Today we’re going behind the scenes and chatting with one of our designers, Ian Koenig. Ian is the designer of Neo Luna, our February design of the month (on sale through 2/28 for up to 20% off!), and was kind enough to share a little inspiration behind this design, how he got started and where he’s drawing inspiration from these days.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.
I currently live in Chicago with my wife Melinda and our four-year old son Lukas. I work at VSA Partners and teach design at the Chicago Portfolio School.
What was your inspiration behind the Neo Luna design?
Neo Luna was a continuation of an idea I had in an earlier design called Anais which was to try to get as much color into a design through an array of rules. With Neo Luna, I wanted to have a bit more fun than I did with Anais so I made the language and typography a bit more playful and introduced the Cupid idea through the arrow and heart elements.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Still having Friday night movie nights with my family, still working at VSA, still teaching and still designing invitations for you guys!
Who are you inspired by?
My current design loves: A Montreal-based firm named Paprika; The Book Cover Archive; the art direction of John Gall’s Nabokov book cover series; Designspiration; the illustrator Jonas Bergstrand; the designer Paul Sahre, the album All Day by Girl Talk.
How did you get into design? Was there a defining point in your life that helped shape you as a designer?
During my last semester in college, I took my first art studio class. With two weeks to go before graduation, I was on my way to class and saw the graphic design student’s work on the walls. I knew instantly I could do this type of work and was then a bit bummed that I had not made that walk four years earlier!
I rediscovered design a little while later after I quit my first real job. A friend of a friend was opening a children’s restaurant and I offered to draw him a logo. He liked it and gave me the opportunity to design the uniforms, menus, signage and the business cards. That small introduction to design was all I needed. I am still hooked.
Check out these customizations of our Neo Luna letterpress invitations (the February design of the month – on sale for up to 20% off!). Our designers reimagined this design to show just how customizable it is — make it formal (or modern! or vintage!), change the size, the colors, the fonts, and more.
Take a look at the entire Neo Luna suite for more inspiration. If you’re still needing ideas, our talented design team can help you with a free design consultation after you’ve placed your order! (Find out more about what we can do for you).
Ian Koenig’s Neo Luna design is the February design of the month! This charming design features cool fonts, a touch of modern whimsy, and is on sale through February 28. Save 10% on any Neo Luna piece that you order this month: letterpress wedding invitations, save the dates, programs, coasters, menus, calling cards, and anything else you can think of. Save even more when you order your entire suite at the same time — you can get an additional 10% off when you order 6 printed pieces or more, or get free favor cards to match your invitations when you spend $500 or more! Everything about the Neo Luna design (and all of our designs!) is completely customizable — change the fonts, colors, layout and more to make it your own.
Throughout the rest of the month, we’ll be featuring an interview with Ian Koenig, the designer behind Neo Luna, along with customization ideas and other bits of inspiration to show ways this design can work for you. Have questions? Please be in touch!
The fine print: promotion is exclusive to the Neo Luna design and does not apply to the purchase of other designs. Orders must be placed by 11:59pm EST on February 28, 2013 in order to receive the promotion.
Last week we showed you a look at some of our new 2012 letterpress invitation designs before and after they were customized, and this week we’re back with more design transformations! We’ve redone 5 of our favorite new modern invitation designs to show you just how much different an invitation can look with a color change, new fonts, and some design adjustments.
Neo Luna by Ian Koenig is charming and simple in the original design, but takes on a bolder look with a font change, added color and silver shine foil stamping.
Suggested embellishments: We think this design would look stunning with surf edge painting and a colorful envelope liner in the sea stripes pattern, printed in surf, marigold and mesa inks.
Details: letterpress ink: surf | foil stamping: silver shine | fonts: ollie + swiss | paper: bella cotton white 2-ply | size: f-8 | rounded corners
The Drawing Room design by in-house designer Sarah Walroth features fresh new fonts and a custom pocket-fold, but takes on a more whimsical look after a bit of customizing. We love this design as a square invitation with corner rounding, along with a playful font and fuchsia ink for the names.
Suggested embellishments: A white cotton pocketfold, letterpress printed with prussian blue ink and a blue pearl metallic envelope liner would add the perfect amount of shine to this pretty invitation set.
Details: letterpress inks: fuchsia + prussian blue | fonts: saint-andrew + lady rene | paper: bella cotton white 2-ply | size: sq-7 for pocketfold | pocketfold: white, letterpressed in prussian blue ink
Ellie Snow designed the Classic Chevron invitation, which features on-trend chevron patterning, two lines of Belle hand calligraphy, and pretty sea-side and jade letterpress inks. The switch of jade ink to mustard and the repositioning of the chevron pattern gives this design customization a retro feel with a modern twist.
Suggested embellishments: A pretty custom postage stamp along with a custom envelope liner featuring the sweet polka pattern in mustard + sea-side inks would be lovely accents for this wedding invitation.
Details: letterpress inks: mustard + sea-side | fonts: sans capitals + hollow | paper: bella cotton white 2-ply | size: f-8 
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