TELL US ABOUT... A close look on a special design. With soft rosy calligraphy by Martina Lyons, Spain
Martina Lyons, from Spain:
"Not everybody likes hand calligraphy because is a bit difficult to read but when it’s done and printed, it looks absolutely fabulous"
Tell us about yourself please….
Born in Slovakia, married and living in Catalonia (Spain), in a very old house surrounded by nature, close to a beautiful medieval town of Girona.
My business name is Martina Lyons Calligraphy and calligraphy is the main object of my work, especially wedding stationery, but I do also illustrations, paintings (mostly watercolour, ink and pen illustrations), logo design and other creative things…
How did this particular design come to be?
This design was custom made for my clients’ wedding, combination of my calligraphy, digital font and a venue illustration.
We decided to get it printed in blush colour and my client wanted to have it done on handmade paper so I chose yours. It was my first time I tried your paper after a great recommendation from my calligraphy colleague who was very happy with the texture and colour of your paper and that’s exactly what I was looking for!
And it really was the best choice and my clients were very happy with the result!
What was the mood you wanted to evoke?
I would use these words: soft, timeless, romantic, fine, light, airy
Why did you choose these particular colours and colour combinations? What did you want to express with that?
Me and my clients wanted off white colour handmade paper and combine it with blush letterpress printing so it could evoke soft, romantic and wedding-y look. In colour and texture of my bride’s favourite flowers – peonies.
Why did you choose these particular formats and combination of formats? Which effect did you want to achieve?
I chose size 5x7 inch which I usually use for wedding invitations but also for a design and printing technique, letterpress is a deep print and should be easily legible and well visible especially with our blush colour we used.
And yes, we wanted to achieve modern yet timeless look, our envelopes were of a classic stock paper which I
think was a perfect contrast to your airy, pillowy and irregular deckle edges paper.
Are there any particular style elements that you want to talk about? Things that are typical for your designs? Or also: totally unusual in your designs?
I think I tried a [lot of different types], depends on my clients’ wishes, each client is different when it comes to the design and it’s my pleasure to create custom stationery that they can keep as a memory.
My clients usually ask for a venue or a crest illustration to put on top centre of the invitations and also they like to have their own initial crest or initial logo that can be used on the rest of their wedding papers, too.
Unusual or maybe not that common is to create full calligraphy design (f. e. wedding invitations) – not everybody likes it because hand calligraphy is a bit difficult to read but when it’s done and printed, it looks absolutely fabulous, there is no need for any other design element as the calligraphy is like a beautiful ornament itself. And it is so unique, made especially for the couple!
See more of Martina's work on her website.
READ MORE:
Leave a comment