art of the menu

Good food and good design go hand in hand. I feel like if someone really cares about their menu design, they probably really care about their food. Well hopefully anyway, but it sure doesn't hurt to sit down to your table and be greeted with yummy typography. The Art of the Menu pulls some great ones together.

old edwards inn wedding

I made a trip to The Old Edwards Inn, a hotel & spa tucked in the mountains of North Carolina, about two years ago when we were living in Greenville. It was so beautiful I didn't want to leave. So when Laurie, a friend of a friend, called us up looking for help with her wedding materials we were thrilled to hear she'd chosen this unique spot. Sight unseen, she and her groom had picked the Inn just based on recommendations. Brave girl and smart decision, because it's seriously gorgeous.

photo by Ali Harper Photography 

Laurie (in New York) relayed everything she was looking for to me (in Dallas), while Currier (in Nashville) got to work on her sketch pad. Wow! Makes me beyond thankful for the internet! Between the 3 of us, we came up with some lovely designs for Laurie & Grant's big day. Obviously the location played a big role. So much nature and texture to work with. Plus, Laurie wanted to do something really fun for the Save The Date, since her invitation would be more traditional.

We also designed some welcome bags with this same illustration. As a guest, I love getting a little welcome package. It's a detail that really goes a long way in making folks feel special.

Laurie & Grant needed some thank you notes to send out after showers and parties. Her family has lived in Hong Kong for 15 years and it's also where the couple got engaged, so we water-colored the "double happiness" symbol. We tied the bright coral color from the invitations back in and these will be great even after the big day. See more pics from the wedding at Ali Harper Photography

tennessee association for justice

Sometimes you want to update the "look" of your business without abandoning your original branding. That's where we Hens can help. TNAJ had some outdated business materials that needed a fresh look. We worked with their original logo and re-designed their business cards, letterhead, and envelopes. Now they're really ready for the capitol steps when session rolls around!

healthcare partnership

We blog a lot about invitations, but one of our biggest ongoing projects is our partnership with Jarrard Inc. They're a group of healthcare public relations experts in Nashville and they bring us in when one of their clients needs new collateral, signage, or advertising. It's great, because they act as account manager and we get to be the behind the scenes designers. One of our ongoing projects involves Tennessee Health Management. They have over 50 facilities for rehabilitation, skilled nursing, and hospice. Here's just a tiny bit of some new designs we've got in the works.

Another thing we handle for them is printing. With over 50 facilities, there are a lot of versions to keep up with, but we have a great system with a local Nashville printer that can handle the load. If you've never seen a large job like this print, it will give you a whole new appreciation for the process.

americana fest 2012

Reunited and it feels so good! After a long few months apart, we got to reunite in Nashville for a long work week and wonderful evening at the Americana Music Festival. It's an event we so look forward to and we realize we're incredibly blessed to work with such a big client. AMA hosted events all week, but the highlight for us is always the Honors & Awards show at the Ryman. Bonnie Raitt, Alabama Shakes, Richard Thompson, Deep Dark Woods, and Buddy Miller. The talent doesn't get any better and each year outdoes the last. Sure do love us some music city!

After the last song was sung, we got back to work on wedding job. Stamping, stuffing, and sealing at the post office all morning long. Highlight was noticing this special guest included below!

once wed feature - whidby island

We have a good buddy in Nashville, Brooke Boling, who's an amazing photographer. She shoots weddings, fashion, families, and lots of musicians in Music City. She's fab! And in fact, both of us hens used to work with her husband at our old agency gig. He was our creative guru and taught us everything he knew about design & the ad business and made it awfully fun.

Anyway… Brooke got in touch about a mock-shoot she was doing for her portfolio and wanted some help with the paper goods. We happily joined the project and came up with some designs for her shoot on Whidby Island. Think "summers end"… cool & simple colors, natural, and an organic feel. Her photos are so dreamy & ethereal, I wish I could run off and find my feet in the sand.

ps: her photographs are featured on ONCE WED    { yahoo, yippee }



A L L  P H O T O S  © B R O O K E  B O L I N G

tenn hens googlin

I don't know why we did this, but recently we google imaged ourselves. What we found was this amazing collage of Tenn Hens over the years. Pretty memories, a scattering of work, clippings, web stuff, blog posts, and some random chickens thrown in.

food gotta cook, dont come from a can

There's a new print available in the shop. It's kinda special. We read this somewhere and couldn't stop saying it back and fourth. We're always looking for quotes and sayings, especially quirky ones and this stuck to our ribs. This is hanging right above a highchair in my house. Can you tell we love the South? It's true y'all.

a few of our favorite things

Currier and I live in two different cities, but we talk about 5 times a day. And there's a whole lot of sharin' going on. We're constantly emailing new ideas, internet finds, photos of our houses under construction, new music recs, free fonts - you name it. We both do Pinterest which is great, but mostly it's "hey did you see how amazing this is OR check out this new photoshop tip" and back and fourth all week. So, I thought I'd share with y'all what we've been loving lately. Here's our mood board for September. Can't wait for boot weather, The Americana Festival, and some exciting new projects in the works. Hello Fall… here we come!  :::  bonnie

painting by Lulie Wallace
uniform I wear pretty much every day
tunes by Edward Sharpe
Kid Made Modern at Target
Americana Festival music sampler
uppercase magazine
Jim Morrison & Pamela Courson photograph
support the arts stamps
antiquarian wallpaper at anthropologie
hens watercolor for invitation