We were thrilled to see all of the entries for this year’s Do Good promotion — it was amazing and uplifting to hear about all of your good deeds! There were a lot of really wonderful entries, and in the end our team selected Dr. Rhea Zimmerman as this year’s winner. Today we’re thrilled to share more details behind Rhea’s inspiring story!

In April, Rhea returned to The Sacred Valley in Peru for the third year in a row to offer her chiropractic services to 2,600 people. Rhea led a team which included her fiance, Dr. Austin Komarek, and teammates Dr. Stacey Cantrell and Dr. Haley Thompson. Rhea and her team worked in collaboration with the Kausay Wasi Clinic, a clinic that hosts teams of doctors monthly to provide services to the communities of The Sacred Valley and Peru.

The intention of this kind of work is to spread a diplomacy based on loving care and heart to heart connection. Dr. Rhea is currently in production on a feature documentary called Love Bomb about this work that tells the story of what we are capable of when we live from love. The Love Bomb mission is to ignite people to the fact that their presence here in life is a gift to life, that we all have an inherent capacity within us to live as love, and that when we do, we optimize the vitality our bodies, lives, and communities.

One of the primary focuses of the chiropractic group is to see as many children as possible, since there is a great impact in freeing the nervous system of a child for greater function and connection that can have a lasting impact. The team goes into classrooms and explains to the teacher and students what they will be receiving, and then connects to the students one by one. The atmosphere created is one of curiosity, play, and loving connection. One of the directors of the clinic, Guido del Prado (who has been working internationally for over 30 years and is host to teams of doctors monthly) shared what he witnessed with the team’s work: “When you touch someone like that, no one could become your enemy.”

In addition to the team of doctors on the trip, Rhea also had the support of volunteers Fiorella Butron for translation and coordination, Jeni Olson for photography, and Gregg Marks as Director of Photography on the Love Bomb movie. Curious about the Love Bomb documentary? Take a look at the Love Bomb trailer, and help the team finish the film by making a donation today!

Many thanks to Rhea for sharing more of her inspiring story with us, and a special thanks to all of this year’s contestants for taking the time to share their entries with us!

Today we’re going behind the scenes and chatting with one of our designers, Ian Koenig. Ian is the designer of Neo Luna, our February design of the month (on sale through 2/28 for up to 20% off!), and was kind enough to share a little inspiration behind this design, how he got started and where he’s drawing inspiration from these days.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.
I currently live in Chicago with my wife Melinda and our four-year old son Lukas. I work at VSA Partners and teach design at the Chicago Portfolio School.

What was your inspiration behind the Neo Luna design?
Neo Luna was a continuation of an idea I had in an earlier design called Anais which was to try to get as much color into a design through an array of rules. With Neo Luna, I wanted to have a bit more fun than I did with Anais so I made the language and typography a bit more playful and introduced the Cupid idea through the arrow and heart elements.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Still having Friday night movie nights with my family, still working at VSA, still teaching and still designing invitations for you guys!

Who are you inspired by?
My current design loves: A Montreal-based firm named Paprika; The Book Cover Archive; the art direction of John Gall’s Nabokov book cover series; Designspiration; the illustrator Jonas Bergstrand; the designer Paul Sahre, the album All Day by Girl Talk.

How did you get into design? Was there a defining point in your life that helped shape you as a designer?
During my last semester in college, I took my first art studio class. With two weeks to go before graduation, I was on my way to class and saw the graphic design student’s work on the walls. I knew instantly I could do this type of work and was then a bit bummed that I had not made that walk four years earlier!

I rediscovered design a little while later after I quit my first real job. A friend of a friend was opening a children’s restaurant and I offered to draw him a logo. He liked it and gave me the opportunity to design the uniforms, menus, signage and the business cards. That small introduction to design was all I needed. I am still hooked.

Have you heard? Our new collection of letterpress wedding invitations is here and filled with new offerings for 2013! What’s new? Two new die-cuts (check out our romantic Charlotte and stately Anderson designs to take a peek). We now offer 4-color envelope liners too — create colorful liners with up to 4 of your favorite hues. Choose from one of over 40 patterns, or turn a cityscape or vintage map of your wedding location (or any location!) into a custom envelope liner. We’ve also got new foil stamping colors — 7 of them! — including sophisticated neutrals (like pearl, a soft white foil, and tawny, a beautiful taupe foil) as well as lovely pastels (mint! lilac! pink!). Take a look at the new designs today, or use our free personal shopper service and one of our invitation experts can help you get started!

