Amy Graham Stigler, Smock’s design extraordinaire and honored design contest judge, chose Urban Coast’s custom letterpress design as the FIRST PLACE WINNER!!! We couldn’t agree more.
Urban Coast in Belleair Bluffs, Florida proudly hosted an event honoring Bryan Rafanelli – a renowned event planner and founder of Rafanelli Events.
As you may know, Bryan Rafanelli’s exquisite sense of style, attention to detail and ability to transform clients’ visions into unforgettable celebrations have made him a go-to planner for the most exclusive and high-profile events. From Chelsea Clinton’s “wedding of the decade” to fairytale-themed galas for Massachusetts General Hospital for Children to celebrations for the inauguration of President Barack Obama –he has produced it all!
And Urban Coast chose Smock to create the beautiful letterpress invitations to this extraordinary event. WE WERE ECSTATIC!!!
The design itself is incredible. Layers of bamboo paper, die-cut into Smock’s new Chesapeake shape, fill a custom letterpress sleeve. The warm summer colors of papaya and taupe feel perfect for a June event. The Everett and Seneca patterns, all letterpress printed, create sophisticated textures as well. This set screams touch me, feel me, love me!
Mr. Rafanelli, I hope we made you smile!
inks: taupe + papaya | fonts: alice + century gothic | paper 1-ply white | invite size: S-7 | printing: letterpress | die cut: chesapeake | custom sleeve: seneca pattern in taupe and the marsda cartouche in papaya
This design won first place in our Smock design competition for the first half of 2011. This twice-a-year competition recognizes outstanding and inspired designs submitted by our beloved dealers.
We recently had the pleasure of printing these gorgeous die-cut invitations for our friends at Urban Coast in Florida! These luxe invitations invited local industry experts to a special evening with esteemed wedding and event planner, Bryan Rafanelli. Inspired by our National Stationery Show invitations, we created a beautiful set of invitations and insert cards using one of our new die-cuts, which were neatly packaged in a stunning 2-color sleeve. Taupe and Papaya inks on our white bamboo paper made for a chic, summery look that we just adore.
ink: taupe and papaya | fonts: alice (new for 2011!) and century | paper: white 1-ply bamboo | printing: letterpress | die-cut: chesapeake | sleeve: letterpress, seneca pattern in taupe; marsden cartouche in papaya
The second runner up in our latest Smock Design Contest, as selected by guest judge Audrey from Urbanic Paper Boutique, is a truly one of a kind letterpress baby announcement from Rock Paper Scissors in Franklin, Tennessee. Using our popular Liony motif paired with our Piedmont design, it was printed in a sophisticated pairing of taupe and sand inks. A space was left for a photo and our Harrison calligraphy font was put to fine use on this cute custom creation. Thanks so much to Rock Paper Scissors for bringing us this great design!
Sent to us by Pearl Beach Paperie, the first place winner in our latest Smock Design Contest is a lovely customization of our Lashar letterpress wedding invitations. Perfectly elegant in sea mist and taupe inks, the letterpress invitations were accompanied by a separation invitation card printed on our seamist paper in taupe ink using our Plym letterpress design. This card invited guests to a low country boil the next day. The reverse of both cards features the Plym motif as a pattern for a complete set that is unabashedly elegant.
Pearl Beach Paperie proprietress Darcy shared the inspiration for this stunning customization…
“Working with the bride, Becky, on this set was such a pleasure. She had a clear vision of the invitation design, pattern selection and ink colors. I simply made a few suggestions to finish off the suite. I LOVED changing up the paper color and fusing the designs for the separate event within the overall celebration.”
A huge thank you to Pearl Beach Paperie for bringing us this lovely design and thanks again to guest judge Audrey from Urbanic Paper Boutique for selecting our winners! More winning designs to come!
It turns out, we’re suckers for a fabulous letterpress baby announcement around here and lately we’ve been printing a lot of really cool designs to help little ones make a grand entrance. They can be formal or quirky, designed to accommodate a photo (just adhere with double-stick tape) and look particularly awesome when paired with fun customizations like patterned backings, envelope liners and edge painting. Here are a few recent favorites…
Brought to us by Inscriptions on the Boulevard in Fort Worth, Texas, this custom baby announcement features our Ellie motif printed on our seamist bamboo paper in pewter and silver inks. The envelope is lined in our Seneca pattern in pewter.
