Weddingbee boards

I have to say that this was the most challenging part of designing my invite suite, and also probably my favorite thing in there. The design was inspired by another fabulous retro looking map I found online. I drew it and set the type in Adobe Illustrator. The fonts are Gotham and Adios Script.

I have to adjust the color levels (prints a bit too green, I need to up the magenta in my swatches just a bit) and I made add some smaller details, but otherwise its done! Also I might change it from "Directions" to the name of the restaurant.

What do you think?

I love your map!!! It's amazing!!!!

Love it! You should create these for people and sell them. I'd definitely buy it.

@ shortcherriez Oooh, never thought about that!  How much would you suggest selling a map like this for?

Thank you so much for your comments everyone!

@ Ms. Guava-Tini The Links is gorgeous!  I would have a hard time doing a tutorial on it though because I have been drawing my whole life and I do design and illustration professionally, so its hard for me to give advice without relying too heavily on my background in art.  I will tell you the best piece of advice for anyone trying to draw something- practice, practice, practice!  And practice some more!  I almost gave up on this particular design but I made myself finish it last night.  It was worth it!

Wow that looks awesome, I won't even show you what our map looked like...well lets just say it looks like a 1st grader made it.

Fabulous!!! Wish I could pull something off like that!

@ GaBGal Thank you!  I'm going with a high quality color laser print to save on money.  It will look very crisp, clean, and professional on the Baronial Ivory Classic Laid paper I bought.  That particular brand of cardstock is fantastic and gave me a really nice option to print on a "cotton" like paper without having to resort to more expensive print options.

Illustrator is fantastic!  Because much of my design work revolves around print design and working with photography, I am much more proficient in Photoshop and InDesign (my preferred solution for typesetting and print design).  Illustrator is so much fun but I don't get to do much illustration work these days.

@ Miss poodle, thank you! I've never done a map before so I was really nervous since its so different from my normal work.  I'm glad I was able to make it look professional!  I almost gave up on this design twice!  Always sleep on a design before tossing it, haha.

If you decide to make those for people for some extra wedding cash please let me know! I love that! I'm afraid our map may be more complicated though!

Oh wow, thank you everyone!

@ bellenga I am a firm believer that programs are just a medium and not a means of delivering quality.  While illustrator is an industry standard among professional designers and illustrators, with enough patience and creativity you can do this is another free or cheaper program, I'm sure.  The only thing I could give advice about is to take it slowly, find inspiration maps you love, and don't use too many fonts, filters, or embellishments because it will make it look less professional.

I could answer specific questions about illustrator if anyone asked!

Here is my next piece for the invitation suite.  It's going behind the map insert.  Each insert will have a little bar across the top, you can see that this one says "Guest Information".  It gives the layered look a little definition and uniformity.  The design of the card matches the invitation and rsvp card.

What else can I put on the guest information card?  Most of it is on the wedding website but not everyone uses the computer, apparently.

I think this and the map are two of my favorite design pieces I've done recently.  I love doing cute, fun stuff like this!

Wow you have got some crazy design skills!  Beautiful work!

@ heatherlynn She is probably the person who designed the map that inspired me, as I mentioned in my original post: "The design was inspired by another fabulous retro looking map I found online." Unfortunately the image was not watermarked so I didn't know who the original designer was, I was browsing through google images and found it.  Doing a google search on her name does in fact reveal that she is the fabulous designer who inspired me.  Thank you for the info, I'm going to pour over her blog now! I love her style.

Thank you for the compliments, everyone!

@ Grey56 Thanks, that is an awesome idea!  I didn't even notice the redundancy.