Design Practice: OUGD505 - STUDIO BRIEF 02

After the crits I decided that the event was going to be invite only. The first thing that I designed was, therefore, the initial invitations. These had to be high end and sophisticated reflecting the event but also the Hardy Amies brand.

The idea I had for the invitations were to make them out of two pieces of card. The back would contain the required information, such as date, time and location and the front would have the logo and title laser cut out. The front stock would be a dark blue/navy colour and the back stock would be white. The reason the back was white was so that you could really see the areas that had been laser cut away.

The size of the invitations was determined by the size of the invitation you would receive if you were invited to a royal party. The dimensions of that invitation are 7" x 5". The reason I chose to use a royal invitation as the template for mine is due to Hardy Amies strong connection to the Queen.

I had previously experimented with different coloured stock for Studio Brief 02, however, none of them were the right blue. After some searching and speaking to my peers I was able to source a blue stock that I was happy with.

The design for the front of the invitation to be laser cut;

The logo and text would be cut out of the stock.

The design for the back of the invitation that was to be printed;

At the same time as I designed these invitations, I also designed the invitations for the after-show party. They were the exact same format as invitations to the event, however, the information on both stocks was different.

The front of the after-show party invitation had the address of the Hardy Amies Ltd. building as that is where the party would be held;

The invitations also required an envelope to hold them. This was crucial for the invitations to the event that would be sent out. I designed two envelopes, one for the initial invitation and one for the after-show party.

The envelopes were to be produced in the same stock as the front of the invitations and cut out using the laser cutter to keep a constant aesthetic across all the products.

I produced a couple of test envelopes to ensure that the envelope would function effectively when cut out with the laser cutter.

The first attempt didn't work so I had to make some readjustments to the design before using the laser cutter.

With the redesign the envelope was now ready to be laser cut out of the correct stock.

The edges and text on each envelope was cut right through, where as all the fold lines were engraved to make the folding easier.

Once the envelopes had been cut I was able to assemble them. To do this a measured the area of the flaps that would be covered by the main bottom flap, covered that area with double sided tape, cut the excess away before folding and fixing the envelope in place.

Once all of the envelopes had been finished (I produced 3 of each) I needed to find a way to seal them. After a discussion with my peers, I decided I was going to seal it using wax and a stamp. This would give my envelopes a professional and sophisticated finish.

This is something I had never done before so I needed to experiment before I tried it on the envelopes.

I initially started by making two stamps that would be pressed into the hot wax. I produced two so that if one went wrong, or was lost or damaged, I had a spare I could use. The stamps were designed on Adobe Illustrator before being cut out of 3mm MDF, again using the laser cutter. The stamp measured 20mm in diameter and contained the monogram initials.

Once the stamps had been cut, I purchased some sealing wax and tested and experimented several times before moving onto the envelope.

My experiments were quite hit and miss, however, once I had researched into the technique that gives the best results, the outcome improved.

I also had a look at how the seal opens.