Max Riffner
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Thankful Design
Last night, I had the privilege and honor to attend two events where my design work has made a difference and was appreciated. The first part of the evening was to a rehearsal dinner. Chrisitan and I worked on our dear friend Megan’s wedding invitations and programs. I designed/illustrated the Celtic knot and conceived it being letterpressed; Christian did most of the grunt work, however, from contacting the printer, to getting the custom plates made, and designing the piece. I went ahead and designed some programs for the event (which will be beautiful today; an outside wedding in the middle 70s is truly a blessing from on high) based on his type choices and aesthetic. It was a fun project for us both, and we were publicly acknowledged for the effort.
Then, it was time for me to rush downtown to legendary Sokol Auditorium for the Vago CD Release Party. The band has been ecstatic about their album design (so much so that the drummer customized his drum with the disc art). Daniel thanked me publicly while introducing Speedy’s Lament, a song I coincidentally helped name (he was looking for not-as-famous superhero sidekick names).
A great and wonderful celebration for both parties, I was happy to contribute in a small way to the culmination of their work and passions. It was a night of feeling alive, of feeling on the cusp of greatness; the electricity before a strong thunderstorm.
The Celtic knot was provided to us in some sort of bad MacPaint-looking file, so it could only get better from there! It took me a Saturday to get it right; we had roughed it up initially, then smoothed it back down. Christian did a great job on the border implementation and finding the perfect typeface, Goudy. He went through about 20 different iterations, but in the end, we all kept coming back to Goudy.
Coming up with your own invitations as a designer is maddening work. I haven’t heard one designer say they actually like what they did, or that they had an easy time doing it. Mostly, they curl up in a ball and start sucking their thumb. I was trying to quit smoking at the time of mine and it damn near killed me.
I was just looking at the two and thinking.. and .. realizing that I put a thousand times the thought and effort into our CD art than I did for my wedding invitations. For the wedding I think it was, “Gold, yeah that’s cool. Make sure they spell your dad’s name right.”
Hmm… anyone know a good florist?
I would hope you put more effort into your CD than wedding invites. Your music is your life. A designer’s wedding invitation, on the other hand, is like a frickin’ rite of passage. Awful. Just painful. You cared enough to invite people, and that’s that.
Our friend knew we would bust our ass for her, and give her a great piece. Plus, it is kind of selfish for us, in the fact that we get to be a part of it. It was so cool to be a small part in both events, when someone you know is truly on the verge of a ‘state of grace’ or what have you.
I love helping people; you can tell I was almost a teacher, no?
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Jun 21, 02:20 PM
Wow, great design! :) That Celtic knot is great. Makes me wish I would have known you when my wife and I had our wedding.
We used off-the-shelf software because a few of my designs just weren’t cutting it. I suppose I wasn’t “feeling it” at that point and time.