Monday, April 14, 2008

Designer Imposters

The current plan for addressing the wedding invitations is to use large circle stickers with printed addresses to match our stationery design. However, after reading several posts stressing the importance of calligraphy, I decided to explore my options before blindly committing social suicide.

I recently ordered a sample of Laura Hooper's work on etsy. I have to admit, seeing my name so beautifully scripted on a USPS Priority mail envelope did woo me. My first thought was "OMG. OF COURSE I need calligraphy!" But, by the morning, I was back to thinking that it was too expensive. I certainly appreciate the art form and it's purpose in the grand scheme of the event, but at the end of the day, I am buying wedding shoes on ebay and veils on etsy. A budget's a budget.

I started a discussion on The Unbrides Network to get some opinions and a gauge of my gaucheness. Justine Ungaro suggested that I check out Pretty Pen Jen. Jennifer Cota's work is both adorable and affordable. And it also had me thinking that I could try my hand at calligraphy. "Try" being the operative word.

Pretty Pen Jen's Aubrey Font:


My attempt at an "inspired by" font.

When I showed my six pages of samples to Andy, he said, "Ugh, I don't know." My work didn't even warrant a "I guess it looks nice." It looks like a 5-year-old girl was trying to be fancy on the invites for her "tea party" for Tickle Me Elmo, the cast of High School the Musical, and Hannah Montana. The post office would probably scan all of them for explosives.

I hope that if Pretty Pen finds this in a Google search or something, she doesn't get mad at me for butchering her style. I'd hate to be sued or chastised over such a bad knock-off. Ha, Ha. I'm leaving the art to the artists from now on. I hope that my gocco attempt goes better.

P.S. I have a BRAND NEW Calligraphy for Dummies book if anyone needs one. It's too late for me to return it. I've never even cracked the spine. Leave a comment or e-mail me if you're interested in buying it.

P.S.S. The Save the Dates are in the mail! I'll post some pix later in the week after people start receiving them. I think that only a handful of my friends and family read this blog, but I feel like I should leave at least a
little surprise for them.

5 comments:

natalie said...

I would like to buy it off you! Did you not like it or did you just decide not to go that route? My email is iheartpeonies@gmail.com :)

Jenni said...

I think you did a GREAT job! If you used a thicker/darker pen it would look almost exactly the same! If I were you I would totally do it myself! :)

ley said...

I like it! If you put the letters closer together, it will look exactly like the inspiration calligraphy!

jessica lynn said...

i too attempted to do the calligraphy myself....and it looked like a 3rd grader did it. boo. so i reverted back to my own pretty swirly handwriting for the save the dates and i think it turned out pretty well! cant wait to see what you decide to do!

Laura said...

Just use a felt tip calligraphy pen when you do your interpretation of Pretty Pen Jen's style. It would look a lot better that way....and, practice makes perfect!