The Write Image in Salt Lake City sent us this pretty customization of our Kurai design, printed in taupe and shell inks for a soft and feminine letterpress baby announcement.
This baby announcement is a custom design that also serves as a cool letterpress holiday card, printed in pewter and spring green inks. This fun design came to us from Byrd + Bleeker in Fort Worth, Texas.
From Stationer of New Orleans, this girly baby announcement showcases our Juine design in pearl ink.
At long last it’s time to share the winner of our latest Smock Design Contest! This stunning customization of our Kurai letterpress wedding invitation suite came to us from Salutations in Charlotte, North Carolina. The design is printed in sea mist and taupe inks, enclosed in a custom folio featuring our sinclair pattern in taupe on the interior with our signature champlain pattern in sea mist on the exterior. Our special guest judge, Kristen Magee of Paper Crave, shares, “This invitation is ultra elegant, and I love that it’s feminine without being too feminine. The soft florals and script font are delicate, romantic and balance wonderfully with the more straightforward sans serif font and pattern on the pocket fold. The understated color choices are also nicely balanced, making this a design that would appeal to both women and men.”
We can’t thank our friends at Saluations enough for working with us on this incredible design and a huge thank you to Kristen for taking on the difficult task of judging the contest. Stay tuned for our next batch of design contest winners in early 2011!
This incredibly cool custom letterpress wedding invitation suite came to us from byrd & bleeker in Fort Worth, Texas. Enclosed in a folio featuring a custom leaf motif in tangerine on the exterior and our sottern pattern in saffron on the interior, the invitations were printed in eggplant with a reply card printed in taupe. A double-sided events/website card was printed in tangerine and taupe inks for a beautiful fall color palette rich in pattern and texture. We love this beautiful custom design – thanks to our friends at byrd & bleecker for sending it our way!
Brought to us by Perfectly Personal by Jen in Chappaqua, New York our next Smock Design Contest honoree is a fabulous custom letterpress bar mitzvah invitation. Printed on our white bamboo paper, the design is letterpress printed in blind deboss and midnight ink, corner rounded, and features an envelope lined in our sinclair pattern in taupe. A letterpress insert invites Mikey’s friends to celebrate with him at a party later in the evening. We love the look of this set – it’s masculine, youthful and sets the perfect tone for this celebration.
The second runner-up in our Smock Design Contest is this inspired Rhon customization, a beautiful suite of pieces in tangerine and taupe, from The Write Image in Salt Lake City. Smock’s Creative Director, Amy Graham Stigler, fell in love with the sophisticated color palette and the use of our beautiful Smock Spencerian calligraphy font. With the leaves changing rapidly in Upstate NY, we think it’s the perfect letterpress invitation set for a charming fall wedding.
The letterpress reply cards feature 1-color letterpress, printed in taupe. Not only is it really chic, but it’s also a great option for keeping letterpress more affordable. We always suggest this as a great way to save money without losing a bit of style.
And we all know that nothing says “thank you” quite like customized letterpress thank you cards to coordinate with your letterpress invitations. These letterpress thank you notes are especially beautiful and definitely among our recent favorites to print. (See more of our favorite letterpress thank you cards.)
Thank you so much to our friends at The Write Image for sending us this beautiful letterpress customization! We’re winding down on revealing the winners of our Smock design contest so stay tuned – the last two honorees are absolutely incredible customizations!
Here at Smock we’re true believers that there is no better way to set the tone for your wedding than with incredible letterpress save the dates. These lovely save the dates, our Rhon design, are no exception. Brought to us by our friends at The Write Image in Salt Lake City, they feature taupe and tangerine inks in a horizontal orientation that makes for a design that is both really fun and totally chic. These letterpress save the dates also showcase one of Smock’s two calligraphy fonts, Smock Spencerian, in a petite reply card size for a truly special and unique way to kick off a wedding celebration. We love it!
