*Over Due* "July" or "Can You Find Inspiration in a Post-Wedding Existence?"

Yes, yes. I know. I said new posts in June. I lied. So here we are, 3 months since the wedding and I think I have finally caught up on my sleep. Thank you notes are another story. So, without an impending due date creeping up on me, and without the motivation to wow my family and friends at one of the most important events of my life, do I have what it takes to be inspired and make new work and push myself and my concepts beyond what I think I am capable of?

The short answer is "yes I do." While it will be quite sometime before I resurrect the red and blue color scheme (I say that but inadvertently a painting I'm working on assumed that color scheme without my knowledge... pics when completed), I have found it much easier than I anticipated to throw myself back in to production of creative work that has absolutely nothing to do with my wedding. In fact, by the time I went back to work, I welcomed it.

People warned me about the "Post-Wedding Blues." They would tell me that I would miss working on it, that I would miss the excitement of discovering new things and how they could play into my special day. They would say, "When your day is over, what's there left to do? You're not a bride anymore." This may be a huge bummer to some people; and I can totally understand how, but I have found that not being the bride is one of the most enjoyable aspects of being married.

(this particular bride wanted "Upscale Cajun." The accordion was a must.)

Professionally, I am uninhibited when it comes to helping my brides achieve their vision. If anything, I'm disappointed when a bride comes in and chooses something straight out of the album and is just like "This one, in blue. Here is all my information. Can I pick it up in a week?" Business wise these customers are awesome, but I have been itching to flex some design muscle lately. I probably should start cranking out Christmas Card layouts now with all this new found motivation.

Personally, without the limits and specifics of anybody's wedding getting in my way, I am consistantly looking at the following:

1) Blogs by Illustrators. Any of them. Any style. I truly believe that if you are not investigating what other people in your field are doing, and if you are not looking into new techniques and finishes then you are dead in the water. PARTICULARLY in graphic design, 'cause the bottom line is, there is some 15 year old with the Creative Suite on his laptop, and a hell of a lot more time than I got who is already a better designer than I am. Nothing lights a fire under my ass more than seeing someone whos work is better than mine.

(loish is 25 and started posting on deviantart the same year i did. i am humbled by what she produces on the regular.)

2) Marimekko. When I realized the storefront in Oxford closed I was motivated to get my hands on as much pattern as I can, even if the only thing in my budget right now are the disposable cocktail napkins.

3) Odosketch. I am a very visual learner, particularly when it comes to processes. Drawing on paper has never been my strong suit, what with its inherent lack of undo button, and while I have yet to contribute to the Odosketch library, I learn so much by clicking on some of the featured drawings and watching how they were produced stroke by stroke. You have to check this out, and if you have a graphic tablet, you have GOT to try this.

http://sketch.odopod.com/sketches/345434

4) Lauren Faust. This woman is my total HERO! From the Powerpuff Girls, to Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends to the revamped version of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Lauren is totally brilliant and deserving of more than a simple wrap up paragraph here at Cage Free Press. She is an inspiration to me and to design nerd girls everywhere striking the delicate balance between humor, girl power and "hearts and rainbows."

(RAINBOW DASH RULES!)

So see! I haven't been farting around being a newlywed and listening to Abba. I've been pickin at this tired old brain of mine waiting for the jumper cables to get me moving again. I'm sure it comes as no big surprise that I am loving stylized, retro illustration, pattern and two tons of in-your-face color. This all sounds strangely familiar....

I think we just got a spark.

THE BRIDAL BLOG

Alright.

With Christmas at the store finally out of the way, I feel like I can focus my energy (previously spent lining thousands of envelopes and indulging parents in photoshopping the scab off their kids face for their Christmas card photo) on getting this wedding thing on the road. Most things are falling into place and I think I finally have enough information to let you all in on some of the details of the upcoming nuptials. So everybody who has been looking for the poop, get your shovels out cause I'm about to give you the scoop...

Our wedding is taking place April 30th, 2011 at the Newman Bandstand in Audubon Park:

The reception following will be just a few steps away at the Audubon Golf Course Club House:

Ross and I are registered at Macy's, Dillards and Adlers.

