sneak peek: new lace, carnival and watercolor wedding invitation designs

A few reasons for the radio silence around here: We’re finishing up the new Delphine wedding invitation album — working on assembling the dealer decks now (hitting stores any day now), and we’re busy taking photos of our new designs, including Carnival, Lace, and Watercolor Stripes. 

sneak peek: the new delphine wedding invitation album

I know, I know … I’ve been MIA. Though technically this is our off season, I’m busier than ever. Since returning from NSS it has just been project after meeting after project after rush job after photoshoot after quick trip after project! On top of it all, we’ve had lots of house guest this Spring and Summer, which makes me extremely happy, but something had to give: the blog. Sorry, everyone! Thought I’d sneak in a super quick post, though, to show you a sneak peek at our brand new wedding album. It is a ton of work to put one of these babies together. To start, I designed about a dozen new suites! In less than 6 weeks! Now we’re in the assembly stage, which is exciting. If you’re thinking of ordering an album now is the time!

sneak peek: nautical anchor logo project research

Images via Pinterest

I’m working on a new logo project for a client who is planning a private cruise around the Med this summer. Here’s a time I would seriously not mind working for trade! I was doing some cruising around Pinterest and started noticing fun nautical items, so I started an inspiration/mood board for my client. Normally this is something I do in a sketchbook — which makes it difficult to share with a client who lives thousands of miles away. How I ever lived without Pinterest is a mystery to me now! It’s so convenient for sharing images with clients.

Four logos shown above can be seen on my Project Marina inspiration board. Top left: distressed anchor logo by Jon Contino (via Grain Edit); Top right: Mustard yellow anchor logo also by Jon Contino; Bottom Left: Sea Salt Society logo by Trademark Trademark; Bottom Right: Vintage label found via LovelyPackage.

behind the scenes: carlsbad wholesale flower market with adrianne smith

Last Friday I took the day off to help my friend—and favorite florist—Adrianne Smith, prepare for one of her craziest days of the year: Valentine’s Day. We started off bright and early at the Carlsbad International Floral Trade Center, where Adrianne took me on a quick tour of the facility. It was bustling with energy and excitement, and many of the vendors we chatted with had been awake for more than 24 hours straight getting ready for this busy day.

Adrianne pre-ordered most of her supplies, so they were ready at various vendors’ stalls for us to wheel out to the car when we were finished with our tour.

Guess how many flowers we fit in Adrianne’s car? Well, I don’t know exactly, but I do know that if we had picked up one more bunch I may have had to walk home. I even carried some on my lap and A had some shoved between the seats. When we got back to her studio it took three of us about two hours just to unload the car and process all the stems.

I learned so much about the floral industry hanging out with A. Did you know that “fillers” and greenery can cost as much, if not more, than many flowers? She even taught me a few secrets to making a beautiful (and lasting) arrangement: soak floral foam before you cut it; trim stems on an angle; tulips will continue to grow after they are cut, so cut them shorter than the rest of an arrangement; design from the edges in to the center; texture is the key to an interesting bouquet; add water every day so the foam doesn’t dry out.

Isn’t it amazing how buckets of flowers, big sticks, bits of mossy goodness and bunches of wild greens can be transformed into stunning arrangements like this one? It still seems like magic to me, even after spending a day in the studio and watching the process first hand.

I’m in awe of this lady. Thank you, Adrianne, for letting me peek into your world for a day.

Photos by Erika Firm; Floral designs by Adrianne Smith Floral Design

designed by delphine for isabella smith country store

Thought you’d like a peek at some of the projects I have worked on this year. These were all designed for one of my all time favorite (and my only Danish) clients: Isabella Smith. I designed that cute (if I do say so myself) logo for her Isabella Smith Country Store, too. The logo is a sketch of the building where she works. How lucky is she to work in such an amazing environment?!?!! A couple of my favorite projects haven’t made it into the photo studio just yet (dozens of seed packets) or into production yet (eco-friendly cleaning products, a series of pretty mugs, some café au lait bowls …) but I’ll post photos as soon as everything gets wrapped up.

