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A deeper dive into our creative direction for B + M’s Renaissance-inspired wedding party in the heart of New York City.
It starts with Botticelli. The bride showed us this painting at the beginning of our design journey. The most famous rendition of birth of Venus— this icon of the Italian Renaissance is decadent and timeless. The color world was pastel and muted, featuring delicate nudes, sea teals, golden locks.
The Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli, 1483 - 1485
One if by Land, Two if by Sea. Image from Emma Cleary
Next to consider was the venue — a dim, candlelit carriage house.
(Fun fact: Aaron Burr’s housed his horses and coaches here in 1790s.)
Currently an American restaurant One if by Land, Two if by Sea, the carriage house was built in 1767.
Over the years it has been a silent movie house, a bar, a restaurant, a bar again, and more — a house full of stories.
These were the two scenes floating around in our head as we determined our design priorities for this suite.
To honor the style of venue: historic & timeless. To honor the themes of the painting: romantic & classic. To honor the atmosphere of both: ethereal & refined.
From those priorities we drew our design strategies:
a. Reference the visual language of the printing in the late 18th century
b. Feature a vintage ornate frame to honor the Rococo/Baroque era and style
c. Pull directly from European oil paintings
d. Elevate the suite texturally through layered vellum and the addition of a tassel or ribbon
1. Detail from Jost Amman’s woodcut “Buchdrucker” (The Printer) from Das Ständebuch (The Book of Trades), 1568.
2. 8x12 Chandler & Price letterpress, from Hoban Cards
3. Close up of moveable type. Photo from purdman1, Flickr
The 18th century still saw hand-operated printing presses as the primary method of mass production for newspapers and literature. These presses are notorious for fueling the Enlightenment and the Renaissance. But did you know they’re some of the very same machines utilized for specialty printing today, like letterpress and foil printing?
These presses utilized moveable type: individual wooden or metal characters that could be rearranged.
(Gutenberg — the printing press man — often gets the creds for this too, but moveable type was already in use in China/Korea.)
“The Birds of Great Britain with their eggs, accurately figured” by William Lewin, 1789
“Essai Sur Le Beau Ou L’on Examine En Quoi Consiste Précisément Le Beau Dans Le Physique, Dans Le Moral, Dans Les Ouvrages D’esprit & Dans La Musique,” by Yves Marie André, published by H. L. & J. Guerin, 1741
From movable type arose an recognizable “look” of printed material of the time:
Widely tracked out (spaced out) characters, generous usage of small caps… and rapid alternation between italics, regular, lower case, all caps, etc.
Those were the stylistic elements we took note of for our goal of designing in reference to the era.
1. From “Old English and French ornaments; comprising 244 Designs ... by Chippendale, I. Jones, Johnson, Lock, and Pether ... Collected and republished by J. W.” From the NYPL Catalog
2. Portrait Frame by James F. Queen (Died: 1889) design with an oval frame decorated with baby angels. From Library of Congress.
3. Etching, Drie ovale cartouches, anonymous, after Johann Leonhard Eisler, 1726 - 1734. From Rijksmuseum
What did ornament look like in the era of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus? We gathered plenty of images of ornate frames from the Rococo/late Baroque era. We examined romantic cartouches and ovals full of florals and cherubs.
One of the frames we adapted was ornamental frame taken from the cover of a German baptism box, likely containing a small bible. We liked how the scrolls retained a hand-drawn quality to them, and the contrasting feminine and masculine elements; florals & ribbons in a firm rectangular frame.
18th c. print and a vintage ornate frame... these were all translated into our invitation composition designs for B + M.
Still Life with Flowers (1762) by Cornelia van der Mijn, The Rijksmuseum
For our first design iterations, we sought out traditional oil still-lifes for a dramatic envelope liner. We also sourced paintings for the vellum overlay, which was slated to either contain a verse of scripture or the couple’s RSVP info.
We took the opportunity to create new mini-scenes; zooming in on these grand paintings to highlight moments of thematic significance.
