A BIT SPEECHLESS TODAY



Author, TV star and the patron queen of style featured me on The Zoe Report today. My Illustrated shoe cards were spotlighted. I'm truly honored and a little speechless today.

I just realized that I posted my Holiday special over on my other site but not here. Do you know about the other?



Read All About The Letterpress Gift Project. Limited Time folks

New Color Schemes over on Ye Old Etsy

I posted a few new birthday cards over on Etsy today.


this one is one of my favs ;)

BABY ANNOUNCEMENT


I am the luckiest girl in the world to do what I do. I enjoy working with my clients so much, it really is a treat. I mean really can it get any cuter than this?



fuchsia and yellow color scheme with area for photo enclosure, 2 color letterpress

COMPANY HOLIDAY INVITE : GEORGE'S AT THE COVE, LA JOLLA



If you're looking for an economical but fun way to do an invitation, you might consider a PDF invite. George's needed a way to invite their staff to their annual holiday dinner but wanted it to be low cost and a green solution. We used a holiday motif of a snowflake but put a spin on it by using George's Colors.

SIMPLE TYPE: MERCEDEH MANSOUR SKINCARE


I did a simple type treatment and a menu card for my friend Mercedeh [prounouced Mare-su-duh]. If you're near the Long Beach area I highly suggest you check her out. Seriously, I've worked with a lot of skin care people over the years [formerly I was in salon management] and her brow work is not to be missed. Not to mention, she is always on the cutting edge of skincare as well.

D'Aversa Salon at the Marketplace 562.795.5885

LAUNCHING TODAY A logo I did for a site called T. Ruffle



T. Ruffle, as in, Tee-Ruffle is a super neat art project but it's more than just an art project you know? The amazing Mary Ruffle and Karey Mackin are leading the charge in what is expected to be [no stress or anything] an amazing collaboration.

I won't bore you here with the whole story as I like to keep this site all nice and short and sweet but if you want to read the full hilarious story of how it all happened click here.

SAVE THE DATE POSTCARD


Tayiba and Javier are getting married. Flat print postcard, two sided image. Opposite side has a small area for the bride-to-be to write a short note to her guests, and an area to address.

NEW LOGO PROJECT


It might seem that I'm all pretty and fluffy around here most days but I do some serious work as well. Capius Consulting is a new client of mine out of the Bay Area. He's involved in super fancy stuff involving risk management, zillion dollar projects and stuff I have not a clue about. None-the-less, he needed a logo and I could provide. Ed [the owner and his lovely wife] provided me with images of things they liked first and also gave me a brief of what it is they do. It was so handy to use while building the logo!

GABRIELA & ROBERT ENGAGED



Florist, Gabriela, of Vida Flora is getting married. Can you imagine the fantastic flowers she'll have at her own wedding? Gardenias are going to be the theme.

This engagement invite is flat printed with a simple line drawing but I'm going to revise the illustration to a very detailed cross hatch style to letterpress. It should be knock-your-socks off fantastic.

[CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTO]

JENNIFER AND MICHAEL AN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIR



Jenn and I got to be great email buddies over the past few months! We began her project, jeez, in March or April I think. Her and her fiance are living in Kenya currently. They are both in public health and are working on projects overseas [I think I understood her correctly?] I often got notes from her that said I'll be out of reach this week... off to Afghanistan, or the Congo! It was amazing to me that we were working on a project and she was on the other side of the world.

Jenn sent me a scan of a napkin sketch that they had in mind. They have lived in a number of different cities and wanted to incorporate each piece into their invite. Texas, Washington DC, Boston, London and Kenya. So each week I worked on a new component of the illustration. She gave me feedback each week and I altered and changed based on those comments. I lost count on how many weeks but I think it was pushing 12 before we printed! It just goes to show you that anything is possible these days on the web. Jenn and I only spoke once on the phone during our planned press check via twitter and the email images.



We stuck with a one color letterpress piece and I was able to add on last minute, the kissing icon in a hang tag size with some room left over on the plate. How much do you love their silhouettes? They took a photo of themselves against a white wall and I traced them for the illustration.



Components printed: Invite, Map/Info Card, RSVP, fold over Thank You card, and hang tag for the event and gifts.
Congrats Michael and Jenn have a wonderful wedding in October!