We’re excited to announce that we have 9 new letterpress invitation designs available on our website now! Our mid-year release includes two new Pinterest inspired designs (A Bientot and Gilded Romance – more to come on those!), two new cityscape designs (Charmed Philadelphia and Charmed Seattle) to our Charmed series, a new calligraphy hand from Debi Zeinert called Paisley, and more! Click here to take a look at all of the new designs today.

We are busy preparing for the 2012 National Stationery Show that’s just a few weeks away, but we wanted to stop and take a break to share the letterpress and foil stamped invitations that we printed and sent out for the show! Our modern Unique Minimes design set the tone, and we love the way our hot pink letterpress ink looks when paired with shiny gold foil stamping! As part of our mid-year release, we’ll be introducing a new book filled with invitation designs for life’s special occasions: engagements, birthdays, showers, Bar & Bat Mitzvah, baby, and more. 9 new invitation designs will also debut at the show, and those will be available  in early July at a Bella Figura dealer near you! We have the incredibly talented calligrapher Debi Zeinert of The Blooming Quill to thank for addressing the envelopes for these invitations in a metallic gold ink. We cannot get enough of the way those envelopes look!

Fonts play a significant role in the overall look of your letterpress wedding invitations. They add personality and style and really reflect the mood of your event! Because choosing the perfect font for your wedding is so important, we know it can sometimes feel overwhelming with all the amazing options we offer, but here are some helpful tips to guide you in choosing the perfect font to match your style.

If you like the Modern look: We suggest fonts that have sleek, clean lines. Nothing too fussy or fancy. Simplicity is always key. Scale these chic fonts up in size to make a bold, graphic and attention grabbing statement!

If you like the Vintage look: We suggest fonts that have a wise and worldly appeal. Slightly quirky and full of character to convey days of old.  To achieve the perfect vintage vibe, we love to combine several fonts together to create an eclectic look that will last for ages. Elegant script fonts paired with traditional Serif styles tend to tug at our heartstrings the most!

If you like the Formal look: We suggest elegant and traditional fonts that will never go out of style. Think Script fonts with big swash capitals reminiscent of the finest hand calligraphy or formal Serifs with straight lines and regal form. We love to pair them together to create a sophisticated style that will surely charm all of your guests!

Read the rest of this entry »

Bella Figura’s letterpress invitation designs for 2012 have arrived!  We’ve added 6 brand new designers and 83 new letterpress wedding invitation designs – which means you’ve now got over 300+ incredible designs to choose from! We’ve added new embellishment options, too — think metallics (foil stamping and foil edging now available in 12 dazzling colors – choose traditional metallics like gold, silver or copper, or go for something a little more daring, like fuchsia, indigo, forest or teal!). Metallics and shine will be a huge wedding trend for 2012, so mix foil stamping with letterpress for a hint of glamour, create a show-stopping look with a powerful pair of foil stamped colors (think two tone gold or gold with silver), or add foil edging for a splash of sophisticated flair.

Counter clock-wise from upper left: Aria by Maybelle; Canto by Kelle Anne McCarter; Fugue by Kamal; Traditional Script by Beth Barr; Moroccan Romantic by Lindsy Aragona; Unique Minimes by Gina Dean and Lauren Richel Kelly. 

New designs and metallics aren’t the only thing we’ve got that’s new for 2012! We’ve got new calligraphy styles, new options for pocketfolds, envelopes + envelope liners, and more. There’s a wide variety of artwork, cartouches, and monograms in our motif library.  Let Chris – one of our knowledgeable invitation experts – walk you through all of the amazing new offerings (just check out the video below!)

We asked, and you voted: our latest Design of the Month is Ikaty by Kamal! As our Design of the Month, all custom letterpress orders placed between now and December 31 will receive 20% off.  This 20% off applies to Ikaty save the dates, invitations, thank you cards, menus, coasters, place cards, programs, and any other piece that uses the Ikaty design. To get you inspired, our design team put together these stunning customizations — take a look!

(Please note, the Design of the Month promotion may not be used on purchases of other designs or in combination with any other promotion.)

We can’t wait to show you our new offerings for next year — we’re introducing over 80 new trend-setting designs that are must-haves for the 2012 wedding season. Our new collection won’t be available until later this month, but we thought we’d give you a little sneak peek to let you know what’s in store for the new year. Think foil stamping (gold! silver! colored metallics!). 7 incredibly talented new designers and calligraphers. Colored envelopes. Letterpress on pocketfolds. Foil edging. New custom calligraphy styles (7 of them!). New inks. New fonts. 2 and 3 color liners. Take a look — it’s true love.