Today we’re exited to introduce you to July’s Design of the Month – Hendrix by Jessica Hische. It’s pretty, playful and a touch whimsical, and one of our favorites from our 2010 collection. We think it’s perfect for a garden party wedding or an outdoor celebration under the stars. As our Design of the Month, all orders of our Hendrix design over $1000 placed between now and August 15 will receive free letterpress thank you notes – don’t miss out! (Flat thank you notes, letterpress printed to match your invitations with unprinted envelopes.)

Meet the Designer – Jessica Hische
In honor of our Design of the Month, we thought a little Q & A session with the talent behind the design was in order. Brooklyn-based Jessica Hische is an incredibly inspiring designer, typographer and illustrator. In addition to her amazing art prints and Buttermilk, her first typeface of which we just can’t get enough, we are obsessed with her blog and her Daily Drop Cap project. Without further ado, meet Jessica Hische.

What was the inspiration behind Hendrix?
My friend, illustrator John Hendrix, had a baby girl and commissioned me to design his baby announcement, which I letterpressed for he and his wife in exchange for one of his original drawings. The Hendrix wedding invitation design takes elements from the original announcement and tweaks it and expands it to a full wedding suite. Everyone loved the original design so much I was so happy to be able to share it with others!

When did you know you wanted to be a designer? How did you get your start?
I actually didn’t know what graphic design was until I was in college. I always knew I wanted to do something art related, I just didn’t really know exactly what that was until I took my first design class in my sophomore year at Tyler School of Art. I loved that design isn’t really self-expressionistic — it is about solving problems and doing what is appropriate for a client / project.

{Jessica notes, “I love breakfast.”}

If you were an ice cream flavor, what would you be?
This is a tough one! I think the closest one might be Ginger, but if “Almond Croissant” was an ice cream flavor I’d be that.

What’s your favorite PMS shade?
PMS Warm Red U or something a bit more orangey.

What’s the most memorable vacation you’ve ever taken?
I was invited to speak at the Semi-Permanent Conference in Sydney this year and went a week prior to vacation with my boyfriend. It was the most fun vacation I’ve ever been on. All we did was eat amazing food, drink amazing coffee and get our pictures taken with koalas.

What other designers/illustrators do you admire?
I’m surrounded by so many awesome illustrators and designers its hard to name a few. The community in New York and the online community of illustrators and designers never ceases to keep me motivated and inspired. I of course admire Louise Fili, who taught me so much about design. And Chris Ware, his work is amazing in every way.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Anywhere close to a large body of water and within an hour of a major airport. If I were going to settle somewhere permanently, it would just need to be a place that made traveling easy and in my dream life I would live on a lake.

What five things on/in your desk could you not live without?
computer, mouse, extra monitor (for netflixing and all the distracting windows (email, email, twitter, gchat, etc), mechanical pencil, coffee

Can you share a favorite childhood memory?
I grew up in north-east Pennsylvania so my favorite memories probably revolve around Autumn and Halloween. I loved going to pumpkin patches and ESPECIALLY loved sucking down dozens of flavored honey sticks. Also corn mazes. And haunted hay rides. Good lord I love Autumn.

What’s something about you that no one would ever guess?
This is a hard one since I’m such an internet oversharer! I guess maybe that I am a closet Taylor Swift fan (the songs are so catchy!)

Thanks, Jessica! For everyone else, we hope you’ll check out Jessica’s gorgeous letterpress wedding invitation designs exclusively for Bella Figura – Hendrix and Weber.

We love this customization of our Tara letterpress wedding invitation design – it’s printed in geranium and downy inks for a look that is both modern and a touch retro with cool vintage-inspired typography. We think these invitations were the perfect first impression for this couple’s wedding, held at The Foundry in Long Island City, a hip venue with a unique modern vibe.

We love these letterpress wedding invitations, a customization of Vendage, one of our new designs for 2010. We printed these in garden and champagne inks and then edge painted them in papaya. The reply card is a 1-color letterpress design printed in garden ink and all of the pieces are tucked inside an envelope featuring a champagne liner. We just adore this combination of bright summery colors paired with the botanical design and sweet little birds, perfect for a warm summer wedding.

We printed these letterpress wedding invitations, a customization of our Keswick design, for an upcoming wedding in France. They are printed in espresso and cloud 9 inks and feature a vertical orientation and a pretty espresso pocketfold, making this invitation suite a unique interpretation of one of our most popular designs. We love the pretty letterpress inserts and the letterpress thank you notes we also had the distinct pleasure of printing for this couple, all perfectly coordinated to their event in matching espresso and cloud 9 inks.

Printed in cardinal and espresso inks, this recent customization is our Majorca design. It features an espresso envelope liner and a cool square reply card and directions card, the perfect complement to the square invitation shape. This couple also opted to go with unique square letterpress thank you notes in our Majorca design that we previously featured here on the blog.  We love the way all of the pieces work together to bring a fresh modern touch to an otherwise formal wedding invitation suite.

We wanted to take a moment this afternoon to share a couple of recent Bella Figura mentions in the press. Canadian wedding magazine Weddingbells recently featured our Nigella and Lola letterpress wedding invitation designs in a pretty spread of stationery they called love letters. How sweet!

One of our lovely Bella Figura couples, Jennifer and Robert, had their wedding showcased in a recent issue of The Knot. We love the pretty navy and pink color palette and the gorgeous flowers. Jennifer and Robert used our Deveril design for their letterpress wedding invitations.

Thank you to our friends at Weddingbells and The Knot for recognizing Bella Figura!

Threaded is another of our new letterpress wedding invitation designs for 2010 so we were particularly excited to print this customization for a wedding in Morocco. This invitation design was printed in a sophisticated pairing of pewter and taupe inks for a look that is both modern and very chic.

Another of our new designs for our 2010 collection, this invitation design is a customization of our Lana letterpress wedding invitation design. The pieces are printed in chartreuse and amethyst inks, paired with an amethyst envelope liner and features a script font inspired by handwriting. We love customizing designs for our clients and this lovely Lana customization is a great example of how playing with fonts and ink colors can create a dramatically different look, perfect for whatever the size, shape and color of your event.

Our Victoria Calligraphy design, penned exclusively for us by renowned calligrapher Sarah Hanna, is one of seven new calligraphy letterpress wedding invitations we introduced with our 2010 collection. The opportunity to print this for the first time for one of our Bella Figura clients was an absolute joy. This couple chose classic black ink for the letterpress invitation itself and opted for a modern punch of color in our Tiffany Blue ink for the reply card insert. We love how this set turned out and just can’t get enough of Sarah’s beautiful work.

This letterpress wedding invitation suite is one we actually printed last year for a wedding in the beautiful Thousand Islands region of Upstate New York. It’s such a favorite of ours we thought we’d share it to help inspire those of you who might be planning waterfront weddings of your own this year. This is a customization of our Sailboat design printed in navy and garden inks. Along with the letterpress invitation and reply card, there are several inserts including an accommodations card and a rehearsal dinner invitation, all of which are bundled up in a navy belly band in an envelope that is also lined in navy. We love everything about this set from the fun color combination to the way it has us dreaming of the beautiful summers in Upstate New York.