New over at Etsy


I printed a couple of new things they're over on Etsy. Stop in and check them out!
Available here

CHRISTY & MARTIN


I worked with christy's florist the amazing Diane Frederic from Twig Designs here in Los Angeles. Diane had already come up with a plan to use cymbidium orchids that will be wrapped on branches [how cool is that going to be?] Christy also has a theme of squares going with her cake and other elements so we went with a square format invite.



The wedding colors are jewel tones so I came up with the night blue envelope combo with moss green liner and the deep purple rsvp envelope. Mixing colors with your exterior paper is the easiest and least expensive way to add color into an invite on a budget.



Ink was matched to the deep purple envelope and everything is printed on Crane's Lettra 110# sheet in pearl white.
One Color Letterpress on all the pieces. We also did a placecard [not pictured] which turned out super cute. I'm still amazed
at how much detail happens even in the very, very small elements.

PERSONALIZED NOTE CARD PROJECT


This wonderful project of personalized note cards will be an ongoing project with this and new designs coming each couple of months. It makes wonderful gifts [even if it's just for you!]

Price brakes happen when I can gang up 3 or more people so it's worth a little bit of wait. Interested in a different color scheme? no problem, I'm open to it all. email me and we can get you started.



richele[at]richiedesigns.com

HELLO DARLINGS


A personal project I worked on for friends, soon to be note cards for purchase. Interested in having them personalized? Contact me for pricing and information.

Sage Green and Chocolate Brown Baby Shower Invitation




Invite & Map card printed on white and mounted on sage green sheet
RSVP printed on sage sheet with chocolate brown envelope and ink.
Matching RSVP labels and wrap around mailing label

I also did a small registry card to match [the ones they give you at the stores - bleeck!]

digitally printed

FORTY TIMES AROUND THE SUN

So, I'm turning 40 this year. Instead of lamenting the big 4-0 I decided to throw myself a big party. To be honest, I'm more excited about the invites than the actual event [I'm party shy] but I couldn't figure out a way just to send an invite and not actually invite folks over. [please, click images to enlarge they're so much prettier BIG!]


I went full tilt on these babies, three color letterpress. Square format envelope with a fold over information flap [as to not ruin the graphic and save a little on my plate costs]



It's difficult being the client & designer. Nothing ever seems good enough, but oddly I'm very pleased on how everything turned out. I hope the party is as equally as lovely.





3 color letterpress
square format. Saffron envelope with grey liner
matching postage stamp and wrap around mailing address label.

NITASHA WEDS KULMEET



Because I knew nothing of Indian weddings I had to take notes, and ask a lot of questions about how it all works. Who is invited to which event?, what happens during this part? and what about that part?



I produced the portion of the invites given by the Bride and Groom to their friends, while the parents purchased their own sets of invites while on their buying trip in India earlier this year. Nitasha ended up choosing a fun paisley in vibrant colors.

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digitally produced.
three part invite: Sangeet, Ceremony, Reception with matching RSVP's.
envelope: Papaya with a moss green liner, fuchsia RSVP envelope , RSVP and Invite both had matching adhesive labels with the paisley icon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY



Letterpressed birthday greetings
Available at the Kids Are Alright, Long Beach

A 12TH BIRTHDAY PARTY


Go Kart World here we come! How fun is this party going to be?

Digitally printed poster, shipped in a kraft tube with matching labels.
Illustration by Mark Sasway, Sasway Illustration

IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING


This card was purely selfish on my part. Doesn't it seem like it's always something?
letterpressed
hand drawn type
moss ink
available both on bright white and soft white
A4 size
$5

BRIDAL SHOWER INVITE


I had a request for a dark, inky blue invite for this bridal shower. Though it hasn't been a color that I've used before, it's turned out to be a new favorite. The bride and grooms wedding will be silver and dark blue which is the reason for the color choice. We produced an invite, a map card and custom mailing label to match. I included a fancy custom Stamps.com I did for myself as a visual. I wish we had the time to do a matching stamp as well!

The best part of the mailing label sticker we did is that the return label was connected and wrapped around the envelope. Only one sticker to deal with!

GABRIELA & ROBERT


This project revolved around the bark paper that the invite was mounted on. The two of them had found it some time back and wanted to use it for this invite. Gabriela also asked for the horsetail plant. We opted to keep everything brown after playing around with some color. She'll be incorporating that into her flowers, which will be spectacular since she is an amazing florist and her sweetheart is in the business of importing all the lovely petals we see around LA.




digitally produced.
invite, map card, and matching return label

IN THE NEWS

Daily Candy Los Angeles has featured me as their stationery select for their 2008 Fall Wedding Guide

SHHHHHHH! IT'S A SURPRISE!

