of these magnificent prints. They are all original little works of art.
I love the simple colour schemes, the interesting materials, the witty and fun illustrations and the attention to detail. Everything, and I mean everything is hand finished. I am officially in stationery heaven 
.
It is easy to think that your wedding stationery starts and stops with save the dates and invitations but that is not necessarily the case. If you wish, you can incorporate a design that touches every single aspect of your wedding day.
I guess this leads me nicely onto a few final thoughts…
How important to you is your wedding stationery? It’s hard coming from a design background for me not to place it RIGHT UP THERE (above the dress maybe…?) I would be interested to hear where it sits with you peeps who are currently in the throws of W-day planning.
And who is thinking about making their own stationery?
Of course I have only shared the tiny body of work that I am currently pouring over, there are loads of styles, designs and great stationers out there, so please share anything you’ve seen that you like. That’s what it’s all about folks.
Adam.
I love a good bit of paper! My best Xmas present this year was a cute set of note cards.
I’ve spent hours designing my wedding stationary: Save the Dates, Invites, RSVPs, insets, Order of Service…plus extras. Table names and seating plan, menus and others are all saved on my PC, ready to be sent off to Vistaprint (?) later on in the year, when I can be sure everything is perfect. I’m so proud of it all, and can’t wait to see my guest’s faces when they open their invite!
Perhaps i’m in the wrong business….
Stationery completely sets the tone for an event or business! Nothing more glorious than receiving a letter or card on some beautiful paper, great post!
Adam, your posts are always so timely, I love them! We’re currently looking at stationery and I was having trouble finding good inspiration on the UK blogs (i.e. there aren’t many stationery-dedicated blogposts so it’s a question of looking out for the invite shots in the wedding write-ups).
I have been using a US blog a lot though called Oh So Beautiful Paper, they always feature really really pretty things.
I don’t want to give too much away as I’ll be writing up our quest for the perfect invites soon but I really got into the all the travel-themed wedding stationery that’s around – you can do so many cool things with maps!!! (I’m a total map geek).
I do wish i’d thought more about having a brand running throughout all our stationery but have tended to make punctual decisions as and when they are needed. That said, the actual invites aren’t quite chosen yet so maybe there’s still time!
I do love my stationery! Swoooooon x
I’m obsessed too, with stationery, print, paper, and all the little details to bring elements together. Love this post.
I hadn’t seen Ruth and Rob’s wedding before so I’m off for a nose now. Thanks Adam!
LOVED this post! Working in the magazine industry, the stationery is very important to me. I’m all about typography! And as the save the dates/invites are the first thing guests will be seeing, I really wanted them to represent the style of our day (as well as being gorgeous and pretty and all of that!)
It has been stressful at times, but I’m glad I’ve persevered. My magazine designer friends are helping me design them, and one is doing me a personalised illo. Can’t wait to see the final products!
PS: Love the RSVP postcard with the hearts
Mr C – we’re 1000% with you… stationary just sets the tone for the whole wedding – it’s the first glimpse your guests have at what type of do you’re planning. Never underestimate the power of the invitation (and if you can, keep the theme running through the whole day – but that’s the perfectionist in us speaking!)
More more more more more please. I LOVE LOVE LOVE stationary. Especially wedding stationary. I cannot wait to begin designing ours hopefully with the help of my pro graphic design friend. There will be big time subtle branding going on. And what’s great is everyone knows that stationary is my responsibilty without asking.
I recently had to buy a new desk just to house my increasingly huge collection of notebooks (my weakness) and I adore a good pen.
Thank you adam!
I lOVE stationary! You might want to check out mine and my fiance’s stationary here on my blog http://www.pencilstitches.blogspot.com/2012/01/wedding-wednesday-our-wedding.html
Our colour scheme is yellow & grey!
Hooray! So nice to see stationery featured on a blog. And lovely examples you have chosen indeed – particularly love The Little Peach designs.
I love stationery and love this post! However, I was wondering if the slowly decreasing font size was a joke since the post is about fonts but after copying and pasting into Word to read what it said, I’m not sure it is?!
