Me, grinning like a crazy fool after opening the most awesome Christmas present ever. EVER!

That’s right. The Cheshire Kat Design Studio is now the proud owner of an antique tabletop letterpress, and in the coming months I’ll be offering letterpress printing in addition to standard digital flat printing. I’m hard at work on a couple of exciting letterpress projects right now, so keep an eye out for them on the blog.

In the meantime, feel free to browse through the site and check out our new look!

Stacy and her friend had already designed and printed magnets for the save-the-dates, and she was looking for a card to attach them to that gave her guests some additional information.  This was an interesting challenge, as I had to find a way to coordinate with her existing design and introduce the monogram and color scheme.

We started with the monogram.  I presented her with three different options:

Monogram #1 - the colors look different on screen, but it prints out as a lovely rose pink/beige combination.

Monogram #2 - a little more sleek and modern

Monogram #3 - a slight variation on #2, more pink, less brown, and capital letters.

Stacy and Shannon chose Monogram #1.  I love the ornate swirls – they give you so many opportunities to embellish with rhinestones or hand-painted accents!

From there, I worked out a design for the A2-sized save-the-date card that incorporated the monogram and used the font from the existing magnet.  Since the monogram is fairly tiny on the card, I changed the text in it to a chocolate brown for more contrast.  The design was printed on my favorite natural white linen pearl cardstock and paired with a beautiful pink metallic euro-flap envelope.  Here’s the end result:

The card, with the attached magnet and coordinating envelope.

A closer look. So shimmery and pretty!

Stacy, I hope all of your guests love them!  I’m looking forward to working with you on the invitations in the coming months as well.

Since Kate’s wedding colors are apple green and chocolate brown, I used a vintage fruit crate for the inspiration for her invitations.  I printed a barn wood pattern on metallic linen cardstock in a champagne color (gorgeous paper!) and created a gatefold to frame the invitation panel, which used a combination of chocolate brown text and a green apple graphic motif.

The closed gatefold with the fruit label belly band closure.

The back of the closed invitation, with the RSVP postcard and reception card tucked into the belly band.

The opened gatefold, showcasing the invitation panel with a chocolate brown cardstock mat. You can't really see the champagne linen metallic cardstock on the sides of the gatefold in the picture, but it is absolutely stunning in person!

Kate wanted the invitation to ride the line between traditional and modern, and to help with that, I created a postcard RSVP that could easily be personalized with each invited guest’s name.  For meal choices, I used icons in order to conserve space on the card and add a whimsical touch.  The front of the postcard repeated the vintage fruit crate label design that appeared on the belly band closure.

The RSVP postcard with space for personalization and meal icons. The white space left on this card is required by the postal service so they can add their labels and marks to it.

A closer look at the back of the RSVP postcard.

I included a simple Reception card using the same green apple motif and tucked it behind the chocolate cardstock belly band with the RSVP card.

The full suite, with the open gatefold, belly band, RSVP postcard, and reception card.

The whole invitation package was outfitted with an apple green envelope – I printed the return address on the back flap in brown and created a set of wrap-around graphic labels for the mailing addresses.  These labels were printed and sent to Kate and Chris with a template to add the addresses, and they printed and cut them to size themselves (and they did a great job!)

The mailing address label and apple green envelope. These labels were sent to Kate and Chris as full sheets of wood-grained stickers with blank areas for the addresses, and I sent them a template so they could print and cut them themselves. The barn wood pattern is the same one that appears on the outside of the gatefold.

The back of the mailing envelope, with the address printed in brown on the back flap.

Congratulations, Kate and Chris!  Can’t wait for the wedding – it is going to be absolutely gorgeous!

Since the SLCs are sort of like mini-schools that operate under the umbrella of the larger school and campus, the logos should have some unifying elements and some elements that set them apart from each other.  Each should reflect the SLC’s theme and course of study.

So, given these overall guidelines, I set out to create four distinct logos, one for each of the following SLCs:

• SHAPS – Sports medicine, Health, And Public Service
• ACCER – Architecture, Construction, Computers, Engineering, Robotics
• CALS – Creative Arts and Liberal Studies
• Green House – for incoming Freshmen students

I unified the designs by housing each one inside a giant “G” (for Gardena) and by keeping the outer ring of text and color the same.  Within that outer frame, each design reflects the unique offerings of that SLC.  Here’s what I put together:

Logo design for SHAPS; I incorporated the caduceus for Sports Medicine/Health and the scales for Public Service.

Logo Design for ACCER - the gears, ruler, and light bulb can all be relevant in the different fields of Architecture, Construction, Computers, Engineering, and Robotics.

Logo Design for CALS - since this SLC also includes two smaller SLCs (AME and SCIBA), I listed those on the pages of the open book.

Logo Design for Green House - this SLC was already designated and implemented prior to the formation of the others, and its focus is on preparing the incoming 9th grade class for success throughout high school.

Thanks, Gardena High, for giving me the opportunity to create these for you!

*Edit* – Thanks to copious amounts of Russian spam, comments on this blog post are now disabled.  Please feel free to email me with any comments, questions, or suggestions.