DIY - Graphic

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Tools:

• Paper
• Pencil
• Scanner
• Program with vectoring capability. I used Paint Shop Pro.

No bells, flowers, rings, trees, or swirly designs for us. None of the typical wedding symbols fit "us" for a design. They didn't feel personal or representative. One thing that I did know was that I wanted to incorporate elements of our culture. The main wedding symbol in a Chinese or Vietnamese wedding is the symbol of the dragon and phoenix.

When the scrolls were designed, I used the dragon and phoenix on top to immediately display the important symbol. I did not yet plan for the rest of the invitation design or anything else for that matter. All I knew was that THE symbol had to incorporate the dragon and phoenix.

Then, I was challenged with finding something... "vector-ish" since I wanted it to be a modern translation. Upon failed image and vector searches, I decided to design it myself. Instead of creating another ornate, full image of the two symbols, I focused on a detail. I focused on their tails.

First, I sketched the vector design. My intent was to only use it up the side of my enclosure cards, so I made it wrap around the side and top of the card. I also morphed the tail end into a heart shape.


I scanned it at high resolution and saved the .jpg.

The next part is difficult to explain if you've never used Photoshop or Paint Shop, but I created layers over the scanned image and slowly created vectors that followed the lines I drew. This is the result:


As you can see, it is now on the top banner of this site and since I loved the final product so much, it is being used to tie the menus, rehearsal invites, and programs together!

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