Our Rome Inspired Letterpress Wedding Invitation/Card – finding inspiration in the architecture around us

We recently letterpressed our Rome design. We were thrilled with the way it turned out. This design is very detailed and we were concerned that it would not translate well to the plate and paper, that the lines would be too thin and would not show up. We were pleasantly surprised with the outcome!

So, we thought we would take the time to talk about our inspirations a little bit. Sometimes, we find, when we are a little bit stuck for ideas, we should just look up! Living in New York city, we are very fortunate to be surrounded by stunning architecture…from art deco sky scrapers to ornate brownstones. Sometimes, believe it or not, it is even possible to get inspiration from a store like Home Depot, just look up at the exposed ceiling beams and the patterns that can be found! Art and beauty are all around us, we just need to be open to the possibilities of seeing it, even in the most unlikely of places.

Fair enough, this design is based on the ceiling of the Pantheon in Rome, not the tile pattern on the floor of a Wal-Mart. How could you not look up and admire the beauty of the intricate carvings and the impressiveness of this ancient dome?  While in Italy on vacation, Caroline took this stunning photo of the ceiling.

She suggested we use it as design inspiration. One look at it and I agreed! Instead of using the more recognizable square pattern, we focused on the tiny pattern around the opening. See the detailed shot below and a detail of our card pattern. It took a long time for us to redraw, straighten and adapt the pattern to paper, but we think the effort was worth it.

- Pressed