Design
May Crowning Invitation
by Anne Kostecki
For over twenty years, the Vitale family has hosted a May Crowning ceremony at their home, inviting over 300 friends and family to celebrate. A May Crowning is a Roman Catholic ritual of honoring the Blessed Mother as the "Queen of May," with prayers, songs, and offerings of flowers. For most of the event's history, the invitation was a folded card with a photo of the statue of Mary from the Vitale's backyard, black type on the inside, and printed on glossy photo paper. Looking for a change, Mary Anne asked me to redesign the card to feature my watercolor painting of the Blessed Mother and to update the design of the card interior. I chose a classic script paired with a serif typeface in a deep blue color (Mary is usually cloaked in blue) ornamented by small pink flowers on the interior.
The new cards were printed digitally on #110 white cover weight paper with matching envelopes (printed by Smartpress). The watercolor painting was painted with Winsor & Newton watercolors on Canson cold press watercolor paper.
