Good Look Cookbook | DIY Graphic Design Recipes

I was asked to make a poster for a church function & was seriously lacking inspiration. I decided to kick it GLCB style & design something around an inspiring photo. Someone had tweeted something about loving J. Crew's new wedding line, so I clicked over to check it out. It was nothing short of inspiring (come on - could J.Crew or Anthropologie ever NOT inspire us?!?). I'm completely in love with this font, but wasn't sure what it was. Thanks to What The Font, I found out it's Silver Thread.

With my inspiration, here are the elements I used:

• A neutral color scheme with pops of pink & black
• A decorative script font. I used Adios Script, you could use Chopin Script instead.
• A san serif font. The J.Crew ad uses Silver Thread, or you could use Code instead.
• A set of scripty ornaments. I used the ornaments in Adios Script, but you could use Nymphette ornaments instead.
• A decorative border. I made my own, but you could use the ornaments from Nymphette ornaments to make your border.

For an event poster that typically has a lot of information, I like to set up a box & cleanly organize the event information inside the box, then have fun with the title of the event by playing around with fonts, colors & ornaments. In this case I mixed the sans serif with the script. I wanted to make sure that if the viewer read just the script or just the sans serif words that each font grouping would make sense on their own. I tilted the title on a slight diagonal (like the inspiration) & added a few ornaments to the background in a light color to punch up the title. Voila.

The poster is very simple, but conveys the message I want it to. It would've been fun to play around more with the text, but the average age of the congregation I attend is about 80. While I had to make it readable for those with seeing problems, I still had some fun with the design.

Hope this was helpful and/or inspirational! If you have questions please leave a comment. If you design anything inspired by this post, please share! I'd love to see what you've done!

Happy designing!