Did you know? We make cute, personalized, twitter stationery!
Photos courtesy of Adam Bird Photography — shot during his Clicks for Quakes event, which raised around $2,000 for Haiti. Yay!
custom invitations & stationery
About
Syd Design is a custom stationery company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As a small business, we strive to promote and support the local community while working towards a healthier planet.
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The Knot
A quick preview of my ArtPrize project, Woven Together. One of the 13 images that I will be weaving and displaying at the First (Park) Congretional Church on Fulton.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and photographing 13 children (7 families) from all over the world! This little sweetie is from Ethiopia; she’s just 2 years old and when I departed she gave me a big hug and a slobbery kiss on the cheek.
What a bonus :)
Gladly sharing this May wedding, featuring a perfect green & orange color combo. (I say perfect, because those were my wedding colors!)
Day of images are from Kristine Crawford Photography.
And do see more from this wedding day, check out Kristine’s Blog!
ArtPrize!
The season has started where local buzz is revolving around artists, venues & plans for the big event in September (Sept. 22- Oct. 10)!
This year is especially exciting for me because it is my first (and hopefully not last) time participating as an artist. I officially signed a contract with my venue last week and the butterflies are still a flutter.
The venue is the First (Park) Congregational Church on the corner of Fulton & Ransom. They are using a large hall for their space (below their beautiful Sanctuary) and plan to hold only a handful of artists. I was particularly drawn to the space because of their interest in my proposal.
I plan to go back to my photography roots and bring in a little more paper knowledge to create a unique, highly textured/dramatic display. The details are still to being developed, but I will be concentrating my shots on adopted children, using a weaving technique to weave together pieces of their images to create the final pictures. The name of the final installment is currently “Woven Together” and I hope to be able to create some awareness of adoption opportunities/needs.
I’m honored that Rev. Kyle sees the potential in my work (considering that I don’t have actual images of what I’m proposing:) and sincerely cares about the cause. The staff at the church is aiming to bring in artists that have a powerful topic and it feels so perfect for my work to be in that category. I truly feel blessed/lucky to have this opportunity and to create something more than just a photograph, but something close to my heart.
The Church is also signed up to host PixelPete, you can read more about his extravagant Rubik’s Cube pieces of artwork here. His piece this year will focus on Martin Luther King and is proposed to be 22 feet by 10 feet!
To see my ArtPrize profile, and read more about my pieces, click here.
I will be looking for some unique ways to either hand out helpful information on adoption or create some found raising. I will also be seeking out models for the shoot. If you know any adoption families or have suggestions/contacts for my efforts, please send me a note at syddesign (a) gmail.com.
More kid stuff!
Some very close friends are expecting and I was honored to work with them on some custom announcement designs. I’m not including their final design decision here {I don’t want to ruin the surprise!}, but I will share the final piece after the little prince is here! For now, enjoy some of the design samples.
I have had a couple custom orders for 1st Birthday’s this year. As much as I LOVE working on weddings, it’s nice to have another type of event to work on every so often. Here are samples from two first Birthday parties. Enjoy!
My husband and I have some close friends that are currently in the process of adopting their first child and we want to share our support for their journey.
I will not put their names on here or go into detail about their decisions, but I can say that they have had a rough time getting to this very happy, exciting decision. Their journies have definitely prepared them to be the perfect parents and the strongest couple to take on the process that is to come.
The couple’s motto is that “it takes a village” and they’re seeking support, prayers and even a little financial help if you can do it. I have a bag of “prayer bracelets” that need to get off my shelf. We are just selling them for $5 and of course every penny goes to bringing their child from harm and giving him/her a loving home.
You should know that they are seeking to adopt from the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), which is constantly under brutal conflict. Here is a short blog post/video about the women who are under constant attack.
The couple stated, “More than anything we truly long for your prayers! We hope the bracelet will serve as a tangible reminder to pray for our kiddo, for God’s guidance through this all, and for us as we become parents for the first time!”
The bracelets are sky-blue, which is the same color of the DRC flag and they say “(their last name) Adopt: Psalm 68:6”. If you look up the verse, you’ll find that it says, “God sets the lonely in families.”
Email me at syddesign(a)gmail.com if you would like to purchase one of these $5 bracelets.
May Weddings Preview! Here’s a quick look at some May Weddings Syd Design has been working on. Congrats to all the May 2010 Brides & Grooms!
I’m happy to introduce Stephanie Mathis! I was lucky enough to work with her on her wedding stationery last year and we had a great connection. I’ve asked her to share the custom design process through her experienced point of view.
“Last year I had the privilege of using Syd Design for all of my wedding stationery needs and couldn’t have been happier with the result! We were even able to work together remotely since I currently live in Chicago, and everything went smoothly.
I started off by filling out a style worksheet for Abbey. I knew I wanted to use an “S&J” monogram and chocolate brown and ivory were our colors, but that was about it! Abbey took the reins from there and produced about ten different samples for us with many different monogram designs. Some were elegant and classy in style and others were more modern. There were a couple of different paper sizes and colors and some of the samples had ribbon and different graphics on them. Jon and I picked different features that we liked from a few of them to develop our final invitation design. By that time, we had a better visual representation for the style of our wedding. We wanted a classy, Northern Michigan affair in the heart of autumn.
After the wedding invitations were set, I had Abbey work up samples for the other elements of our wedding. We started off with just the wedding programs, place cards, and thank you cards. But as the planning continued, we added to our stationery needs. We ended up doing custom address labels, table numbers, menus, favor tags, shower invitations, and rehearsal dinner invitations. We kept the same “S&J” monogram theme throughout all of the stationery.
We were very happy with the results of the complete set. It reflected the look we were going for; classy, yet warm and inviting. Perfect for our fall wedding day! We received MANY compliments on our stationery from great aunts to family friends.
Abbey was great to work with. She was timely in her responses and totally accommodating; those were two of the most important qualities I looked for when working with wedding vendors.”
Thanks, Stephanie, for all your kind words! Her beautiful wedding was photographed by Trudy Holtz Photography.
Operation Letterpress ~
I recently had the pleasure of a studio tour from Fred Bivins of Vinecroft Studios. I begged him for a tour after discovering that he does a little printmaking with letterpress. Little did I know, Mr. Bivins was hiding away three presses and drawers and drawers full of type! One of the presses, a 1911 Chandler & Price, was being used as a towel rack in his studio kitchen. Before that, the press was used at Beute Print Shop in Grand Rapids (more history here).
Well, today it is sitting on a trailer and headed down to my parents’ farm in Indiana! I haven’t the slightest clue how to get it running again, but my husband seems pretty excited for the project (he’s already been taking notes and watching press videos!). I cannot say to what extent we will use this press for Syd Design printing, but I do know there will be some time and oily hands involved before any ink is rolled out. Our goal is mainly to get it running (hopefully before it’s 100th birthday next year) and to use it on very special projects.
We would gratefully accept any info/resources that you well-oiled C&P printers may have to share.
Thank you, Fred Bivins, for opening up your studio to my curiosity and sharing your knowledge of printmaking. I look forward to working with Vinecroft more during the GR Art Festival and ArtPrize.
If you want to see what this press is capable of with some tender care, check out this great, quick video from Armato Design & Press. And, for some oh-so-beautiful letterpress, designed right here in West Michigan, check out Give Studio! Anne Pageau is a rockstar when it comes to letterpress design.
We’ll keep the updates coming as the operation continues.
