In all my blogging I have never showed some of the work that I do in my spare time. So as a first post back, I thought this may be a great way to inject myself back into this blog. Late last year I got married. Best. Day. Ever! And as a bride/designer I was determined to inject much of my own creative flair as I could and as time would allow. The first item I tackled was my wedding invites.

As a designer specialising in all things digital and interactive the natural assumption would be that I would feel inclined to design an awesome website, which a part of me did. But I chose to do the exact opposite. I’ve always loved that experience of opening a beautiful envelope and finding an even more beautiful wedding invitation inside. It’s like opening a very special present and I wanted my guests to experience that. But how could I showcase my love of interaction design without the help of digital technology?

I conceived an interactive wedding invitation in printed form. A flat invite that my guests could essentially play with over and over again. I’ve spent a good deal of time typing up the next set of sentences and deleting them in an attempt to explain what I mean but I feel it’s probably best to show you:

Like all projects, it was not without its hardships. The cutting, pasting, arranging the artwork in a very specified way, aligning everything together – was taxing to say the least. But worth it. I ended up with a nerdy invite that was interactive whilst still remaining traditional in its printed form.

The whole invite was packaged into a pretty square envelope where my guests could then untie (like a present) all the other contents of the wedding invite including the map, bridal entourage list and treasure chest poem.

In the end, I was so happy to get them out the door, I made about 80 of them by hand since offset printing and cutting was over a grand in expense. But, that’s what bridesmaids and family is for right?

★

Jessa