Monday, December 19, 2011

A Casino Wedding Celebration

Over the last couple of years I have noticed that Couples are planning intimate Destination Weddings which are proceeded by a huge back home reception party. Such is the case for this recent design I worked on for Amy and Dennis. Their formal Wedding took place in Costa Rica and would be followed by a large at home reception a month later. Amy and Dennis did not want this to mimic the wedding they just had but do something totally different. They decided on a Casino Night for all their guests which I thought was brilliant. We began with a color palette of deep purple and black, where Amy's wedding invitations were already extremely formal she wanted these ones to be fun and reflect the tone of the event. I started with a shimmery purple backer called majestic, the invite was printed on white linen and everything was inserted into a white linen envelope.




For the design I of course wanted to incorporate a Casino feel but also for it to be personal. I started with the the brides new last name which is KANE, paired it will a heart in two of the corners that was hand embellished with clear glitter........end result was the KING of HEARTS.....LOVE IT! I included some fun casino related text in order to make the invite less formal and more fun. The overall casino theme from the invitations was carried over to the custom stickers for all the favors which was a deck of cards. For the table numbers I designed a folded black card with all the numbers glittered in purple. As you can see from the reception photos the lighting also was a perfect fit with the overall theme thanks to the fabulous group over at Boston Lighting.




Saturday, December 10, 2011

A Dirty Water Holiday

So I feel like Christmas has come early this year for me.......at least on the design side. When I first started BeeCustom Design I would often do a lot of shows or events where I would display my designs in an effort to promote what I do...........to be completely honest I never got that many clients from doing the shows but what I did get was to network with the other professionals either displaying like myself or the ones running the event. I have blogged about Julie Fairweather who owns In Full Force before, have done three of her events and the BEST thing that came out of those three events was the business relationship that I gained with her. I have been waiting for the opportunity to work with her and within two months I have come on board as the designer for two of her current projects and could not be happier. The first project I will blog about later because it is still in the design process but most recently she offered me such a cool project which was to design an invitation for Dirty Water TV's upcoming holiday party.

 
I have often said to Julie that I get tired just reading her FB page........because not only does she own In Full Force which puts on tons of events throughout the year, she also heads up the entire Marketing Department for Dirty Water TV. For all of my blog readers that do not live in Boston Dirty Water TV is a FABULOUS source for what is happening in the New England Nightlife and is on every Saturday night at 11:30 on NESN.


I know I say I love everything I create but honestly this is one of my favorites for 2011. Designing for a business event is no different then designing for an individual person. I knew the invite design needed to possess everything Dirty Water TV is.....informative, sexy and fun! I'm not sure who designed their logo but I have always loved it.......and wanted to some way incorporate it into the design without it looking like a piece of business stationery.  Julie of course made my job even easier by providing me with all the content......which in turn inspired the design. I went with a single 4x9 card in metallic white which set the feel of winter I LOVED idea of using the fancy sleigh being pulled by a motor cycle because it just screamed cool. Once I placed the logo in the sleigh.........it all came together and perfectly sets the tone for their upcoming holiday party. I LOVED it, Julie LOVED it and hopefully every guest that receives one will LOVE it too. Happy Holidays Dirty Water TV.....I am sure the party will not disappoint......we all know Julie can put on one FABULOUS event!!!!!!


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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Brigham Women's Holiday Party 2011

This is the time of year when lots of holiday parties are being thrown.....a few weeks ago Elisabeth Accardi owner of Upon A Star contacted me about a project she was involved in with Brigham Women's 2011 Holiday Party. She was brought on board to handle all the children's events for the day of the party and needed me to design a poster and signage for all the activity stations. The color palette was grey, black and a bright raspberry.........she wanted the look and feel to be magical. I first designed a magician hat and wand then positioned it so that all the names of the activities were spilling out of the hat. I used a magical style font that has a star like feature and positioned additional stars in the background. The same design was carried over to the smaller activity signs that would be framed and placed at each station. I LOVE how it all came together and best of all so did Elisabeth. There are some fabulous activities planned for all the kids and I am sure they will not be disappointed:)





Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Holiday Graphic Design

So as much as I would LOVE to share all the fabulous holiday cards and invitations that I have been designing you will have to wait until my clients have actually mailed them.......would hate to ruin the surprise. I work with a lot of small business owners who may not need holiday cards but need holiday designs to promote their businesses. I thought I would share some of what I have been doing.
First up is Mason and Madison, Gifts With Style as you know owner Liz White and I work together on a lot of different projects; she is never at a loss when it comes to fun ways of promoting her business! This year she is doing the 12 days of Christmas each day she posts a great deal on a product in her store on Face Book all you have to do is become a fan of Mason and Madison's page on FB then when the deal is posted tag yourself in the photo......so easy! At the end of each day a winner is chosen........GENIUS! Liz never does anything unless she can do it 100% so she wanted to add a logo to her promotion which is smart because it gives the promotion an identity and establishes a presence on all her fans FB pages. I was given the color palette and told to do what I thought best........I LOVE how it came out, best of all Mason and Madison's 12 days of Christmas has been a HUGE hit on Face Book, if you want to be a part of it just click HERE.


Next up is Clean Monster Car Wash........I recently did some posters for Dennis Brearley's other business and was thrilled when he reached out to have me come up with a holiday design to promote gift certificates for his Car Wash/Detailing business. I LOVE logos especially the one for Clean Monster it's so fun and has a great color scheme........I am not sure who designed it but KUDOS to them! The goal was to come up with one design that would be used for a post card, newspaper ad and email blast. I wanted to use a sleigh but the one I have was to formal so I designed a new one that was more whimsical and fit better with the over feel I was going for. I inserted the logo into the sleigh and added my VW beetle on to pull the sleigh. I carried the initial post card design over to the email blast and to the ad that would be running in the local newspaper.