I just spent a small fortune at Paperchase today… I LOVE stationary! Those handstitched notebooks get me every time!
I also love receiving save the dates and wedding invitations as it really gets me thinking about the wedding, and definitely ramps up the excitement!
I love stationery and can only look in awe at the efforts of others as I don’t have a creative/design bone in my body!
Are you trying to test our eyesight?! Just about managed up to the last bit…
This has just made me wish we spent a lot more on our wedding stationery :S
But I made it all myself, had a theme that ran throughout, and used the offcuts from the invites to make table confetti that co-ordinated. I did the best I could with the budget we had I guess.
I do love all things paper though. I’m with Pen in loving Paperchase – have to keep my hands in my pockets the whole time I’m in there or I spend a fortune!
Now going to have another look (and swoon) at all the lovely invites in this post again
xx
PS My head hurts now from trying to read all the text on this!! Must schedule an appointment with the optician
I love papers, and stationery.
I am a wedding stationery designer and love all the above invites.
I am hoping to do my own wedding invites but I love letterpress and don’t have a machine to make my own.
So I will have to see.
I love typography too, something elegant, simple yet classy.
I am just thinking of a reason I may need some paper from Little Peach…. best throw a party I guess
Charlotte xxx
I love stationary!! It was very important to us that we had high quality, well made invites. As I strongly believe that it’s the first impression your guests will have of your wedding. That’s not to say that they have to be expensive, there are lots of lovely D.I.Y things out there. But I have seen so many badly homemade invites and it makes me sad. With just a little bit of effort they could look lovely!
Xxx
Ok Hopefully the font issue is sorted now
I guess if you are going to talk about fonts, that’ll be the day when it all goes base over apex.
Great to hear all the feedback, glad to see there are other stationery geeks out there.
…although a lot of us can’t seem to spell stationery
Adam.
I know I am biased, but stationery is such a vital part of any event – design, print quality etc really does set the tone.
Love the post and Adam I am with you on the business card thing. I visibly cringe when I am handed a Vi***print biz card. Wasn’t sure if I was blatantly not allowed to name and shame – hence the asterics!!!
G’Day! Rockmywedding,
Very interesting, I am picking out stationery for a wedding. What exactly are escort cards and save-the-date cards?
Catch you again soon!
I’m making ours, boxed invites, for half the price, in champagne and peach
Including ribbons and lots of sparkle!
A tip for spelling stationery, Adam – remember ‘e’ for envelopes (and ‘a’ for automobile is your talking about the stopping kind of stationary!) I never forget now!
I LOVE stationary! particularly paper (guilty of owning an overflowing box full of scraps of paper, that will one day have a use)!! Definitely designing own wedding stationary, have actually spent the last few nights designing the illustration for the front, which will carry across all stationary, and think it is very important, as its people’s first impression of your wedding. I think it gives a feel for what people can expect! Received a shipping confirmation email today for all the paper and card I have ordered to make the invites etc and my stomach actually did a little excited jump!!! I am particularly fond of a bit of recycled hairy manilla
)
Sorry, am late for the party – yet again! Yet another stationery afficiando here and all of those above are just gorgeous.
We made all our own paperwork apart from printing the ‘top’ page which we needed to have a glossy finish and we couldn’t do that on the printer at home. Mike is a tattoo artist in his spare time so he designed a wedding logo that was very old school tattoo based, but incorporating their names (Daisy is my daughter….) and birds (as we had a bird theme going on throughtout the wedding) so we used that logo on EVERYTHING! Boxes for napkins, trees stand boxes, direction signs, table plans, menu reminders…
The actual invitations we made as advent calendars – you know when you open a little door each day? Well we broke the key components of any invite down to bite size pieces of information; Mike drew the most incredible picture of the manor house that the wedding was happening in, we then had to do layers in photoshop to get the little bits of text to be in the right position beneath each window, with a tinted background; and a back sheet (with the logo on). Then I cut 3 sides of each window so they would open, sandwich all 3 layers together, and ta-da!!! Rather labour intensive but unique and personal to Daisy and Mike, and total cost about £55.
