carnation pink

 

Kiko and Tine

November 18, 2009

Theme: Classic

Colors: carnation pink, lime green

calligraphy logo design

Since having uncovered my old calligraphy set and my dad's old fountain pens, the fingers have not stopped clicking on different calligraphy and FP websites.  Links and links later, I happily stumbled upon the lovely, lovely portfolio of Paperfinger.

It's really nice to see how the art of beautiful hand-written words is very much alive.  And their modern take on calligraphy is so refreshing while still maintaining that old, romantic charm.  I've noticed that a lot of weddings abroad still address envelopes and even invitations or thank you cards by hand, and I do hope that the raw appeal of such things hop on over to our shores.  It's one thing to use a calligraphy-inspired or handwritten font (don't get me wrong, I'm an avid fan of these types), but it's another thing to actually feel and see ink done by hand.  I feel that it adds a little bit of love and passion.  I am wishing that in my quest to study lettering and calligraphy, I could open a similar service here (wish wish wish!).

Anyway, to the actual feature of this post.  I'm reposting some of the shop's work on logo design, that I hope will inspire soon-to-be-wed couples (and me!). 

all photos are courtesy of: Ash Little Photography

contemporary canary



Ferdie and Sarah

December 23, 2009

Theme: Simple, Elegant, no frills

Colors: blue and canary yellow

the art of handwriting

I've always been a paper and notebook whore.  And because of that, some kind of a pen-whore as well.  I remember when text messages were too expensive to send a little "hello" to the person sitting just next to you.  And there was that lady at the pager company who always got your messages wrong.  So the best thing was to pass colorful post-its with handwritten notes of nonsense, with a secret prayer that it won't be intercepted by your buttoned-up professor.  Soon, we got sick of just black and blue pens.  And those scented ones were okay at first, but later on drove our sinuses up the wall.

Then, someone discovered colored gel pens.  And then they even had some with glitters.  It was like writing with nailpolish.  Or trying on a whole palette of lipstick all at the same time.  I remember having a whole satchel of different brands, of all possible shades of purple and gold.  The white pen over black paper was such an innovation, it was like walking on the moon.  I was later given a set of calligraphy pens and parchment paper which I enjoyed thoroughly, until it just wasn't "in" enough to compete with the neon pinks and greens of the ballpoint world.

Somewhere along the way, writing by hand became a chore.  And those lovely pens got stashed in some obscure drawer in our attic.  We exchanged emails for cards, text messages and chat for letter narratives.  My prolific notetaking was replaced by frantic typing (I'd like to thank my piano lessons as well for my finger dexterity).  At some point, writing was just painful.

But, passions will always find a way to creep into your life, I suppose.  Preparing for our wedding, we decided to address our invitations by hand, instead of printing on stickers or feeding the envelopes into the printer.  Also driven by the fact that the paper we chose isn't printer-friendly.  So there I was, buying calligraphy pens and writing on 200++ envelopes.

And now that the wedding's done, here I am back-stroking in thousands of typefaces to design custom logos for soon-to-wed couples.  The love for beautifully written and designed letters reawakened, and I'm enjoying it immensely.  I remembered the old calligraphy kit I had when I was in high school and decided to take a chance at looking for it in our attic.  Lo and behold, it's still there!  Nibs are still okay, the plastic pen casing still intact and the inks are still liquid (miraculously).

Right now I'm itching to go home and practice with my old-new babies.  I can imagine ink-blotted pages and dye on my pinky's knuckles.  It's so exciting (and refreshing), welcoming the art of writing back into my life.

Who knows, maybe I'll expand to hand-written invitations and logo designs.  Tee hee.

Spread the Love, guys.  The art should be here to stay.

S is for September

S is for the sweetness, the swirls and the soulful winds of our formal entry into the holiday season.  I was actually working on this monthly card while a storm was asserting itself outside.  The palette began as a mix of grays, blues and ecru.  But then again, it began to feel like a double-dreary interpretation of the moment.  For some reason, fate wasn't allowing me to be that depressed.  Staring at the monitor with penmouse in my hand, I was stumped.

And so I brewed a cup of coffee, sat back and took deep breaths.  My fingers decided to overhaul the theme with something dainty and feminine.  And in a matter of minutes, here it is.  The September card.

Spread the Love.