If you want to learn how to design your party invitation like the pros, we’re here to help. Our designers will regularly lend their insight, experience and eye for style to you so you can create exceptional party invitations. This week’s tips are provided Leila. She’s here to help you create standout designs like a pro.
Less is more. This statement holds true throughout history. In architecture (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), in Fashion “When accessorizing, always take off the last thing you put on” (Coco Channel), and even it is even true in graphic design. So what do we mean by less is more? Keep it simple!!!
Here are some steps you can follow to KEEP IT SIMPLE.
1. Content is everything. Many times we find that people put entirely too much content on their invitation. I know you may have a lot of stuff you want to share but remember to just stick to the basics, (who, what, where, when, why). Any more information should direct someone to a website, or a phone number that says: for more information contact XXXX. Too many details can clutter an otherwise stunning invitation. Don’t be afraid of open space, this is important. Much like people need room to breath the same holds true for your message, if you surround it with too much stuff you can’t decipher the true important message. So keep it simple!!
2. Limit Embellishments. When designing your invitation it is easy to get carried away with the fun embellishments that are available. We often will see a baby shower invitation that has every single baby embellishment you can find and as a designer I’d like to pass on to you that, YOU DON”T NEED IT. Instead, try limiting your choice to no more then 3 embellishments. I promise people will still know you are having a baby shower even if you don’t put all the pacifiers and bottles you find on the invitation.
3. Break it up. We often see invitations that are done with all one font or all one color. My advice is to break it up. If you want to use all one font make sure it’s a simple font and try breaking it up by using color. You can also do this by playing with the point size of some of your text. (Summer) invitation. Or, break up the text by using two fonts. When using two fonts be sure to select only a few items to highlight. Highlighted text should be in a display font or script. For the additional information it is important not to compete, so use a simpler (copy) font for the details.
Ex of copy fonts: Arial, Felix, Georgia, Geo Sans, Candara, Clarendon, Helvetica, Helvetica, Helvetica lt, Rockwell,
Ex of Script: Chopin, P22
Here is an example of invitation that does not keep the less is more theme in mind. Here’s how we looked to the Keep It Simple Philosophy to make it pop as a design while conveying the important content of the baby shower invitation.
You will see in the before image, too many embellishments being used, only one font that needs to be broken up , and the use of only one display font (curls.)
After using the above tips we limited the embellishments, using only two. The clothespin embellishment on top and the blue ruffle positioned behind the green color block (which is just a square shape.)
There are also only two fonts being used (Rockwell, and Geo Sans Light.)
Both fonts are treated differently using color. The highlighted item is the name which is highlighted using blue. The color was sampled from the embellishments to tie them in. Content was preserved but anything more then this would be too much. Notice the space that is available there is a lot of empty space that allows the design to breathe.
The overall feel of the design is preserved by choosing 1 main element to focus on and using the above tips to bring it all together. In this case the element was the top clothesline embellishment. The color palate was retrieved from this as well as the style (simple)
More examples of the above rules:
Happy Designing!
