Project Description

After 3 months of being at my new place, I finally was getting my act together and having a house warming party and naturally needed an invitation. Even though my place wasn't completely put together, I figured "under construction" could be the theme for the party and my downtown Los Angeles loft would serve as the inspiration for the entire project. Since I had painted, hung wall paper, and sewn throw pillows all myself, I knew that the invitation had to be completely hand done and DIY to fit that and the very industrial and urban aesthetic of my apartment.

I drew the little tools and used Neutraface and AW Conqueror Slab for the type. Once the design was finalized, I sent the stamp to be made and while I was waiting for that I set off to buy a ZAP! heat gun and Adirondack powder. I stamped each invitation with clear watermark ink, then covered the wet ink with the powder, removed the extra powder by flipping the card over on a large piece of scrap paper, and then used the heat gun to melt the powder and create a thermal print. The hardest part was getting a clean stamp, but once I got the hang of it, the project just flew by. When you look at the card the thermal print looks clean and is slightly embossed, but when you look at it magnitized (through a camera lense) you can see all the grunge, almost boiled texture that the melted powder has created.

For the envelope, I decided on a light grey to match my cement floors and to use the extra wallpaper that I had hung as envelope liners so every envelope was different and someone who paid attention to detail would realize when they came to the party where that abstract paper came from. I used a standard inkjet printer to print the addresses return address on the front and use the same type style for the addresses. I picked a forever stamp of Gregory Peck since he's such a Los Angeles icon and the coloring of the stamp worked with the aesthetic and palette of the invitation.