welcome

gift/welcome bags are great for out-of-town guests coming to a wedding, reunion or any other sort of extravaganza you can dream up.

your guests may have been in the area before, but as hosts, i believe it's your job to make them feel comfortable and well informed of the activities surrounding your event. 

we found out where our guests would be staying (most stayed at the room block we'd reserved) and dropped them off at the front desk. most hotels are used to requests like this and should happily accommodate you. there may be a negilible rip-off convenience fee of some sort, but ours was something like $1/bag so it shouldn't kill your wallet or anything.

so what should you include inside?

here's some tips

1. tie it all together. using the same wedding suite typefaces, i created reusable grocery bags with 'forever ever' printed on them. they were relatively cost effective and shipped quickly. and it was nice to be able to customize the text/image instead of being bound to a template of some sort. i got mine here but there are dozens of places that sell bags like this. 

i created a welcome card to remind people what was taking place during the weekend ("the ceremony begins saturday at six..."). 

for these bags, i threw in another printed piece as well. as a longtime d.c. resident, i'm used to the 5-cent bag fee. but for people not from the area, i know it can come as a bit of a shock. so the paper offered an explanation about why they were receiving the reusable bag in the first place.

for me, it was important that every printed piece had the same type treatment. it really helps unify everything and brand your event.

2.  local flavor. we decided to give everyone a few dc-specific items: magnets, a metro pocket guide, some crab chips, cherry blossom hand sanitizer and the most recent washingtonian.

3. seasonally appropriate item. in our case, sunscreen. a tube of it and some organic chapstick with spf.

4. something that relates to your event/venue.  as a nod to our market wedding, we put a little seed packet in each bag. 

_ _ _

and there you have it!

you can fill your bags with anything you like. have fun and get creative with it. 

your guests will love you even more for it.

we built this city

i love giving gifts.

my sister-in-law* just had a birthday last weekend. so i did what any normal psycho person would do and pin-stalked her to get some ideas.

we'd gone to san francisco with them earlier in the year, so when i saw she'd pinned this guy:

buy here

i knew what one of her presents had to be.

it's created by ork posters, makers of "the most beautiful city neighborhood posters in the whole wide world," according to their website.

but they are pretty, aren't they?

buy here

buy here

buy here

buy here

the boy bought the dc one for me when we were living in our dupont studio.** aww. 


there's lots of other cities and boroughs to choose from, too.


plus, they make posters like this heart one:

buy here

pretty sweet stuff, right?


and i love showing some city pride.
_ _ _


*ok technically, my sister-in-law-to-be but that's just an inordinate amount of hyphens, no?


**i thought i had some pictures of that space that i could share, but i'm having a bit of trouble finding them. i'll throw them up here if i ever do.

potw: sins

via rowley press

here's another poster dedicated to the art of typography and its many rules.

via rowley press

or perhaps 'suggestions' is more accurate since there's always a good amount of healthy debate about what's a rule and what's simply personal preference.

but some of these are rules, in my opinion. like the first one (no double spaces after a period. please. ever.)

this one was designed by jim godfrey (buy it here) and printed by the good people at rowley  press.


_ _ _

designers/editors: do you have any rules you hate to see broken? did they make this list?

kern me

screenshots via http://type.method.ac

here's a fun little activity - and something i've never seen before.

'kern me' challenges the user to 'set' the typeface in a pleasing-to-the-eye format. using your mouse or arrow keys, start dragging away until it looks good. 


the letters turn cyan while being adjusted (see below)

the fun part?

it shows you how accurate your adjustments were on a 100-point scale.

here's some of my results:

proud of myself for this one!

_ _ _ 

enjoy testing your typographic eye + happy kerning!

outta here

via silverbox creative

i'm off to charleston, sc to visit the fam.


can't wait to feast on southern food.

see you suckers next week.

totally sure

via lunchbreath | here too

saw this poster on mstetson's awesome blog, and i really like it. 

the walls of our home are still pretty bare and i enjoy this little guy.

plus i adore illustrators.

this poster is by tony ruth of lunchbreath. 

