Buying Invitations

I started my career as a graphic designer in the printing industry. Since most of our jobs were direct consumer orders, we were producing numerous utilitarian items such as business cards, wedding invitations and related merchandise. Invitation cards were among the most exciting jobs because of the number of people involved and other cultural complexities.

One particular particular job I remember pretty clearly. A family walked into the press seeking to print wedding save the date cards and each member had a different plan for the card. When I sat down at the computer to create a design for the cards each one of them started directing me in a totally different direction. Initially it was quite frustrating. After couple of hours we had made very little progress in finalizing the design.

I took a break and talked to the groom and suggested that we would be better off making cards with varying designs so that each member can send out the card of his preferred design for his contacts. This idea was put forward to the family and everyone agreed. We then decided to use cardstock designs so the production time would be greatly reduced.

I would say this was a positive experience because it exposed me to the different thought processes of members of the same family. Their varying attitudes about different aspects of the same event was intriguing. I wonder if people grapple with the same dilemma here also.