color palette: dark teals inspired by girl with dragon tattoo film

Screen captures from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I love watching movies on my laptop while I’m working on tedious repetitive projects. Usually I have the movie showing in a little box in the corner of my screen. However 5 minutes into The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and my work file was forgotten and the film was full screen! The story is thrilling (after seeing this I went to the library so I could read all three books in the trilogy). But the visuals of this film are what really hooked me. The set design is truly stunning.

The color palette of this film, which is a dark thriller set in Sweden during winter, is a moody mix of cool dark blue greens and near-blacks: teal, verdigris, slate, stone and nightmare black. There were also some ochres and sepias in some of the interior shots. 

So far this year, a turquoise, sky blue, mimosa yellow and lemon yellow color palette has been the best-selling ink colors for spring and summer wedding invitations. I predict the palette will darken a bit into darker versions of those same colors (like shown above) for fall and winter weddings. In the film the colors were dark and moody, but for a wedding I think they work really well, too. There’s something quite romantic about this color palette, don’t you think? I love the giant house in the top left corner. Wouldn’t you love to attend a wedding there? Sweden is now on my list of places I’d love to visit.

Screen captures from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo  • REMINDER: you can click on just about any picture on this blog to see it larger.

haute off the press: darlington letterpress invitations

Sometimes a wedding invitation rolls off the letterpress here at the Delphine studio that makes me want to crash the wedding. This letterpress DARLINGTON invitation, pressed in palm green and jet black inks on off-white 100 percent cotton paper is one of them. A wedding at someplace called The Primrose Cottage? Yes, please.

The invitation design, DARLINGTON, is one of my all time favorites (it started as a mistake … I was designing a vintage victorian-inspired invitation and a modern polka-dot invitation and accidentally layered them together). This invitation has been modified slightly from the original Darlington design, to make it a more traditional 5x7 size. Don’t you just love the classic green and black wedding color scheme? If I still lived in Georgia I would definitley be peeking my nose in to sneak a peek at this wedding. I’d love to see how Gigi incorporates the chic, dramatic colors into her reception. Gigi, if you’re reading this … send photos : )

haute off the press: rose design

Stationery Photos ©Delphine

Photo by Ryan Ray Photography

Here’s a peek at one of our newest wedding invitation designs, ROSE. It’s not yet live on the site, but you can order it by request. Shown here in jet black, sand and cantaloupe ink. We printed these for Janelle and Scott’s wedding, which was featured today on The Wedding Chicks. J’adore the black and coral color scheme at the wedding, so we used a jet black background on the invitations.

Many thanks to B&K Designs, Krista Jon Couture Designs and Archive Vintage Rentals for asking me to be a part of this fantastic day. And special thanks to For Your Party for printing all the fab party goodies for us! Please visit The Wedding Chicks to see more of this gorgeous wedding!

sneak peek: rockabilly tailgate wedding

Yesterday I shared behind the scenes shots from the "pretty in pink" bridal tea shower. Today: a Rockabilly Tailgate Wedding Reception. Some of my favorite props (besides the incredible vintage pickup) were the numbered glasses (vintage, of course, from Jennifer Price of SoLo) and my kitty, Ajax. Cannot wait to share the "real" photos from Jennifer Dery and the complete set that Adrianne Smith and I put together (... oh, and some super fun paper goods to go along with, naturally.

sweet summer soirée: a lobster bake outfit

While I have never been to a lobster bake (I'm more of an oyster roast girl myself ... think flip flops, jean shorts and cold beers), my alter-ego would simply love a fancy beach party involving shellfish, white wine spritzers, and a kitchy outfit like this.

shown above: 1. lobster dress from anthropologie  | 2. rattan purse by tory burch  | 3. red sunglasses by kate spade  | 4. hand knotted rope bracelets  from knotworks | 5. black espadrilles with shells by nanette lepore

color palette: romantic industrial

Color palette I'm loving lately: romantic industrial. Peaches, buffs, warm neutrals, warm greys, with a smidge of zinc and shimmer.

left: zinc photo stand, anthropologie ::: middle: mercury glass vase, anthropologie ::: right: chalkboard vinyl decal, a sign of the times etsy shop

design crush: trussardi

I'm crushin' on the Trussardi logo. The Italian company is counting down the seconds to their 100th anniversary (literally — check it out on the Trussardi.com homepage).

The brand encompasses fashion, art, design and cuisine (they have a few restaurants including one with two Michelin stars). The Trussardi group makes lots of luxury products: chic sunglasses and premium denim; classic, elegant cologne and divine candles; ladies and mens leathergoods; clothing; and more.

For a company nearly a century old, with such a varied product and service line, they have a remarkably cohesive brand identity. Each product and service line has a slightly different logo, but they all work together and tie back to the main brand identity in some way. I particularly like their main logomark (the top one shown above). I think the logo is a perfectly modern, tongue in cheek allusion to traditional shield motifs, which, for a *nearly* 100 year old company, is quite extraordinary, don't you think?

shopping: back to black

headband from anthropologie

After a several-year-long relationship with all things brown, then a brief affair with grey, I'm back to my old true love: black. I just bought this black floral headband from Anthropolgie. The last time I bought myself headband was probably high school! I think it might be a bit much with my glasses, but on "contact" days I'm going to try it out. What do you think? Headbands yay or gag?

black & more black

In sad fashion times like this (think electric blue tights, fuchia suede boots, plaid, neck-kerchiefs, and, horrifically, plaid neck-kerchiefs), I fall back on basic, elegant, sexy BLACK classics. Black is the new black? Let's hope.

Black silk ruffly dress: Banana Republic; Black quartz & sterling cocktail necklace: Béatrice Firm for delphine; Sweet tulip vintage handkerchief: Ebay; Stunning black evening bag with slinky gold snake: Cesare Paciotti; Sexy (yet comfy) black undies: Legaby ... and the best for last: knockout black satin "very croise platform slingback" heels by the master himself, Christian Louboutin.

Note to self... save every cent to get these shoes in black and trés chic shell pink.

still loving yellow

shoes: Bruno Frisoni

Yellow "Daisy" letterpress note card by delphine

The September 2008 issue of Vogue magazine did a piece on a hot (and new to me) shoe designer named Bruno Frisoni. The photo in the magazine reminded me of the scene in Marie Antoinette (the movie by Sofia Coppola) when Antoinette and her girlfriends are shoe shopping. Frisoni's shoes are unapologetically sexy, feminine, and girly! Like candy! Yum.

The pair shown above are my favorites... I can see them with a pair of black trousers, a plain white shirt and black cardigan ... the only color being the hints of yellow peeking out when you walk confidently into your meeting.

Our yellow daisy letterpress note cards use the same shade of yellow, I think. We're currently out of stock of these cards (thanks, everyone, for buying them all!) but we are reprinting this month. Just let us know if you'd like to pre-order.