Font Friday: Graduation Edition

TGIFF (don’t you love it? SuperSwoon came up with it and it is so true)!  I have been waiting to write this post all week!  So today Font Friday will be a little different.  I am sharing something we printed last Friday at 2:00 am (yes, true story) that has some of my all-time favorite fonts on it…9 of them to be precise!  It was also our very first graduation announcement, yay!

If you follow me on Twitter you will know that I posted a sneak peek and mentioned that these babies were top secret.  Well, they are. Because they are MY graduation announcements!  I have been holding out on you guys.  In addition to creating the AP together with a very patient, and understanding C, I am also a full-time law student at Berkeley.  I am graduating in just under two weeks (this makes me want to fist pump) and have finally sent out my announcements. Finally. My poor parents. I think they were wondering if these would ever go out.  I sometimes wondered myself. Now I know most of you want to know exactly what fonts I am using on these paper pretties and then a handful are wondering if the AP is changing now that I’m out of law school and can legally do lawyerly things. For the small number of you: No, no changes except that I can finally devote myself completely to our company.  We started the AP when I was a first year student and I fell in love.  Letterpress quickly became my career and law school just a hobby, something to finish and do on the side for the past 3 years (full time on the side, haha, I’m so silly). The law can be interesting and I love some of the work I did at Berk, but I don’t love it the way I love invitations and ink and paper and FONTS. So you will be seeing a lot more of me after May 13th.  A LOT more!

Now, onto the good stuff!  These announcements were inspired by my need to be me.  Both sides.  They are font-heavy because I love fonts, they have a classic color palette because the little lawyer in me finds that attractive.  They are bold and they are clean.  And they have some serious impression.  I wanted to share with my nearest and dearest the things I love about my two worlds.  I also wanted this to look like an invitation designer/printer was graduating from law school. I did the little tags in lieu of rsvp cards because honestly, I am a little tired of printing rsvps.  I really wanted to tie them on with Baker’s twine because that stuff is my drug.  But it didn’t fit with the mood of these cards.  Fortunately, pretty bows and black double face satin ribbon do.  So does gold striped washi tape, btw.  Just a little. For emphasis.

The fonts used are: Budmo Jiggler (what an odd name,right!?), Nelly Script, English, Maximo, Engravers Shaded, Adobe Woodcut Ornaments, Buttermilk, and Eloquent Regular.  I love how each font brings something different to the table and altogether they create a truly visually interesting piece.  Adobe Woodcut Ornaments is a great one to have if you need dingbats and embellishments.  It is responsible for all the little ornaments, like the little cuffed hand.  With this type of design I really needed some bold, standout giants as well as some pretty and delicate alternatives to counter-balance each other.  I LOVED staying up late, experimenting with different options until I found a combo I was happy with.

And my second favorite part?  Besides the 220lb double thick Lettra and pretty fonts?  The STAMPS.  After reading Kathryn’s post on Snippet and Ink about her wedding invitations and using the Paper Nickel to source her stamps I knew I had to do the same.  Like Kathryn I wanted to have all my stamps part of a specific color palette: black/gray.  Holly at the PN will provide random stamp selections for each envelope totaling whatever amount needed or she will source stamps by theme OR color.  Holly really nailed it on the head with these and found a “Freedom of the Press” stamp that was too perfect for me!  I mean, come on, does it get any better?  She also included the Robert Frost beauty which was perfection because I’m a big poetry nut and he is a classic.  I totally recommend jazzing up your envelopes with vintage stamps if you have the time/inclination.  I know they add just that extra bit of interest that I needed and I couldn’t love them more.

So thanks for reading through my long and very personal Font Friday post!  To check out some more font loveliness please visit my #fontfriday friends’ pages at these links: Lauren’s picks at Lauren Elise Crafted, Steph’s faves from Bubblerock Studios, Alison’s loves over at The Knotty Bride, Jenny’s selections at Hank and Hunt, Jenna + Elizabeth’s choices at Little Bit Heart, Kerry’s faves at Super Swoon, Chelsey’s font loves at Fourth and Folded, Jen’s posting at Blush Printables, Lauren’s favorites at Palm Papers, Alison’s font choices at Alison Owen Design, and new friend Laurel’s post at Go Against the Grain! You can also follow any of us on Twitter for regular font updates!

xox, A

P.S. I loved, loved, loved Kate’s choice of dress and designer.  PERFECTION.  The tiara…meh.

Tagged as: announcement, black, font friday, fonts, gold, graduation, stamps, tag, us, Vintage