rooms full of sabres

Over the past year and 1/2 a friend of mine and I have been trying to work together using my mad design skills and his wicked programing skills.  One of the big projects we've been working on for what seems like forever is a new website for the fabulous Sabre Room. The place it's self is an icon all on it's own.  After many tries and tribulations (and waaaaaaayyyy too much photoshopping) we have FINALLY come up with something we think might be in the right direction. 

After creating two completely different pages, neither of us were completely satisfied.  But while sitting in a coffee shop in UK village and nearly crying over an annoying man trying to make music 15 feet from us, my caught this image. I've never actually been to the Sabre Room, but whenever I mention the Sabre Room everyone mentions the sign.  I knew that we had to use this image some how. 

After hours and hours of photoshopping the sign evolved into this. After warping, twisting, layering, color adjusting , filtering and creating things out of thin air.......I realized, I photoshoped a little too much and the original image just wasn't good to work from.  SO...instead of just getting a new original image to create....what do we do......START COMPLETELY OVER

ugh.

So, this is where we are at now.  This actually is a early stage image of what we did.  But it's a first attempt.  I still do love the old idea of the sign and we are going to still use the sign as part of the page in some way.  It's a work in progress but it's been fun. 

 Even if we aren't getting paid

the name game

Currently, I'm working on a wedding invite for a couple who want something very simple.  They like the idea of a monogram and just a simple boarder.  Since they aren't married yet, I didn't really want to use the married name initial and a four letter monogram just seemed odd to me.  The couple are both of Irish decent and wanted to carry that theme through the invitation so I tried to incorporate that into the theme as well.

chair renovation

When I was in college I had developed a chair for a school project   The goal of the project was to develop a low cost, durable seat to be used in dorm rooms as the seating provided by the university.  At the end of the semester I came up with a folding chair that had multiple positions for seating postures.  The chair was primarily made of metal and fabric, but I recently had an idea to omit the fabric and change it to wood. 

original version...my rendering skills weren't the best.

I gave it a nice cherry wood veneer and a chrome affect on the metal.

mid century lovin'

I love everything that has to do with mid century.  From the fantastic furniture to the classy ladies and the men who always make sure they are not walking curbside (but don't get me wrong I'm a very independent woman). So since I've been in the process of vamping up my resume I thought I'd add some mid century flair to it.

Schewe "like Gravy" Wedding

Dan and Alexis Schewe were married last year in May of 2010 in Michigan.  They were such a fun couple to work with and left the palate completely open to me.  The only requests they had were that they wanted something unique but simple and more modern than traditional or formal.  Alexis had already decided on pink and silver as their colors.  When I sat down to  sketch out some ideas I had an idea from a recent Bob Dylan poster I saw at a friends.  The hair on Dylan was full of vibrant flowing colors, so I tried to come up with a way to use that in an invitation design. 

The couple wanted simplicity with no extra frills.  Just a simple invitation with no RSVP cards (they directed you to a website for replies) and a programs that matched them.

The wedding day turned out beautifully and the bride and groom were so happy with the outcome of the entire day. 

inspirations in so many little ways

Over the summer I bought this beautiful paper at the art supply store for the mere fact I thought it was gorgeous.  I have a sweet spot for birds and whimsical things.  It's been sitting around here for months as I think of different things I want to use it for, but I've very hesitant to cut it up for whatever reason.  Until recently, I decided to take pictures of it for the background for one of my website pages.  Which then got me thinking to make some stationary inspired by it.  I wanted to use a lot of bold colors and for it to leave little white space in the graphics.

Love.

Nicki and Kara

Nicki is one of my oldest friends (we met in 1st grade).  When they asked me to do the save the dates I was honored.  They wanted something simple, but them.  The picture was taken by a friend of their's Alexi J. Alma, and with a few minor photoshoping tweaks this is what I came up with.

The wedding was beyond memorable.   The entire day was all about their love for eachother, friends, family, wine, music, and of course....pizza and pie.  It was a very intimate wedding, and almost everyone present took a part in some way on that special day. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.