Aurora and Cephalus by Francois Boucher (1796), The Getty
From scenes of mythological splendor, we spliced scenes of romance...
From tumultuous legends of drama, we spliced the delicate details of the ocean.
Perseus Freeing Andromeda (1611) by Joachim Wtewael. Oil on canvas. From the Louvre Museum
We landed on this light and dreamy clip from Francois Boucher’s Venus on the Waves. There is no lack of romance, from the doves, blush buds, and reaching cherub. The light pastel palette appear almost glowing printed on vellum, introducing an elegant layer of light.
Venus on the Waves by Francois Boucher (1796), The Getty
As we started playing with the glassy texture of vellum, we also turned our attention to other textural elements.
In addition to the vellum, we looked to adding a ribbon or a tassel.It would elevate the suite with luxurious texture, reminscent of the tie in Venus’s golden hair, reflecting the goddess herself.
We eventually opted for the idea of a lush tassel strung through a polished brass grommet. Regal and luxurious, it also embodies a subtle oriental style. This design was meant to fulfil an early request of the couple that the invitation be multifunctional— to double as a bookmark. The entire suite was shrunken down to fit comfortably in a book, with the tassel designed to be dangling out like precious adornment.
But the route to final product can be long and windy. With all the elements determined, we presented the first design iterations in traditional palettes. Pulling both the light pastels and deeper tones from our original painting inspiration, we layered together the light and dark to reference both mature opulence and innocent romance.
We focused on the blush of the shell from which Venus emerges, the deeper dusty roses of the cloak, the airy seafoam teals and the deeper oceanic blues. Constant in the iterations was an ornate and detailed wax seal, the gilded element marrying the antiquity of both the painting and the venue.
B + M got back to us quickly — they loved the frame and design, but something about the overall suite didn’t feel 100% them.
They were a modern couple. Their venue was a gorgeous artifact of history, but they were worried the formal environment might feel stuffy.
With those concerns in mind, they asked if we could modernize the design—maybe by adding an unexpected color or less traditional references?
We were on it. Our first order of business was revisiting the liner illustrations. The previous iterations were gorgeous, but they were very classical still lifes — a very traditional genre of painting.
Music, Pink and Blue No. 2, Georgia O’Keeffe, 1918, Oil on canvas, The Whitney Museum of Art
Instead, we starting exploring new territory; works around the modern bend of the 20th century— work that pushed the envelope at the time; abstract work that started going beyond representational…
even beyond impressionism, moving into vividly non-representational landscapes…
Landscape at Collioure, Henri Matisse, summer 1905, Oil on canvas, The MoMA
Landscape at Collioure, Henri Matisse, summer 1905, Oil on canvas, The MoMA
work that reflected the esoteric and spiritual experiments of the new century.
We also started pushing new letterpress and foil press colors and reexamining envelope colors.
A couple dozen color experimentations later, we landed on our winner: an abstract cut of a sky, simultaneously stormy and dreamy; rich olive and deep amethyst that honored the antique grandness of the venue… a slightly darker bronze foil than the traditional gold, and a plum letterpress to match the envelope. Altogether a moodier, bolder alternative to the previous blushes+neutrals.
(We still love those, btw, and are keeping those alternative designs in our back pocket. If you think it’s the suite soulmate for you, we’ll be offering them soon in our semi-custom collection release!)
We loved the dark academia vibe and the deep autumnal palette to pair with the mood of the dim, candlelit dinner.
This suite was a perfect example of the value of meaningful feedback and conversation in the design process. B + M were upfront with us that the our initial color direction and liner options didn’t feel most authentic to them.
We re-thought the entire direction of our classical references to get somewhere new, and we’re so glad we got that opportunity— our end product felt more faithful to the heart of the celebration they were planning.
We even got feedback from guests that when they opened these gorgeous invitations from B+M, it instantly “felt like them.”
That’s pretty much the highest form of feedback we could receive.
Image from Chaz Cruz Photography
