party invite

[*the girl* ryan]

*sigh*
so, my sister is unconventional. she ran away with her now husband to the Cook Islands to get married. we are throwing a south seas island party full of corona, margaritas (i know... those are not island drinks) poolside and all that crap. this is unfortunately closer to what she wants but i am rowing increasingly unfond of it as it is starting to look like something from a premade invite. limitations are monetary of course... setting this up to be run as 2up on a letter sheet, prolly on Eames textured cover stock. im going to go make a few more... feel free to drop your notes on this dump in the meantime and i can get some fresh thoughts

text in center as follows:
JOIN US POOLSIDE AT THE POLLI’S TO CELEBRATE OUR MARRIAGE! THERE WILL BE BBQ, CORONA, MUSIC, DANCING AND... MORE CORONA. SEPTEMBER 2, 2006 - 2 O’CLOCK BRING A SWIMSUIT AND SUNSCREEN. SHOES OPTIONAL. JUST BECAUSE WE RAN OFF AND ELOPED DIDN’T MEAN WE WOULDN’T THROW A PARTY!

** rsvp info removed :D goes in white space below main text

[Samakimoto Graphics]

Unconventional...hmmmm.
Quite nice.

The use of an illustration and photographs in this instance is clashing, I understand that you want to have an island, festive feel. Try "illustrizing" the photos and see what you get.

Better yet, make illustrations of the starfish skeleton and the other photographic elements.

The type you have used next to the arrow is difficult to read in that colour and in outline and fill.

As an early design, it good.
For the main body text, maybe a deeper shade of green will throw it forward and make it legible.

[EC]

the cow is funny. :)

[*the girl* ryan]

yeah, i thought so too, but without more text.. explaining the cow/island thing will be lost, so i dropped it. i might try to work it in more in a bit, for now... i stripped it out and simplified it a bit. the photo of the palms her husband took on their trip and she really wanted me to use it.. so i posterized it ;P

[Samakimoto Graphics]

Now we are closer.

It's less cluttered allowing you to read. I like the way you matched the colour of the main header with the blue palms. Now it looks a lot more cohesive.

The body text looks kinda crammed at the top, and too close to the dancer (let it wrap further around her and into the negative space. It needs to breathe a little more.

With your new layout, I'm starting to feel the bamboo border is out of place...

Looking good!

[Samakimoto Graphics]

Perhaps, if you make the palms a little transparent... and not make the text all caps, and make it slightly larger:)

[EC]

what, no cow? :eek: Just kidding it's looking good.

[*the girl* ryan]

god, i feel like such a tool on this one. this has to be the lamest thing i have worked on in a while... ill see if i cant save it tomorrow...

[EC]

ryan, honestly? It's good but since you're stressing here's my 2 cents. I think the colors could be a bit more vibrant/fun/retro. The artwork is retro, tiki is a huge trend right now -- maybe check out something like this http://www.shag.com/ for inspiration.

Check this out for inspiration too, there's some fun stuff here http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17815&page=1&highlight=design+challenge+tiki

Just a quick search for tiki and tiki fonts ...
http://www.rotodesign.com/fonts/index.html (castaway?)
http://www.konakai.com/ loads of stuff

Hope that helps. :)

[Samakimoto Graphics]

Just sleep on it...make sure it's the last thing you think about. A way forward will come to you by morning.

[cjoe]

I say, rainbow gradients for all!

[*the girl* ryan]

awww, cmon cjoe. i know its a little bland but is it as all bad as gradients? :( if thats the case maybe i should just add a glow around the text

/cry
haha

[Logo-Mechanix]

Do you need me to bring anything? I think the suggestion EC made about the colors being more vibrant alah 50's beach party will really make this thing jump out and say celebration. So your sister really eloped?

[Drorain]

one last thing...make it 'clothing optional' and your allllll set :D

[reuber1]

Maybe make the body text the bamboo green again, but leave the heading the color it is. That would make the bamboo less out of place.

[*the girl* ryan]

well, i dropped the green completely and took samples of the yellows orange and reds from the girl and used them in the bamboo. when i get back tonight i will make some more changes etc... i need a full bottle pic of a corona (which ill prolly just vector) for her to hold

[cornfed]

My husband and I eloped 14 years ago on May 29th. I have never regretted it.

[Epectasis]

as much as you might hate the whole thing, i actually think it's pretty neat.

like it's very "in your face" kind of thing.

i find weddings that go by the book to be just so dull...

and this invite throws off people completely. which is perfect.

the one thing i thought you should work on is the text within.

but the second rendering of the image was tasty.

