Tuesday, December 15, 2009

I need your help! Giveaway

I've been trying to hone down my collection of wedding invitations. I want to put forth my best products, especially ones that appeal to a broader range of customers, and fit well with my design style and aesthetic. I'm just not quite sure what to keep and what to toss. That's where you come in. 

Please visit the wedding invitation section of my shop page. Choose the invitation that is least appealing to you, and tell me why! You won't hurt my feelings... Try not to base your decision on color or attractiveness of the photography, but on the design, layout, fonts....etc.  I need serious opinions here, people.  "This is my least favorite invitation because I don't like bees"  is not a helpful critique.



In return for your generosity, I will be giving away this set of thank you notes to one lucky winner. Just leave a comment on this blog post letting me know your your least favorite invitation and why, and provide me with a way to contact you.  I'm giving you 'til the first day of 2010. 

Thanks for participating! 

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh man I'm the first. . . Ok it's the Cupcake one. Everything about it makes me think of sweet 16 not wedding. The colors, font, pictures. . . bit I love all your other suff!

Kristin said...

so. i hate doing this, but since you asked for help, I will certainly do my best. my least favorite is the float one. The fonts are beautiful and the design is crisp and fresh, but it just reminds me of limited too teenagery. I get what christina is saying about the cupcakes, but thats in right now. It would pertain to anyone culinary minded....but I can't really think of anything the float one would apply to other than maybe some sort of engineer or classy architect? ha. it just pales in comparison to all of your other brilliant unique designs.

not a fan of the 'on the rocks' one either. again, the fonts and details are stunning but i don't really like the graphics.

hope this helps and dont hate me!

mia said...

I love your designs, and I don't know if it's the computer screen or not, but I fing the simple stripe invite hard to look at!

Alaina said...

thanks all for the feedback so far... it's so great to hear, honestly, thank you!

Christina,
I totally get what you are saying about the cupcakes. I actually had a customer request the cupcakes because she loved sweets. I figured I'd give it a shot and sell it on Etsy, see if it appealed to anybody else. Maybe I'll sell it as a birthday party invitation instead!

Kristin,
I'm with you on the "on the rocks" invite. It's sort of boring. My photography also sucks which makes me dislike it even more. The "Float" invitation is actually one of my more popular invitations, but I see what you are saying with the whole teeny bopper thing. I think what I was going for when I made it was sort of like, tiny hanging lanterns.

Merium,
you are right about the simple stripe invite-- it's kind of like that in person, too. Maybe making the stripes thicker would help?

Unknown said...

Yes, I think it would be great for maybe a baby shower, a birthday invitation or a sweets themed bridal shower!

Lolley said...

With a day job as a typographer, I'm happy to share my typographic opinion! I think your designs are really cool, great colour choice, lovely layout, perfect margins… on this one though: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=35086948 there's something not right about the choice of fonts for the names. I think it's just too block, too heavy. I get a similar feeling about the moroccan design too, everything's just fine apart from the type in the middle.

Can I win now please? ;-)

Alaina said...

Lolley,

On the honeybee invitation I tried SO many different fonts there... they all somehow bothered me. this one just seemed the best option at the time. I'm also planning on re-working the moroccan one, I definitely agree about the font the names are in. Thanks for the feedback!

Shannon Noack said...

As a fellow designer I think your work is beautifully designed and well thought out! And as a newlywed myself, I've seen quite a few wedding invitations during my wedding planning so I feel qualified to give my opinion :) With that said, the Cupcake one is my least favorite. I think it would appeal to too small of an audience (I agree with your suggestion to change it to be a birthday invitation instead), whereas the other ones seem like they would appeal to a wider audience. The cupcake one is also a bit cutsy because of the imagery, the fonts, and the colors which I don't think many people go for with a wedding. Hope that helps, and good luck with deciding!

Alaina said...

alright, two votes for cupcake invitation. Thanks Shannon! Do you think changing the fonts and colors would help at all in making it a bit more sophisticated/appealing to adults?

Handmade Mama said...

OMG...I am leaving my first comment! I love your work and have admired you from afar on Etsy as a former fellow invitation designer/seller.

My least favorite design of yours is the bicycle save the date, eventhough it appears that you have a large number of folks to purchase this design. In my opinion, it really speaks to a special group of individuals. I do however love the overall design, just not as a wedding save the date card.

I want to also say that I actually like the cupcake invite, but not the choice of colors used on your Etsy site. The bespoke design that you did using the peachy color and gray was amazing!

I wish you MUCH success in the future...GREAT work!

Melinda Claire said...

I want to start out by saying I love, love both the Modern Moroccan and the honeycomb love but the Cupcake Invitation is so pink and fonty. I think it could really rock but I'm not loving it as is. But I do love you stuff - wow that was hard :)
Cheers,
Melinda

Alaina said...

Thanks for the compliments and comments ladies! So I guess the cupcake invitation is the obvious least favorite.

Nicole-Lynn said...

Oh no... don't like saying this but I don't care for the Claddagh Wedding Invitation. I just think it looks cheesy and old school, and I guess just not my fiance and I's style. On a much happier and positive note, I just love the bicycle invite! So cute.

Alaina said...

Nicole,

The Claddagh Invitation is definitely not for everyone. I know it's not typical of my style, but there is a good amount of demand for irish themed wedding invitations that I figured I'd take advantage of.

Thanks for the compliment!

Vera D. said...

I didn't see the Cupcake one everyone mentioned...has it already been taken off? My least favorite is the poppy. It's a bit "soft" and I think it could be more graphic with harder lines or edges...But I especially love the Modern Moroccan and Honeycomb. Nice work!

Alaina said...

Hey Everybody, thanks for giving me your much needed input on my invitations. I have indeed gotten rid of the cupcake invitation. It's funny though because just today, I had a customer ask about it!

Anywho, congrats to Melinda (MelindaClaire) who won the thank you note set!