Springing Forward!

Yellow Invitation Suite, Menu, Program and Matching Cake, originally uploaded by Bride Design.

I'm not sure it's here to stay (did someone say there might be SNOW next week?), but Spring is certainly here for the moment. Designing this smashing yellow and black stationery wardrobe back in January certainly filled me with a much needed burst of brightness this past winter. I was also thrilled to create these items as part of a collaboration with Jen Comfort of She Takes the Cake, shetakesthecake.com, who designed the matching wedding cake.

I didn't always think so highly of collaboration. As a BFA student and a professional graphic designer in the publishing and in-house communications industries, I often heard that competition fosters innovation. Further into my career I noticed an increased use of the the phrase "design by committee." Wikipedia notes the defining characteristics of "design by committee" as "needless complexity, internal inconsistency, logical flaws, banality, and the lack of a unifying vision." They wrap it up with this: "Design and style much more relate to intuition and aesthetics than science or politics." True that, Wikipedia. True that.

Collaborating with Jen on designs has made me realize that when two people do share a "unifying vision," that vision often has double the impact. Do I still experience "design by committee" situations? Sure, every once in a while I'll take on a freelance job with "too many cooks." Or perhaps I'll volunteer my time and services for an event or organization that's lacking resources, leadership, or proper planning. But, when I do let my intuition and sense of aesthetics inform my decision to collaborate with another artist or design team, I find I am often pleased with the results.

I recently did some business "Spring Cleaning" and decided to let that same intuition and aesthetic ideal be the driving force behind this blog. Using this blog as a platform to promote my products just didn't make sense. Frankly it didn't help me sell anything and I honestly don't enjoy writing 100% PR and marketing driven posts. I also had to admit that as an avid reader of many blogs myself, I in fact HATE reading those types of posts as well! As a result I've decided to change the subject of this blog from my business, to my passion. When I thought about what I did want to write about, I realized that design is what I want to share with the world.

Design is what inspires me to be an entrepreneur, to do my job and in a large part contributes to who I am. I LOVE good design, but am amazed at what I can learn from bad and mediocre design as well. I am especially interested in the random, interesting, and often ignored design that occurs around me daily. Some of it might be mundane, and some of it might be marvelous, but it all contributes to the visual world around us...a world I never get tired of exploring.