Minted interviewed me for the recurring Meet a Mintie posts on their blog.  They asked me about my two favorite subjects: ME and Minted!  LOL   All kidding aside, I am completely flattered that anyone would want to read about me in the first place.  I’m so grateful for all the kindness and love that Minted and the community have showered on me.

I have the hardest time designing anything for myself no matter what it is.  Can’t decide on any colors if any….   The letters are custom illustrated .  I wanted to stay away from being literal with the lotus term.  I want a logo with some staying power and not overly feminine.  Would appreciate any feedback good or bad.

Take a new perspective on the ampersand.  The “Coming Together” font contains over 400 glyphs and is an OpenType font and is well worth the twenty.

This font was created exclusively for Font Aid IV to benefit the victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti. The font consists entirely of ampersands, to represent the idea of people coming together to help one another. Type designers, graphic designers, and other artists from around the world contributed artwork to the font.

The font is being be sold for $20US and is available through  Veer and other font distributors. All proceeds from the sale of the font will go to Doctors Without Borders, to help with their relief efforts in Haiti.

Wedding Invitations – Vintage Luxe

Wedding Invitations – Frolic

Wedding Invitations – Summer Gardens

This was actually really fun.  I think the hardest part was nailing down what ideas to use.  I still don’t know how I feel about limiting the number of entries per designer thing…  I don’t know how much self editing this cause me to do.  We’re these the best design I would have put out there really?  I guess we may never know.  I think limiting the number of designs may cause you to test the waters more, but then you’re really just wasting time waiting for comments.  Go design something.  I’m going to sleep. =)

– I hope that you’ve already heard about this great training resource.  I found Lynda Weinman’s training books over 10 years ago and have been going back for more ever since.  Anything and everything you need to learn as a designer (aside from real world experiences) can be found on this site.  And most importantly it’s affordable and always up to date on the latest softwares/technologies.  It also makes a great reference tool- for all those times you forget how to use a certain tool or other in the Adobe Suite.  It has been a priceless resource in my career and growth as a designer.  I am currently trying to ‘LEARN’ Adobe Illustrator and WordPress blogging.  I’ve worked in illustrator before but I’m not strong in it. Plus I’m a bit rusty after my 18 month baby sabbatical.

Do yourself a favor and check it out.  I guarantee you’ll find something of interest.  Don’t get ahead of yourself like me…  Today – designer, tomorrow blogger, the next day photographer…  FOCUS! Amy! FOCUS!  Keep your skills sharp and you’ll never regret it.

Brainstorm By Nitjyot Saroan

This my personal brain dump so far for the newly announced Minted Design Challenge. Hope this helps to inspire some designs out there.  There are too many ideas in my head and I lack the time, energy or skills to accomplish them all.  Feel free to use any ideas listed below.  If this is helpful to you at all, please post a comment so I can determine whether or not to blog about this next time! BEWARE not everything makes sense even to me.  Kinda like a dream I guess…

• You deserve better than an email…
• This is a letter.
• Email is so yesterday.
• Retro mail
• It’s a new day.
• Tag, you’re it!
• Keep in touch with friends. CHECK!
• Lost art of letter writing…

You're a Blast! by Dish and Spoon

This was my pick for 1st place but it placed 5th.  A few photocards took the top spots and one that is not really kid-friendly.  I think those of us who read the challenge overview and focused on the Creative notes section are kicking ourselves.  I know I am.  There were some fantastic illustrations that didn’t fare a well as I thought they would.   I’m am excited to see the who editor’s picks for this challenge are.  I think one of the designer that was surprisingly under rated was Mandy Gordon.  Her illustrations were just fab.  There were some designs that scored over a 3 that I gave the “1- not so much” rating to.  That just goes to say design is subjective.  Congrats to all the winners.  Until the next challenge…

I’ve always been curious on how people got their start and I know their are a few of you who have asked this question.  And so I did a little research and this is what I’ve found so far.  I’m hoping to pick the brains of many of the minted community members but I have to come up with a solid list of questions.  I love it when people share their passion.  If there’s any must ask questions you would like me to ask please post them in the comments.

Emily and Rachelle

Wiley Valentine
Starting a Business – Invitations & Stationery

This a great article answering basic business questions like start-up costs, getting attention, and challenges they faced.

Sometimes you’re just looking for some quick color palettes to try and you’re just plain out of ideas.  Well here’s a few resources that I’ve found that may or may not be helpful to you.  You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with each design.  Not every designer is a color expert.  Enjoy!  If you know of other good sites for color inspiration please post them in the comments and I’ll add them to the list.

• Colour Lovers – my absolute favorite!
• www.kuler.com – done by Adobe
• google images – in the search just type in “wedding color palettes _________.”  Fill in the blank with anything from colors, seasons, moods, etc.

Hello Design Challengers -
As I was going through the minted font list I created this table which I hope will be helpful for some of you.  You can find a majority of the fonts listed on Font Yukle for FREE! Let know if I missed any free ones or how I can improve on this list. Go design something…
Serif Fonts – Each letter has little doohickeys called ‘serifs’ on the ends.

Script/ Other Fonts – All the scripts and fun fonts are under this section.

Here’s what Minted has to say about fonts and usage.

Minted licenses all the fonts that we use for print and online. While we are continually adding new fonts, we ask that you keep your fonts to those on this list. Fonts used in winning submissions that are not on this list will be substituted. ‘Free fonts’ that are licensed for commercial use for no charge that are not on this list may also be used.