I got my stationery today….typography galore and some assembly required! Have yet to tell the other one about the assembly part and just how friday will be spent this weekend.
Ahhh, Andy & Janet were one of my couples – we catered their wedding at Dodmoor House when I worked for LEmon Zest. Andy is a very talented chap!
Great post AC, as per! x
Ooooh, Belinda, your invites sound epic!
Oh my lordy! I LOVE Ruth and Rob’s wedding branding! Bold typography and a superb bright colour palette – awesomeness on paper in my opinion.
I’m in the process of designing my weddings ‘brand’ and it has to be the toughest, but most exciting job I’ve ever done!
Perfect timing with the stationery inspiration Adam
)
Hi Adam and fellow RMWers,
I am so happy to join the throng of those who can safely and proudly admit that they.love.stationery!!!! It feels very liberating to read this lovely post – not that the others aren’t – and feel a little bit giddy!!!!
I also agree that the stationery gives the wedding a ‘feel’ – and I loved what I saw in the article – and it was for me, as important if not more, as getting a dress that feels right. As we are getting wed in July, the day after the Olympics start, I’ve actually sent out our invites this week – Monday to be exact, and today I have received lots of texts stating how excited my friends are to receive such a lovely invite! Ours were created by the absolutely fabulous White Knot – a wonderful design company that I came across at the National Wedding Show in Earls Court in October 2011. I knew I wanted our invites done early and I was right to do so because friends have said that they are glad that they have written confirmation of the date so that they can book holidays around our wedding!!
Lots of people will tell you that they can ‘do’ stationery, especially wedding stationery and it’s true, but I’m so pleased that I held out for something original and true to me and Mr P. Has anyone else had that comment thrown at them or is it just me?
A xx
Oh dear…
I thought our stationary was sorted (bought the outers, was going to just print the inners…) but I seem to have just sent an e-mail to Rose Mountague asking about those totes amazeballs invites with the colourful hearts on.
Whoops!
I didn’t know that I could actually fall in love with stationary but it seems you can xx
Some of the design work here is just exceptional! I am totally inspired to open up illustrator and get doodling
Adam this is such a good post but where was it this time last year when I was trying to sort our stationery out!
Not enough wedding blogs talk about or give you ideas for your stationery when it actually is one of the most important parts of the day! I found it really difficult to find my way through the crap on offer when you google wedding invites, to find a great designer so posts like this are so important to help brides. Recommendations are so important, that’s how we found our designer.
I totally agree that the invite sets the tone of the wedding and I worked really hard in finding someone who could design what ideas I had in my head. I tried to design them myself but sometimes it’s just better to leave it to a professional! We had so many comments on how original our invites were so I was really pleased we got them designed for us personally. We also carried them theme, illustrations and typography through to all of the ‘on the day’ stationery and I think it tied it all together so nicely.
I remember being so in love with Ruth and Rob’s designs, that is the best theming for a wedding I’ve seen! R is for Rob, so simple and yet so brilliant!
xXx
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some beautiful, some interesting and above all some very unique stationary
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Some nice work here and interesting comments. No mention of telegrams. We send out more wedding related telegrams than any other. Red Bike Telegrams worth a look. I have tried for a nice quality retro feel. Comments would be welcome. You don’t have to buy anything or even register! If Rock My Wedding ask me I will do a nice discount exclusive to them.
Hi, I really hope that I am not too late in adding my “few cents” to any brides who are looking for wedding stationery. I own a wedding stationery company in Glasgow called E.Y.i. Love. We love the Yeild Ink guys and I have absolutely loved this blog. As a stationer I hadn’t realised the depth of creativity within the wedding stationery market. If anyone is wanting something a little different we have many examples of vintage foil blocking and the use of many different coated cards, which I don’t think have been covered within the blog.
Wedding Stationery Glasgow – http://www.eyilove.com please come check us out.