Just our type: introducing Venamour for Paperless Post
If you haven’t heard of Venamour, you’re probably not wedding planning. For the rest of us, the sought-after stationer is quickly becoming a staple of stylish brides, thanks to art director Lisa Hedge, whose designs weave romantic florals into sophisticated type-centric wedding invitations, announcements, and save the dates. We jumped at the chance to collaborate with Lisa to expand her invitations past the wedding world, and are thrilled to be Venamour’s exclusive partner in online invitations for baby showers, bridal showers, save the dates, dinner parties, and, of course, weddings. Here’s what the creative mind behind the Vogue favorite shared about her process, workspace, and inspiration.
How did you start working with event stationery?
Venamour began as more of a nuanced passion. Like many others in this line of work, I stumbled into invitation design when those closest to me started getting engaged. I was working at the branding agency Partners & Spade as an art director at the time, and I connected with the emphasis they placed on printed matter and materials as essential to the expression of a brand. While designing my first save the date, I discovered that the nature of this design challenge involved so many considerations that overlap closely with the branding process. I elaborated on this initial experience as family members and friends began planning weddings, and I discovered a real enjoyment in the specificity of stationery design, finding that work of this nature allowed me to indulge my interests in typography, color, paper, printing, and creative collaboration. It was exciting to discover the landscape of weddings and events and identify all the moments where design and paper could be creatively applied.
We love your studio! Can you tell us about your workspace?
Thank you! We’ve worked hard to create a space that cultivates the messes that can result from creative work–think lots of large surfaces–but also allows some degree of organization with lots of storage. We’re in our second studio now, and in a more grown-up effort we custom-built desks, work tables, and storage to help keep things in orderly systems. We have immense archives of all our work, a vast library of paper books, print samples for reference, and some miscellaneous magazines and design literature floating around the studio for inspiration.
When I’m in design mode, it’s really just a romantic setup that includes my iMac and Wacom tablet–two things I can’t work without!
Can you tell us about the photo collages you are known for? They are so iconic and lush.
The Venamour floral illustrations are a form of digital collage, a process that involves meticulously manipulating original photography and building new arrangements from the isolated elements. The resulting botanicals always felt satisfyingly vibrant and contemporary to me.
“Semplici in Carnation” by Venamour
What was your process for creating the digital invitations in this collection?
When it came to thinking about translating our aesthetic from print into digital for this collaboration, it was exciting to draw directly from the printing methods, typographic solutions, and paper swatches that define our most beloved printed pieces. At the same time, all the limits and constraints that apply to physical printing don’t apply in the digital realm, so the possibilities really opened up. For example, it was fun to add gorgeous color floods alongside illustrated floral elements, which diverges from how we approach printing designs of this style. Some intricacies get simplified when designing for digital, but in all of our digital creations, there’s a refreshing clarity to the message that feels both modern and visually engaging.
Do you have florals or botanicals you’re inspired by? Do you see hosts using the invitation as a jumping off point for their party florals or color palette?
I’m crazy about most flowers; I just like having them around. I do love those strangely sexual, heart-shaped Anthuriums that you see everywhere now. With all of our clients, flowers are a conversation starter as they speak volumes about someone’s aesthetic preferences and sense of style.
Do you have a favorite wedding or event for which you have designed invitations?
Events I’m invited to always rank near the top! It is gratifying to see all of the paper in place and to witness all of the magic come together. I recently designed some event ephemera for an intimate dinner party at The Castle in Red Hook, and it was such a pleasure to see the dinner menu all aglow in the candlelight. Playing a small but important role in the evening was so meaningful to me. I picked up the menu with delight, realizing for the first time that it would tell us what we were eating!
The most memorable events are the ones that are rich with atmosphere and personality–the food, wine, flowers, lighting–all coalescing to create an energy that allows for relaxation, indulgence, and camaraderie.
“Centro in Toast” by Venamour. “Recitativo in Carob” by Venamour
We can’t wait to see how hosts will use these designs. Are you excited to create invitations beyond weddings?
It was so much fun working in new categories and for a digital platform. There’s an immediacy to digital invitations that is so functional and gratifying. It was also really exciting to bring a strong color story into play throughout the collection of designs and not have to worry about printing technicalities. We think these designs, colors, and typefaces are all versatile, festive, and sophisticated, and we can’t wait to see them in use!
Now that you’ve fallen in love with the woman behind the designs, browse the Venamour collection for your next event invitations.
