This latest charette was most intriguing and captivated me from the start. A couple after my own heart, with a wedding and a story that spans three continents and crosses 2 cultures!
Claire and Stephen (or Digo and Joycer) hailed from Ireland and met and fell in love at a local music festival. Fast forward to today, they now live in Australia and are planning to have a Buddhist wedding in the gorgeous Koh Samui island in Thailand! Both are avid divers and wanted their invitation to reflect their passion, as well as their rich history and east-meets-west wedding.
The challenge for me was to design something that incorporated what they wanted-themselves in snorkeling gear in full wedding dress, the 3 buddhist monks that will be blessing their ceremony, a map of Koh Samui and their background story- all in a vintage-inspired map-style invitation with an Eastern/South-East Asian flavor, on a strict budget!
First of all, the map had to be the main part of the invitation, being such travelers themselves. The biggest thing was to choose a size where the illustration will not get too complex and therefore out of their price range. I chose for them a simple three-panel rectangular folded style, oriented portrait-wise. The material was the next most important feature, it had to reflect the eastern/asian feel of their location and ceremony-Thailand is a country rich with textures! In this concept, I would use either a beautiful handmade Bhutanese paper, which gives it an aged look; a gorgeous Yucatan bark-like paper that tears to a most natural deckle edge; or a lovely thick textured Indian paper in off-white tones.
The watercolor map illustration itself is clean and simple, reflective of the inspiration images they have sent me, with the island of Koh Samui in main focus (painted in red against muted turquoise waters glazed with vintage pink tones). A red parasol with 3 monks (with radiating hearts) sitting under it represents their resort and where the wedding takes place. The main graphic is of Claire and Stephen holding hands with their snorkel masks on and the flags of Ireland and Australia in their other hands.
Above them, their background story is hand-lettered with graphics replacing certain words, a sort of fun take on the childhood word/picture play. The lower portion of the map features their names and the words Koh Samui against the North Compass in radiating red which when folded, becomes the cover of their ‘travel-brochure’ wedding invitation.
I wanted them to have some lovely finishing touches in spite of the strict budget. There are three main ideas-a simple ‘travel brochure’-style held together with hemp filigree lace tie; a blank fold with the same tie and a painted flower RSVP tag (Thais love flowers, but real flowers will not successfully pass Australian customs); and last but not least, a simple blank fold with a beautiful red seal. All edges are deckled for an aged feel, and envelopes will be made from Nepalese handmade papers.
An elegantly rustic, quirky and whimsical keepsake invitation for a fun-loving couple, that would hopefully excite their guests for the wonderful wedding they are sure to have!