We have picked out china (available at Dillards) and silver (Adlers) and a bunch of other fancy things that we are pretty excited about (Macy's). I'm actually very pumped about the china which is called "Painted Camellia" and it is a special Lenox pattern that was designed by Marchesa.

Even if we don't get one speck of china its cool... as long as we get some pots and pans. The remaining pans I have from college are peeling up their non-stick surface so aggressively that I'm pretty sure if I keep trying to make eggs in them my stomach lining is going to turn to Teflon.

People keep asking me what the theme to our wedding is and they don't seem satisfied with answers like "Our wedding theme is Marriage" or "The theme of our wedding is True Awesomeness." If i had to pigeon hole us into a theme I would say the stylistic inspiration of our event is "Southern Printmakers In Japan." We have been actively trying to finalize plans for a honeymoon in Japan. With our combined abilities to get sunburnt to a crisp we knew the beach was out, plus we both wanted to go somewhere we had never been before. Ross has already done Europe and I have done the Caribbean so we came up with someplace that was still exotic and peaked our interest in terms of art and history. Boom. Japan. Ross loves the ancient woodcuts and I am seriously loving some contemporary Japanese art... not to mention there is a Gundam Museum.

The wedding party is a collection of favorites. Brooks is Ross' brother. Kyle is his cousin. James is my younger brother and Jeff is one of our closest friends from college. Joanna and Julia are my sisters and Kolbi and Emilie might as well be. We have been friends for nearly 15 years.

No, I have not picked bridesmaid dresses yet. I know I am cutting it close. I can't find a style/color/shape/price I really like enough to force 4 other people to buy. I want to find them something off the rack (not j.crew) that is either in a beautiful light blue that I can pump up with my red accents (shoes perhaps?!) or an awesome pattern that would make my friends look rockin. The fellas are wearing sand colored, poplin suits. They were fitted at Perlis the other day.

ok... we good? Cause that is literally all the bride I can handle being tonight. Further posts as events warrant. For now enjoy my little inspiration board. (Calm down, calm down, the pink hair pic is for the flower... not the hair)

This Computer Is No More: It has ceased to be

Expired and gone to meet its maker, it is time to bid farewell to our beloved 4 year old iMac. It is strange for a computer of ours to suffer such a fate. Negligence (possibly on my part) to plug it back in to the surge protector instead of the wall the last time we moved it caused it to suffer a logic board fried harder than the extra crispy chicken at Popeye's.

Wow, after reading that again... it's totally my fault...

Regardless of blame, it is now time to consider a hefty purchase I didn't plan on making for a while. This also means that I am without the design programs that assist me in practically every aspect of my work. (Does this mean I'll have to revert to sketching and creating things by hand?) This kind of withdrawal has gotten me thinking about our old machines. My family has been proud Mac owners since the mid-eighties when my dad brought home the best computer ever: The Apple II GS.

I adored this computer. It was the most fascinating thing I had ever seen. We had a desk specially built in our kitchen at our old house for the computer. As a toddler, I would stand right under my dad's elbow between his desk chair and the wall watch him play "Kings Quest" in all its 8-bit glory. If he would turn around suddenly, it was common for me to take an elbow to the forehead. "Jesus Christ, Allison, what are you doing hiding there?!" (Eerily, only a few months into our relationship, a similar incident occurred while I was watching Ross play a video game)

This is where I also learned to curse.

The II GS remained a functioning computer well into high school for me. While we didn't use it for word processing or the internet (although it was totally capable of doing both) it was still the central game playing hub of our household. I remember being in 4th grade and using the external CD player to amplify The Lion King soundtrack as loud as I could through the Bose quality external speakers. Hakuna Matata, indeed. The old girl finally joined the choir invisible in 2004. If I had known only a year later we would lose all the floppy disks with the games we had loved so much, I probably would have brought them to higher ground.

