Arrive, Breathe, and Be Still.

This is the third year I have worked with 826 Valencia on their annual Young Author's Book Project, and I couldn't be more excited to announce that the books, Arrive, Breathe, and Be Still, are out! (Please excuse the amateur iPhone photography – I hope to take some better shots soon.)

I designed the cover and interior pages, and boy was this one a doozy! This year, student writers from Downtown High School became playwrights – which meant lots of unusual text formatting and a complex system of style guides. But I was looking forward to a challenge and after about 80 hours tweaking the 300+ pages in InDesign I can safely say that I'm a pro at stage play formatting and design.

The launch party extravaganza was held at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, and featured readings by playwright Octavio Solis and the students themselves. Check out the blog post from 826 here!

Map & Luggage Labels wedding invitation suite.

Map & Luggage Labels was designed for destination weddings, international couples, and elopers! Or for those who (like me) just love to daydream of far-off lands...

My family lived all over the world as I was growing up, and we spent a lot of time traveling to and fro. Vintage-inspired luggage labels bring me back to the days when I was about 3 feet tall, eye-level with all the exotic and brightly colored stickers, labels, and stamps on other peoples' luggage. Take a look at this awesome collection from Art of the Luggage Label on Flickr.

Luna wedding invitation suite.

I created Luna for Minted in response to their call-out for dark, romantic, Twilight-inspired designs. I'm not a Twilight devotee, but I can totally appreciate the aesthetic and jumped at the chance to design an invitation that could fit any uber-romantic, nighttime celebration under the stars. Think: poetry, New Orleans, astronomy/astrology, goth, 19th centruy science fiction, and magic.

Minted's challenge inspired a lot of fantastic Twilight-centric designs. Check out this blog post to see them all!

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Enchanted Stars wedding invitation suite.

I designed Enchanted Stars for Minted to provide a simple, traditional alternative to (let's face it) the legion of really baaad Disney-themed wedding invitations out there. I have a hunch that couples who dream of exchanging vows in front of Cinderella's Castle don't necessarily want Mickey Mouse ears or Tinkerbell on their wedding invitations. So, I set out to prove that, yes, you can have a fairy tale wedding in style!

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I Heart SF wedding invitation suite.

I Heart SF is another freshly Minted design that launched this month! An homage to one of my favorite cities on Earth (and current home), this invitation suite showcases San Francisco's unique landmarks and icons.

I was going for a vintage travel poster/children's story book vibe, with vivid colors and textured illustrations. Perfect for a City Hall wedding. By the way, have you seen these gorgeous real-life SF City Hall nuptials here, here, and here?

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Stately wedding invitation suite.

 

I'm pleased to announce five new Jody Wody wedding invitation suites added to the collection over at Minted.com! I initially designed this invitation, Stately, as a way to showcase Didot's beautiful capital letters.

I've also noticed a surge of civic and state pride in the design world – from Dan Cassaro's 50 and 50 State Motto Project to Ork Posters' city maps – so I decided to create a clean and bold invitation to highlight the initials of the couple AND their location. Because... home is where the heart is, right?

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SmugMug Facebook contest.

SmugMug has launched a pretty radical Facebook contest, partnering with Gura Gear and world-class safari photographer Andy Biggs to give away some sweet photo gear. I collaborated with SmugMug to create their sweepstakes campaign and felt extremely lucky to be able to work with such amazing photos (a rarity, I assure you!).

Here's a peek at the campaign I designed, featuring Andy's stunning photography. My favorite? The giraffes!

Check out the real, live contest here.

Claire + Tim's keepsake wedding book.

Back in September I had the pleasure of working with Claire, a bride from Bermuda who asked me to design a keepsake program for her wedding. She and her fiance had an amazing day planned, and wanted to create a pocket-sized book to capture and preserve the event, the story of their families, and local Bermudian history.

Using vintage family photographs and illustrations of Bermudian flora, Cardinals and butterflies, I designed the booklet as part-program, part-memento. Claire had the books printed locally and incorporated custom stamps with mini muslin bags to complete the package. I received a sample in the mail yesterday and couldn't be more happy with how they turned out!

Valentine's Day cards.

Valentine's Day is creeping up, and I've got you covered! Here are two new Jody Wody additions to Minted's line of adorable Classroom Valentines. These teeny-tiny cards were designed to incorporate a touch of DIY – you can affix a matching bow to Prize Ribbon via two strategically placed punch holes, and I'm a Sucker includes the perfect spot to attach a yummy lollipop.

Remember, you don't have to be a kid to hand these out. Think of how many new friends you'll make by handing out Sucker cards at the grocery store.

826 Valencia Annual Report.

Hey, look! It's the first ever 826 Valencia Annual Report! I spent the last couple months of 2011 with the friendly folks at 826, hashing out a plan to publish an annual report that people would actually want to read. I designed the self-mailer annual to resemble a trusty ol' composition book, with fun diagrams, an illustrated gate-fold timeline, scrapbook-y photos, and fantastic illustrations by Anna Kwon.