They Moved!

I designed a moving announcement for some lovely folks a little while ago, which I was reminded of when I got it in the mail today! Always fun to open your mailbox and have a piece your own work fall out. :)

On a semi related note, If you mail me a postcard, it will end up on my fridge. and probably stay there until it's my turn to move.

Isaiah 40:31

A fun fathers day gift commission from a friend.

I haven't had a good excuse to draw type for a while, it was fun to work on!

Isaiah 40:31

A new year, a new project!

Hello all!

I’ve got a super exciting new project coming soon! Several months ago I started working on a line of wedding invitation templates and they’re just about ready to launch on my etsy.

I love letterpress printing, foil embossing, die cuts and fancy folding probably more than than next guy, but not everyone can afford to do that. And certainly no one NEEDS to do that. In a country where the average wedding cost is $25,000, we need some options that are elegant, beautifully designed, and completely affordable.

My goal is to provide a low cost option that is beautifully designed and really easy to customize to any wedding. They are all grayscale designs - which adapt to just about any color palette, and make the printing costs essentially nothing. I’ve worked hard to make the text and graphics integrated and strong enough to stand on their own without any fussing, but color and texture can be added with paper, lace, ribbons, bows or any number of things this wonderfully DIY crazy world can come up with!

Over the last couple of years, I have had the privilege of designing wedding invitations for some family and friends and friends of friends and friends of friends of friends. I totally fell in love with the process and the product. Basically, I love making pretty things, and what could be a better excuse to make pretty things than a wedding?

Being able to hold an actual crafted object or printed piece of paper is a wonderful feeling of accomplishment - you worked hard, and look! here’s a finished thing to prove it.  Wedding invitations have that feeling for me. They are small projects, but they result in a perfect stack of beautiful printed cards that actually mean a lot to someone. They announce a new beginning in the lives of two people and mark a celebration to be shared with family and friends. I think there is something wonderful and lasting about that!

So here are a few of my designs with some of my crafting ideas - look for them soon on my about to be updated etsy store!   emruth.com

all the best in this exciting new year!

e

A Garden Wedding

Jon and Christine's wedding took place at the Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago's semi secret botanical paradise. They were a really fun couple to work with, we had a lot of back forth with great suggestions from both sides. We collaborated on something that neither one of us would have come up with on our own, and ended up with beautiful invitations that everyone is super happy with!

Invite detail - hand drawn type

Invite

RSVP (super pretty Luxe Cream paper from PaperSource)

Lovely!
Expect to see these flowers again. And the vines - in a different project.

A Farm Wedding

This was for a wedding at farm that housed (among other things) a kookaburra and a bobcat. They got a little shout out on the rsvp, because who else gets to claim that? I was super excited when the bride and groom asked me to design these, they were very open to ideas and we have similar styles so I got to go a little crazy and design a wedding invitation suite entirely with hand drawn custom type. LOVE.

How awesome are those vintage stamps??
 I can't take credit for that one, but i have the guy's name if you're interested!

Cannot get over this lovely combination of color and texture!

calendar card/rsvp info

invitation

dessert rsvp

type detail

A Texas Wedding

It's time to get documenting that pile of wedding invites growing on my desk. The first one: Thomas and Katie's lovely rustic texas wedding on a budget. Simple, elegant typography and a few hand drawn details printed on Paper Source's chartreuse paper with paper bag envelopes. The RSVP was a website printed on the back. Total printing and trimming costs for 100 invites? $11. win!

I had a lot of fun with these, and I love that printing in gray scale makes printing costs so much cheaper. I strongly believe that you can have a beautiful, personal and well designed wedding for a lot less then average $25,000 that americans spend on weddings. It's a crazy industry, and I love that the DIY etsy crowd is helping make it affordable, way prettier, more personal, and helping independent crafters. seriously, what could be better!

ampersand and corner details drawn with my wacom tablet.

Patterns, drawing, and bags.

I have recently become the owner of a wacom drawing tablet. I don't know why I've never used one before, what with my love for drawing type and all, but i'm a little in love it.  It was tricky getting used to watching the screen instead of my hand as I draw, but i'm catching on.

I've also been really interested in making textile patterns lately, and I love screen printing and sewing and I have a huge bag of colorful vintage metal zippers.

So this happened:

(UPDATE: they're on etsy, HERE!)


Last week I was out at school to talk to a typography class about things they should be doing in school to get ready for the real world, which I am so not an authority on, but Ellen told me I was inspiring.  Anytime I'm at Trinity for any reason, I make sure I bring a screen printing plan with me, and the cranes won this time.  The print studio is probably the best room on campus, it has huge windows that face the prettiest view of Trinity and it's sunny all afternoon. Theres an old radio that happily and loudly plays The Drive all day long, and I don't think anyone is using that room this semester, so I take advantage of that when i'm out there.

Those of you who know me know that I don't really draw anything other than letters (it's just best if I leave that to MelissaPeterson), so to draw these guys I folded a crane, took pictures of it, and then drew over the photos with my wacom.

I like them.
The little zipper bags will be on etsy soon, and I hope to be printing larger scale pieces of fabric as well!





Side note: this is my first wacom adventure. It was for a poster for a Pantene Beautiful Lengths hair donating party that the nurses at Northwestern are putting on.

What a cute ponytail! Who knew I could draw those? Not I!