[*the girl* ryan]

heh, what do you think about adding a garter around her leg or dropping in a veil... this is NOT the wedding invitation, the announcements are already done and are a bit more on the clean conservative style..(ill post at another time) this is mearly the invitation to the 'wedding reception' i guess you would call it, 5 months after the fact

[Epectasis]

heh, what do you think about adding a garter around her leg or dropping in a veil... this is NOT the wedding invitation, the announcements are already done and are a bit more on the clean conservative style..(ill post at another time) this is mearly the invitation to the 'wedding reception' i guess you would call it, 5 months after the fact

ah gotcha.

like i said, i fancy the design and illustrations and am not too sure you need to add anything in that department.

although if you were to redo the illustration in it's entirity (a la illustrator) i think you could further stylize it.

[*the girl* ryan]

ok... few quick color changes. moving onto the other side (mailing side with map and return address)

[1ooScreamingTrees]

Your'e very close...the only thing that needs changed is that extremely eye-soring body copy typography.

[cmichaud]

how did you do the "come celebrate" font?

[*the girl* ryan]

font- blackjack.
3 layers... the top layer is the light blue w/o stroke
middle layer darkblue with a 3-4pt stroke
bottom layer same as middle but offset for the depth

lord knows putting the stroke directly on the font at the forefront will just choke it out

ok... so ill change the font. is it just hard to read because of the smaller version of this file or is it the sans serif? i guess my frustraded llittle mind just cant see what is wrong with it when i print it out and hold it away, it seems ver readable. its all done in illustrator, so if its the pixelation of the formatting for GDF specs i can understand

[cmichaud]

cool thanks for the font hint

[Samakimoto Graphics]

Your'e very close...the only thing that needs changed is that extremely eye-soring body copy typography.

^^Yup, like he says.

Perhaps you could try letting it wrap in an "amorphous" text box around the dancer's skirt and inside the white space, also increase the size by a point or two. As it is, it's rather stiffly justified for a playful piece like this.

It's better now that you've spread it out nicely in the space :).

[Epectasis]

just for shit and giggles, did you try perhaps putting another box inside the current box, with some transparency on it, and let the text run the length of the space (including over the palm trees). Increasing the font size as well?

for some strange reason, the fact that the font is limited to that tiny space just doesnt do it for me. it's definitely gotta be bigger at any rate.

[CamarotaDesign]

Im thinking the same, thats all thats missing. The rest is great, great color, combos, impacting, interesting image with the palm trees. Nice headline, very nice.

Fix the Text-
The actual font is working fine in my opinion. You just need some variations in the weight and size. Put it all in a shaped text box that works with the contour of the edges of the other images, like the hawaiian girl and the bluish gray thats part of the palm trees... needs to be more of an oval text block.

Then I'd suggest making your lead in sentence "just because we eloped doesnt mean we wont throw a party" thats the main idea of this thing right? I'd suggest that in bold and slightly larger size. You might even want to play around with it, and put it all on a slant like the "come celebrate" headline.... might work, might not.

You've got such a great design, I'd hate to see the typography blow it.

Your'e very close...the only thing that needs changed is that extremely eye-soring body copy typography.

[WrC]

Maybe textwrap the body copy around the blue skyline and the girl's hula skirt to give it more motion? and bigger text size too

[*the girl* ryan]

well, i tried and failed :( she insisted on the green bamboo! oh well.... well this is the final product with some personal info missing of course. its ok for a little dink party invite guess. what do you think of the final product?
front and back of course cause it is a postcard

[cmont]

Might want to pull the directions off the back.. not sure though...

[Broacher]

Too slick. The whole idea of the desert island elopement is getting lost. I mean, who hasn't wanted to do this kind of thing? And she's done it. I think you should keep the momentum going. Turn this invitation to a post-marriage party into an invitation to join in the primitive, hedonistic spirit of tropical escape fantasy. And not just the American post card variety. Get real primitive. Cheap, high-fibre paper. Salt-stained, ragged edges. Type hand scratched with art carbon sticks-- very simple, but urging type of copy. Crude map. That kind of thing.

Check your import stores. There's some great bargains for stuff like hand-woven mats, flattened reed weavings and such.

Uh-oh. How many did you say? And when?

Sorry... guess I was south sea design fantasizing.

[WrC]

Looks great! well done

[*the girl* ryan]

broacger... that is sooo much more along my line of thinking, but very NOT her style.. unfortunately

[Samakimoto Graphics]

The client is right!

Well done ryan.

[CamarotaDesign]

eh, whaddya gunna do eh? If the client likes it, Its cool.

I like it all in all, but I still think you should have made "just because we ran off and eloped doesnt mean we wont throw a party" as your lead in sentence

[Broacher]

^^ Agree with CD on switching to that great leadin. Much more engaging.

Sibling clients. Yeah, been there (I've got six of them). You wanna talk coconuts....