Need critique on wedding card design

camie

I have been given the honor of creating my best friends invitation cards for her wedding. Since it's a big responsibilty and I've never done something like this, I cant help but doubt everything I make, and so I would be very grateful if any of you could help me point out what you don't like and what could be improved.

She wanted a disney-like look on her cards (which I have no experience in) and so I took inspiration from mingee_lee mainly. The wedding will be in the summer which is why I made it green and the blue was a requirement. 

I really want it to look professional and not like something a friend whipped together if you know what I mean.. please give me a lot of critique!

Also. the cards will be printed, if there's anything problematic in this image that has to do with printing I'd love to know!

RN

Hi. I like your colour choices, and the whole composition is really cool.
Mostly, I think it lacks polish. You didn't say how far you were into finishing this (the "text text text" implies it's not done yet, obviously).

- I would use vector graphics for everything except the characters: the border, the flowers and ornaments etc.
- There's a silhouette problem with the guy's arm, the shape of the arm is merging with his trunk.
- I think their pose should be closer and more intimate, like touching foreheads or nose-to-nose.
- There needs to be hand-to-hand contact, it's more romantic. For now it seems he's holding her wrist?
- I personally don't like the branch sillhouettes on moon, in the background. I think it would be fine if it was just the clean moon with that gradient.

You didn't say what tool you're using. Photoshop has colour-proofing, you proof in CMYK with some profile for print.
You need to ask the place where they're gonna print all the invitations, what profile their printer uses. Then you just need to set the same profile back in Photoshop to have a pretty good idea of what it's going to look like.
It's a boring subject, have fun:
- http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.htm
- http://www.colourphil.co.uk/photoshop-proof-colour.shtml

camie

Thank you for your reply @RN ! I am not entirely done yet, text will be added later but on the general design is pretty much in the finishing state. 

You gave me really good pointers, I agree on them all, especially the pose, it's not romantic enough, and the hand pose is kinda weird! I will fix them!

I've been using procreate for the design but will finish it up in photoshop, thanks for the links, they were really informative and helped a lot!

EricElwell

Hmm, I would just recommend making your marks "cleaner" by making sure that each shape is one deliberate stroke. The variation in thickness on the border (for example) is totally fine, but what bothers me is where I can see a clear break in the stroke, and you've finished with a second stroke. So the big leaf on the left side, the tail on the "J", and the horizontal lines at the top and bottom left corners all have this un-confident strokey look to them. 

Also, is it supposed to be "Jonathan to Emilie" ? that does not seem to make sense. 

RN

I found these on Pinterest, I hope they can give you some ideas:
- https://www.designcuts.com/product/vintage-rose-wedding-set/
- https://www.designcuts.com/product/watercolour-wreath-creator/

Depending on the look you're going for, doing those ornaments in vector (just to be more precise and clean, and also to be easier to adjust) can look really elegant, see these as example:
- https://stock.adobe.com/stock-photo/set-of-calligraphic-floral-elements/82495777
- https://stock.adobe.com/stock-photo/hand-drawn-floral-design-elements/113178158

Camille Kuo

I'd light up her dress in brighter pink/blue!

camie

Thank you all for your replies!

@Camille Kuo I tried brightening up the dress but the silhouette merged into the sun in the back too much for my liking. 

@RN Very nice stock images! Am a little silly with stock images, I don't like to use them as it feels like the art is not my own anymore, but they gave me inspiration!

@EricElwell Thank you! I've fixed these issues!

RN

Hi @camie, I can see that you touched up a lot of things. I think it's an improvement over the first version.

I think the line "We are pleased to invite you to our", at the bottom, is not centred along with the other lines below it, it seems to be a little to the left.
This is a very cool project. Good luck.

camie

Thank you @RN! I will fix that!

camie

Finally done and ready for print after several iterations:



with matching envelopes  



Quite happy with how it turned out even though I had to back down on things I liked, I learned a lot!

RN

It's interesting, the fact that the background is white\clear now makes all the colours stand out.

camie

@RN It did! And it became cheaper to print haha.

Thanks for the help everyone! @RN @Camille Kuo @EricElwell
 I appreciate it a lot!