reminder: you can click on just about any photo on the blog to see it larger.

behind the scenes: photo shoot peek

I spent some time over the weekend wrapping up a big photo shoot here at the Delphine abode for our new 2011 desk calendars. So far more than 600 photos have been taken. Trying to narrow it down to just 12 is going to be difficult, to say the least.

photo: ©Delphine

can't wait for bixby & ball

I cannot wait for Bixby & Ball to open its doors. It's going to be goooood. More sneak peeks to come soon.

sneak peek: martha stewart weddings

Happy Friday, lovelies. I hope you enjoy a fabulous weekend with friends and family. I'll leave you with a sneak peek at a letterpress project I did for Martha Stewart Weddings. It will be in the Fall 2010 issue : )

sneak peek: christmas tea cups

It's turning out to be a sneak peek week! Here's a little peek at a project I'm doing for one of my very favorite clients, Isabella Smith. It's a set of tea cups ... this fir tree-inspired Christmas design will be produced for the holiday season. I'm also working on a few other projects for her (including a fun wrapping paper and a package design for one of her famous scented products). I'll share photos of final goods once they come back from production.

sneak peek: formaggio & dolce wedding

Here's the final of the three inspiration shoots I did with Adrianne Smith and Jennifer Dery last week. While the sweet pink garden tea party is, well, sweet, and the retro rockabilly tailgate party was super fun (champagne in a can! what can be better?) this Italian-inspired "Formaggio & Dolce" (cheese and sweets) shoot was hands down my favorite. From the chic, muted, tone on tone color palette to the vintage found objects to the stunning (STUNNING) cafe au lait dahlias and arrangements, to the impossibly delicious cheeses from Dolce, this "faux" party turned into a real party as soon as the sun went down. I'm so excited to share the photos, but you'll have to be patient while we wait for publication elsewhere (details to be announced on publication of all three shoots).

sneak peek: pretty pink bridal shower tea

I had the truly great pleasure of working with Adrianne (Adrianne Smith Floral Design) and Jennifer Dery (Jennifer Dery Photography) last week on THREE (!!!) inspiration shoots. I'm most known for paper design, but I also looooove to design events. Here's a peek behind the scenes at some of the props we used for the first inspiration shoot: a pretty in pink backyard garden bridal shower tea (phew ...). Yes, we corked those bottles and drank them to celebrate once the shoot was complete!

sneak peek: alice in wonderland invitation

It has been so much fun working on this Alice In Wonderland-inspired wedding invitation design! Can’t wait to share the entire project.

UPDATE: See more photos here.

 ANOTHER UPDATE:  WONDERLAND save the dates and WONDERLAND wedding invitations are live on our site.

sneak peek: packaging project

inspired by: inpiration pages

I'm often asked "what inspires your designs?" That is such a difficult question to answer since anything and everything inspires me. Fabulous window displays, swoon-worthy place settings, adorable kids clothes, spectacular art exhibits ... and mundane things like tree branches, sugar packets, rain boots all inspire me.

I do enjoy seeing what inspires other people and reading how they answer that age old question. Anthropologie has devoted an entire new(ish) website to inspiration. Kate Spade has a cool "behind the curtain" section on their site. Dwell Studio allows their visitors to take a peek at what inspires them with a special section, too. Our inspiration section on the Delphine site has photos of "stuff we love, admire and treasure." I haven't updated it in a while, mostly because I put a lot of what inspires me here on this blog. I also keep a giant sketchbook/journal, where I paste in bits of inspirational ephemera (like cool hang tags, interesting receipts, tear sheets from magazines and ads).

Just because "everything" inspires me, that does not mean that I never suffer from creative block. Having this blog and my sketchbook/journal is invaluable! Whenever I feel stuck I often take a break, go for a walk or a drive, run errands. And when I get back if I'm still stuck I peek through old sketchbooks ... and soon I'm sketching new ideas. On my recent trip to New York I accidentally left my book behind and I felt completely lost! What works for you?

sneak peek: easter card

Another sneak peek from our upcoming greeting card collection: our first ever Easter card.