THE MANY WAYS OF PAPER - A DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT: with Silent Word Studio, France

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hi there, I am Delphine and I am based in Loire Valley, France.

I first started realizing that creating wedding invitations based on custom art was a thing about 6 years ago, when I was working as a wedding planner in France, with many couples and vendors from overseas.

I’ve always been attracted by art and graphic design, but didn’t study it at school. My master degree was about tourism and luxury events (hence my passion for event planning). 
As I was feeling like I needed a change from organizing weddings, I knew deep down I wanted to learn all about stationery, calligraphy, digitizing, printing, etc… so I took about a year in 2017 to learn the basics via online classes that had from far any common point with graphic design, paint and calligraphy and trained myself in order to find out what would be « my thing » and what wouldn’t - while trying to figure out rather there would be a spot available for me in this industry -

At the end, I just took a chance because who knows until they’ve tried ?

Since 2018 I’ve been blessed with many wedding planners trusting me in creating their clients’s stationery, (as well as some entrepreneur trusting me in creating their new branding / logo - which is something I still offer occasionally). Then more and more couples directly contacted me as my work got more visibility, I guess. I do not work for corporate events so much, mainly private citizens, from all over the world.

Show us one of your favourite designs and tell us about how it came to be.

One of my favorite design will be hard to choose, there has been a few favorites lately…

Corinne and Brett’s invitations were fully custom made for this American couple getting married in France in one of our most famous wedding venue. They loved the handmade paper idea and gold touch as well. So we discussed what illustrations would make sense for them and (happy me!) they wanted the venue sketched, we then added some hand drawn lily flowers sketch as the bride-to-be loved them. We went for a full off-white handmade paper (yours !) suite printing in gold foil, and I added a blue touch as their wedding design was going towards this shade, with a silk ribbon and a deeper blue for the envelopes.

A few photos below…

I am sorry as I will share another favorite :)

Though you didn’t ask for it, here is a second favorite of mine :)

Trisha & Jack’s wedding invitation, fully custom made as well. I knew the wedding would have green and pink shades, so I offered them some custom watercolor floral illustration to mix with a foil printing technic for the text and I was so happy they trusted me with this vision. The result is so romantic, delicate although not necessarily too feminine.

For both of these custom invitation suites, I created a custom wax seal, which is definitely a favorite detail of mine! 

What are your favourite colours to work with right now? And why?

Although I’m not a « pink lady » at-all on my daily life, I feel like on paper it brings joy and beautiful lighting. But not only, I have a thing for light and soft colors with blush, green and blue accent. It can slightly change from time to time but off-white, pink and green I feel will always be colors I love to work with!  

Your all time favorite colour in Hex and how would you describe it?

Can’t choose between blue or green!  

Which of all our colours of handmade paper do you like best if you had to chose one?

Still can’t pick one - I really am bad following rules - 2 of your new made to order colors have my heart: the sage and dusty rose!

Colour combination that will never go out of style? Colour combination that will make a comeback?

I’d say whites, blush and soft pink will probably never go out of style especially in the wedding industry. Comeback even though they never went far I’d say darker paper colors with autumn and winter coming. Dark Burgundy, dark green, and black … I for one can’t wait to create a suite including darker shades!

What are design elements that you use consistently in your work?

Floral illustrations, calligraphy, watercolor and medium to small font are what you can find in most of my work. I rarely to never work without illustrations, rather it’s floral, a crest or a venue sketch, I love making it particularly unique. The same for calligraphy, it rarely to never happens - and if I’m asked not to use calligraphy, I feel quite unaccomplished ha!

How do you see handmade paper? Is it a more modern or a more retro design element?

It’s definitely giving me an old and authentic vibes of handmade craft. Not modern, although it depends on what modern means for each individual. But to me, its authenticity is what makes it so special. Plus, in the paper industry it’s not uncommon but to everyone else, it must feel so special to receive invitations with that texture, so it’s a real addition to an invitation.

What inspires you?

I am always inspired by the event / wedding itself, and by my clients’s personalities. Mostly if they can come up with a mood-board that showcase the color palette, textures and atmosphere then the inspiration sincerely often comes naturally.

Your dream design project?

My dream project would come from within I think - meaning that I want to learn « all » crafts, I’m so grateful I got to where I am today, designing and mostly printing everything I first sketch and write is a beautiful success on its own for me. But I’d love to be able to produce everything in my studio - I recently welcomed my beautiful foil press - and I am in the process of learning letterpress printing and can’t wait for the day I get to own my first press, among other machines I’m dreaming about! My goal is to go beyond paper and create all kind of details (think laser cutting, engraving, etc)

If you had to use only one font on handmade paper for the rest of your designer's life, which would it be?

This is not an easy one! But I’d say Perpetua :)

Are you secretly a serif or sans serif person?

Definitely serif!

Which three words best describe your style?

Delicate, romantic, intentional 

Did you teach it yourself or did you go to school for design?

I learned everything I know by taking online classes!

How did you learn calligraphy?

Again, online classes and hours and hours of training, still going… it’s a never ending learning art. Like any art I believe.

Your guilty pleasure in design?

Is painting flowers a guilty pleasure? Not that I feel guilty about it, but it’s been seen everywhere and for a while now, it’s like an « easy trend » but I do love drawing and painting (watercolor) them!

Why do you like working with handmade paper?

I love the idea of each piece being unique. Not to mention the organic look and fluffy edges… a dream!