Designing the invitation to a birthday doesn't have to be a thing at all. But with two kids and a dad as a Freelance Graphic Designer it does become a thing. And because Zoë and Liam are both still relatively small, we want to make every birthday a real party.

A new theme every year

First birthday
That's why we come up with a theme every year. And we also design an invitation, based on the theme. So naturally, when our son Liam celebrated his first birthday, something special had to be made.

Sleep, eat, play, repeat
One-year-olds usually do not have a strong preference for things other than sleeping, eating and playing. Liam was no exception. That made him the perfect customer. He simply didn't care. The theme of this birthday was therefore not inspired by Liam. Or our preferences. But came out of a raunchy search on Pinterest.

Quick design choices
Designing such birthday invitations is a time consuming task. Still, it's always super fun to do. Even though it never fits well into our busy schedules. The nice reactions from people we invite to the birthday make up for a lot. And because we both, as freelancers, run our own companies, we can make design choices quickly.

Concept: Circus

So good you want to keep it
Because your child's first birthday is of course quite a thing, you also want to make it something creative. This applies not only to the interior styling, but also to the invitation. It had to be a cheerful invitation. Personally too. And of such quality that you would like to save the invitation for later.

Circus theme
The 'circus' theme provides beautiful bright colors, typical typography and vintage icons. With the circus theme you also communicate the underlying feelings such as 'entertaining', 'exciting' and 'wow'. That makes circus always a rewarding theme to work with as a graphic designer.

Emerged into the circus theme

Circus ticket with circus director
Since it's an invitation, we chose to turn it into a ticket. This immediately creates a striking, less common, long rectangular shape. And since the birthday was all about Liam, we made him a proud ringmaster. Complete with hat and mustache. The ticket number became a date. In this way, the theme was extended well.

Luxurious for a VIP feeling

Appropriate packaging
We had the invitation printed on sturdy, luxurious paper. A beautiful envelope of craft paper was chosen as the appropriate packaging. A custom designed sticker was used to seal the envelope.

Very Important Person
In this way we ensured that the recipient of the invitation got a VIP feeling. And of course you are if you are invited to the very first birthday!

Interested in having Graphic Design made?

I'm happy to help! Let me know what kind of Graphic Design you need.

Related articles