Joann's family is planning a surprise party next month for her 60th birthday. I just finished up the invites this weekend.
Invite, Map card, RSVP, address stickers for both RSVP envelope and return sticker for the outer.

MICHELE AND SEAN'S TAHOE WEDDING



I have always wanted to design a wedding invite in a poster form. When I suggested it to Michele she was equally as excited to do something different. Because the wedding was out of town in Tahoe, I built the design like a vintage ski poster. There were two follow up sheets one with travel plans and the second giving a weekend itinerary. Because they're such active people, they had golf games, hikes and cocktail parties all lined up for their guests.

The invite, sheets and RSVP were all shipped in a kraft tube with matching icon label. Needless to say their invites were a big hit [the guys especially loved this one!]

Printed digitally

DAVE AND KHOBE'S WEDDING



Dave and Khobe were having a small ceremony at the home of a close friend for their wedding. They wanted something simple and elegant to match their event.

Khobe's instructions to me were: twigs, brown and green so I did a custom illustration for them and set type to match their style. We then lined their envelope with match chartreuse paper that highlighted the flowers on the twigs. She was very, very happy with them!

click on any image to enlarge





If you're wondering...what is letterpress?
Letterpress printing is a meticulous and labor-intensive craft, resulting in high-quality invitations that bear more in common with a fine art print than a commercially printed product.

Letterpress is an age-old, artisan printing technique that involves applying one ink color at a time to vintage printing presses using printing plates. The plates have a raised surface where the ink is to be applied. When the inked plate meets the paper, it leaves an indentation.

JOHN AND JANE WEDDING INVITES


John and Jane asked me to do their wedding invites and I was so happy to do the work for them. John is one of my favorite people in the world and Jane is just as lovely. They got married this August at the Long Beach Museum of Art. Jane wanted pink, green and vine/flowers featured on their invites. I came up with this sweet pea illustration that gave them the colors they wanted as well as some simple elegance.



I added a hand drawn map to bring the formality down a little bit. John and Jane are older they wanted to celebrate with a wedding but didn't want it to be so formal. We kept the pink to a minimum so that John didn't feel too "girlied out". Then envelope was lined with a simple floral inclusion paper and the invite and map were then wrapped with a thin pink ribbon 3 times.



We complimented the letterpressed invites with digital versions for the menu and folded pocket sized program.

ANNIE AND CHAD



Annie and Chad wanted something traditional yet a little bit of funky thrown in. We found that balance will flower illustrations I did for them and a hand drawn map to make it seem a little more organic.

Printed digitally.

JESSICA'S DOCTORATE DEGREE PARTY



Jessica graduatED this summer with her Doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology. As she should, she had a big party to celebrate her success with a Luau / Polynesian themed party. I did two custom illustrations of a hibiscus flower that we carried through on the RSVP and the return labels.

Invite, map and rsvp printed letterpress
return label printed digitally

A chartreuse envelope and a burgundy liner kept the pallet Polynesian, yet simple and elegant. The map was also hand illustrated. We were on a tight deadlined for this project and were able to complete in 2+ weeks.








CLICK ON ANY OF THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE.

ALIX'S 11TH BIRTHDAY



Alix is a little girl that loves to dance. For her 11th birthday she wanted to have a disco party [complete with disco ball-thank you very much]. I decided to make her invite look a little like a club flyer with a hint of Madonna thrown in. What we got was a stylish flyer-type invite that was folded and mailed in a square envelope.

At her party she gave away a matching CD and then followed up with a matching Thank You card.

Printed digitally

ROB'S 40TH BIRTHDAY



Rob turned 40 last summer. His lovely wife began planning his surprise party about eight months prior, going so far as to open a new bank account to stash money and opening new email accounts to send out information to the guests. It was quiet an elaborately planned event. I designed this in mind because Rob has really handsome salt and pepper hair and looks great in blue and grey.



We opted not to print the invite for fear they would find their way to Rob somehow. Instead we PDF'd the invites to each guest by email. We also included travel information for all of the out of town guest that were flying in.



Lastly, we followed up with a matching menu [digitally printed] that sat on each of the plates at the dinner.

GORD'S ELEGANT DINNER



Gord and his wife Michaela are some of the most stylish people I know. When Mick asked me to design a menu and place card for Gord's birthday I couldn't resist. The theme was an elegant black and white setting.