[there's a whole bunch of other cool stuff on the site, too.]

as soon as i get my paycheck, this beautiful design is mine.

can't wait

potw: poster

images via typography deconstructed

check out this typography poster created by drew brinkley at 38 pages

it was expertly (and i mean expertly) printed by the amazing people at studio on fire, one of the coolest letterpress shops out there.

there's a bunch more pictures here (love to see work-in-progress shots) and the poster's available both in letterpress and digital format.

(hint: get the letterpressed one)

potw: (my kind of) holiday card

pretty funny letterpress card by sweet dee designs (god i hope that's a sunny ref).

dee's serving up plenty of other letterpress treats in her etsy shop as well.

fa la la bitches

script

the time has come for me to really start putting in some work on my wedding paper suite.

oh boy.

via what the font

excited + a bit stressed about this.

i've been trying to find a good scripty font that i could use for my invites/save the dates/day-of paper items, and i've managed to narrow it down to three:

lobster

pacifico

buttermilk

font names crack me up.

anyways, the one up there is buttermilk.

here are the others i'm considering:

lobster | via font squirrel

_ _ _

pacifico | via font squirrel

i like each of these for different reasons [and i need to find a complementary non-script font too] but i wanted to start here because...well, idk, i just did.

decisions decisions.

i suck at making them, but i figure i can't go wrong with any of these guys.

right?

transport

fell in love with these public transit-inspired posters by trnsprtnation the second i saw them.

via trnsprtnation

fadeout design created these + they are available for several cities, including boston, chicago, london, nyc, san francisco, and good ol' dc. 

i love when dc makes the cut

side note: going to sf for the first time (!) in november and i. can. not. wait.

via trnsprtnation

at first glance, it looks like it's just an outline of the metro/subway/tube/T/L map

but it's all about the subtle details here + their clever use of station names to make up the lines of the map.

and you know i love me some good typography.

via trnsprtnation

well done, fadeout. 

the dc one may be making an appearance in my home soon.

chartreuse

via invitation crush | images by nick brue

the color, the style, the simplicity, the clean lines

the arrow?!

wow

nick brue's design makes me so happy

i'm planning to design my own invites/save-the-dates/etc and this is some delicious inspiration.

half heart + diamond

really digging this wedding suite printed by norman's printery

all images via norman's printery blog

i love the simplicity + geometry of it all. 

letterpress and blind deboss just put it over the top.


_ _ _


also got love for this one:

via norman's printery blog

what a unique way of using square paper.


love the envelope design too.

beautiful, inspiring work.

promises promises

poster by lure design, inc

sign here

[ buy also ]

totally

everyone has a fave city
...or at least one that makes them happy.

these adorable, re-usable cotton totes are the work of
brooklyn-based maptote, the brainchild of
rachel rheingold + michael berick.



excerpt from their site:

"after a trip to europe, rachel rheingold (a fashion stylist) and michael berick (a cartographer) wanted to create something they could do together. combining their love and passion for travel, maps, and design--MAPTOTE was born in the fall of 2006."

as a dc rez, using these instead of a plastic bag at fine retail establishments and one of the 500 CVS stores I frequent farmers markets has almost become second nature. 











but these are good to have on hand in general.
youknow, for all your toting needs.

last year, i purchased one for a very good friend 
who happens to be obsessed with paris (above).


i'm intrigued by their other products as well 
(zip pouch, wine tote, below)

sustainability + smart design?
ahhhhh.

love it!

typographic



via evan roth



i've been obsessed with font




for about as

l  o  n  g

as i can recall 

_________________________________

biggie's fonty face brought to you by

evan roth

[the animation is bad ass | turn up le speakers too]

enough already, let's see it!

roth's other typography works can be seen here

_________________________________

others 

who are also

more talented

than i 





^^^
movie/tv typography posters via jerod gibson

via craig ward

/good typography is invisible/bad typography is everywhere/

via graham smith

_________________________________

ahhhhh typeface.

don't     you      just     want      to

bathe

[damn that word looks weird as a standalone]

in it?