In 1997, McGehee introduced an experimental laptop program that became mandatory by the time I hit high school. Never having had a Window's powered computer (like the one designated by school as the proper equipment), I was not really motivated to get one, and my father, who had quite a lot of stock in Apple, was not so keen on purchasing one. Enter the Clamshell iBook. #2 in my greatest computer loves of all time. While it was impossible for me to "join the network" at school, I relish in the fact that the computer I bought served me for 4 years of high school and then served my sister, Julia for 4 more years after that. And I never had to make a visit to Mrs. Nesser or Dan-Dan the Computer Man.

Omgee... what a sweet machine. Here is where I had my first tryst with Photoshop. Who knew then that such a fruitful relationship would proceed?

When it came time for college, I was thrilled to receive a 17" iMac. It could burn CDs and play DVDs (even though all you could get at Wal-Mart in Oxford was VHS). This is still the computer I use today. It has the entire contents of my life for the past 8 years... And it is backed up accordingly. Its such an elegant machine, and the sculptural arm that can swing in every direction made it ideal for late night movies in the dorm. The display is huge. Although its age has really caught up with it for detailed design work, its great for internet and word processing. Not to mention its just damn cool to look at.

When Joanna and I came home for summer after my first year of college, we brought both of our desktops home with us. At that point, Julia was living at home having just graduated, and my dad was doing a lot of work out of the house. We took a count one day, and we had 7 working computers in the house that were all used for one reason or another. These computers ranged in birth dates from 1986 to 2003.

As for the future? Well I got my eye on that 27" iMac desktop. Now all I need is to get some corporate sponsorship...

An Inviting New Opportunity

After what has probably been the longest work week of my life, I am finally gearing up for a few days off. We had a bridal event at the stationary store/bridal boutique where I work and it essentially ate up all my time. But, we have something to show for it. The store looks beautiful. Drop by if you are in the neighborhood.

Tomorrow (June 16th) is also my 25th birthday. Its quite shocking to say it out loud. I feel like I am entering the realm of real adulthood, which is different than the false sense of adulthood that college brings you where you start making life decisions, like which brand of toilet paper to buy or when you realize you like a brand of coffee that is different than what your parents drink. I'm entering the big leagues.

I can rent a car.

But its kinda nice. So many of my friends are hopping on the train to adult land too. And we are all planning weddings. I have found that weddings are ripe for the freelance design pickin'. When you start thinking about all that goes into them; save the dates, invitations, reply cards, social stationary, monograms, place cards, menus, programs, thank you notes... there is so much paper in weddings. My dear friend and sorority sister, Kelly has been the guinea pig for the majority of the wedding design work I have done so far. I am eager to do more though. I have even asked for a Pantone Bridge for my birthday (its a color picker that helps standardize what colors print no matter where you print from. Its a nerd thing.)

This was Kelly and Marc's save the date magnet (obviously some info has been blurred to protect their privacy). They had some amazing photography to work with and it was my absolute pleasure to set a tasteful amount of text to it. When they first got engaged I created this false invitation for my portfolio:

As you can see this set up is dramatically different from the funky, clean, modern design style that their wedding wound up taking but I love doing anything. It so cool to me to see the different ways that some people can use design elements to really personalize their wedding. I'm happy to report that more and more people are moving away from black ink on ecru cards.

I honestly can't wait to see what Ross and I come up with for ours. Rest assured, it will be awesome. But in the meantime, if you are engaged or know someone who is and you need a little design work done, contact me. I'm starting to really like wedding invitations.

Hazah!

We did it. It took us nearly three hours, but we finally came to some sort of an agreement on the layout for this blog. For two people with so much in common we have dramatically different opinions when it comes to design. In many ways, it serves as a nice check and balance when we are tackling projects, but sometimes his inner techno-gadget-man-made-of-stainless-steel butts heads with my inner cottage-lady-who-thinks-a-doily-would-really-look-swell-under-that-floral-vase.

It can get complicated.

Thankfully he only made this face once:

But we are excited about the blog, really. I think it will be a nice exercise in teamwork and compromise. I really can't wait to see what we do next.