Printed digitally

BABY DUGAN BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT



Baby Dugan birth announcement.

Two colors, letterpressed
Matching envelope and return label that was printed digitally.

Mom wanted space for a photo which is the area to the right of the sheet.

IN THE NEWS

I recently had a little write up in the District Weekly a great local Long Beach paper you can read it here.

YOU ARE AMAZING

In case you didn't know...you are AMAZING

Available at The Kids Are Alright in Long Beach, CA and Mercado in Silverlake, CA

or
Available for purchase contact me at richele[at]richiedesigns.com for purchase info

Letterpressed

PERSONAL BUSINESS CARD


Designing something for yourself is the hardest client you'll ever have. I like this a lot more now that it's printed than when I first designed it. Sometimes, with personal work, you get to the point that you don't hate it...and you know that's as good as you'll get. Everyone else seems to enjoy it though, I get a lot of compliments on it. It's slighly oversized 3.5" x 2.5". Someone asked me recently why I did it at this size, "because I can!"

About Richele:
I've been making greetings and invitations for nearly 20 years. It seems to be the perfect combination of my love of graphics, illustration and now printing which I have been doing for the last 5 of those. I had the opportunity a year+ ago to buy a vintage press and set up a small studio. I am printing my heart out now for everyone from individual brides to small boutique hotels.

I spent 14 years working in the advertising and graphics world, working along side the best creative and business minds in Los Angeles. Through that work, I had the opportunity to work with everyone from Fortune 100 companies to small business owners and became super-savvy on getting the best value for your dollar from my continual sourcing the best vendors in the country for my clients. I am able to offer a multitude of creative solutions from business identities, t-shirts, custom book binding to inexpensive printing, as well as consulting in social media to help you with your marketing needs.

In addition to my experience in the big ad world, I also spent a year and half as an editor for Apartment Therapy Los Angeles learning the ins-and-outs of how to get higher up on the Google food chain and discovering the latest in home design. I left to go back to my first love of printmaking. I continue to learn new techniques in art, exploring photography and enjoy not getting paid for blogging along side some of the most incredible women I've met around the world while writing.

Click here to go back to my portfolio

or visit me here at my everyday site, fashion, style, art and things I love

SOME OF MY OTHER WORK

SGM's face lift New for Summer 2009
I had done Scented Gloss Magazines first graphic header in late 2007 and when she revamped her site this summer she decided to redo a little bit of everything. We gave her a new icon and applied it to the header as well.


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MADISON PARK GREETINGS



I published a set of greetings with Madison Park Greetings in December of 2007. I was very excited to attend the National Stationery Show in May 2008 with my work present. It's been one of those odd little dreams to have my work in New York City at that event.

Mostly geared toward young, hip 30-something women.
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REPAIR PAL





RepairPal.com was a logo project I worked on in 2007. This first version of the logo was mine [top image], it since has gone through some transitions to it's present state [full site]. Repair Pal is an online guide to car repairs similar to Kelly Blue Book. Since going live it has been written up in everywhere from The New York Times to Consumer Reports. Their iPhone app using my orange car trunk icon has been Apple's staff favorite pick and one of the top free application downloads.

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MICROSOFT KEY CARD

This is sort of a silly project to post because it's only a hotel key card to a Microsoft Convention. But, it's Microsoft. I helped a friend who needed a design-y eye and someone to build the file for her as she was heading the production of the on-site event.

I also get a great kick out of the fact that I used all Apple products to create it. wink, wink
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THAI YOGA THERAPY



Thai Yoga Therapy was a fun project for me with my yoga instructor Gabriel Hall. He asked for a square card so we made it 3"x3" and printed it on super chunky stock so it feels really good in the hand. Thai Yoga Therapy is actually a massage technique. I ended up using a hand illustration to capture the icon I wanted to present for Gabriel.

Gabriel is the owner of Yoga World Studio in Long Beach, California with his wife Michelle.
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GARY SCHECHNER



Gary Schechner is a good friend of mine. When he asked me to design his business card I was a little shocked [and honored] since he knows just about every major art director in Los Angeles. He wanted to use the lower case "g" as his logo mark and I came up with this. My good friend Dave Gath then incorporated it into Gary's website which is pretty neat.
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CCRA



CCRA is a new client of mine. They wanted a simple font based mark that will translate later to a stationery system and other pieces.