Choosing an invitation design, in five decisions

Choosing a design feels like one decision and it is five. Taken separately they are all easy. Taken at once, in a grid of thumbnails, they are paralysing.

Here they are in the order that works, which is the order of how much each one changes.

1. Layout#

The composition. Where the names sit, whether there is a border, whether the date is turned on its side, whether a photograph is held in an arch.

This is the decision that matters most, because it is the one a guest reads before they read a word. A centred stack is traditional and calm. A hard left headline is modern and confident. A hairline frame is formal. An arch is warm.

Pick this first, and pick it on feeling. It is the only one of the five you cannot really argue yourself into.

2. Colour#

Separate from the layout on purpose, so you never have to give up the composition you want to get the colour you want.

Two questions decide it. Light or dark, and warm or cool. Dark cards are striking and photograph beautifully, and they are harder to read in bright sun on a phone held at a bus stop. Light cards are safer and quieter.

One accent, not three. A single colour used in the rules and the small capitals does more than a palette.

3. Type#

Three jobs, not one: the names, your own sentences, and the small tracked out capitals that carry the date and the venue. A face that does all three is what a template looks like.

The only real decision here is the names. A script is romantic and can be hard to read at a glance, which matters more than people think, since the names are the thing guests skim for. A high contrast serif is the classic answer. A wide tracked sans is the modern one.

4. Paper#

The stock the whole thing appears to be printed on. Grain, linen, cotton rag, or perfectly smooth.

This is the smallest decision and it does more than its size suggests, because texture is the main thing separating an object from a screen. If you are choosing quickly, take the default and move on.

5. Motion#

Whether the cover lifts away when a guest opens it, or the invitation is simply there.

Motion is worth having if it does one thing once. It is not worth having if it repeats. And it should always be possible to turn off, because a proportion of your guests have asked their phone to reduce motion for reasons that are none of your business.

The order matters#

Layout, then colour, then type, then paper, then motion. Each decision narrows the next one, and none of them undoes the one before.

The mistake is browsing finished designs and trying to judge all five at once. You end up choosing a colour you liked and inheriting a layout you did not.

Two practical checks#

Look at it on a phone, outdoors. That is where most of your guests will meet it. Pale gold on ivory is beautiful on a laptop and invisible in July.

Read the names at arm’s length. If you cannot, the script is too fine, whatever it looks like close up.

You can compare all six of ours as real pages rather than thumbnails, starting with Verdure, and there is more on what separates a good one from a poor one in do digital invitations look cheap.