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I celebrate youR FIRE
THROUGH art

ABOUT PAPER PHOENIX

Custom identity and occasion design studio by Lydia Tate (Lichtenberger) Slotten.

Specializing in bespoke designs that capture the passions of individuals, unions / weddings and creative companies. Sustainable stationery, illustration, painting, logos. Celebrate your unique fire. Reimagine identity. Made by Lydia (she/her). Atlanta based but not restricted.ย 

SCHEDULE

Book a free session with me to discussion a commission idea spark. Let’s bring your fire to life.

WHAT ARE YOU CELEBRATING?

@paperphoenix

    A set of adventuring parents-to-be commissioned a A set of adventuring parents-to-be commissioned a modern take on a vintage ~French travel poster meets birth announcement. Includes an airline Easter egg from a past & family legacy employer. Celebrates new chapters and further adventures to come with their little one. Designed and framed to go with current nursery theme decor. Animals drawn to grow with her vs overly childlike. Ready to be shared as a digital announcement. 
๐Ÿ—บ๏ธ๐Ÿ–ผ๏ธ๐Ÿ†Ž๐Ÿจ
I've been intentionally the worst at keeping insta posts up to date for a bit. But after getting back into stories and a reel lately... As I was working on another special birth announcement, thinking of this gem! 
#custombirthannouncement #graphicart #illustration
    A rainbow grasshopper, aka dactylotum bicolor. Xma A rainbow grasshopper, aka dactylotum bicolor. Xmas commission for Jude, who is cooler than all of us. They are typically .8 to 1.5 inches long but with bigger than life aposematic colors. In this case, his curiosity collecting mom had it envisioned at โ†•๏ธ 25 inches. 
๐Ÿฆ—๐ŸŒˆ๐ŸŽจ๐Ÿ–Œ๏ธ๐Ÿ–ผ๏ธ๐ŸŽ
#acrylicpainting #bugsarecool #rainbowgrasshopper #insectart #grasshopperpainting #dactylotumbicolor #abstractart
Special thank you to the very cool reference shots but Robert Jensen. 
๐Ÿšฆ
For my acrylic paintings, I like combining loose and layered impressionism energy with a modern dutch meets chirascuro play on light vibes, color emanating out of black backgrounds.
    Can't believe this romantic, international love le Can't believe this romantic, international love letter themed pair get married this weekend!
๐ŸŒโ˜˜๏ธ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡นโœ’๏ธ๐Ÿฆ๐ŸฆŒ๐Ÿ‡
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Post-wedding we'll do a retro of their bespoke fully envisioned coat of arms ๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ, and reveal how we riffed on the design for some handmade vow booklets For now, here is a sneak peak!
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BTW I have two brides who requested a similar postage set this year, but so fun to see them applied to two very different totally bespoke illustrated motifs!
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#weddingstationery #stationerydesign #modernheraldry #weddinginspiration #weddinginvitations #bespokeinvitations
    Who wants a physical holiday card?! Slide your sna Who wants a physical holiday card?! Slide your snail mail addy into my DMs. Pictured throw back to some fun card backs from last year. ๐Ÿ’Œ
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#stationerydesign #sustainablestationery #holidaycards #snailmail #handmade
    Gearing up to paint new Chirascuro pieces. โœจ๐Ÿ–ค Gearing up to paint new Chirascuro pieces. โœจ๐Ÿ–ค๐Ÿ–Œ๏ธ๐ŸŽจ
Love playing with brights on dark paper. How they fade away when I make a more water vs pigment shade. I can layer them and do some mixed media fun too with pencil work or ink. I imagine the shapes emerging from darkness into the light. I paint with freedom of strokes either way but it's my yin and yang to my illustration on white/natural white look. Less realistic and less specific but still delicate in it's own free way. It also looks more 'full' but the dark paper is such a gorgeous backdrop it still has space. Instead of as much texture in tiny drawn ink shapes there's texture in the art medium.
๐Ÿ“ƒ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿฆ—๐ŸŒˆ
I'm particularly jazzed about a funkadelic grasshopper holiday gift, stay posted, bugs are cool. 
๐Ÿ๐ŸŒฟ๐Ÿ‚
I'd like to riff off some fall arrangements from an event this past season too. Does anyone need some minis? I picked up some cute mini black squares and that could be fun. 
๐ŸŒฒ๐ŸŒฒ๐ŸŒฒ๐ŸŒณ๐ŸŒณ๐ŸŒณ
I need a large personal piece for my cabin and am thinking about doing a fairly large and long semi abstract one of the trees in our backyard as they fade out from the open fire pit. Not sure on which medium. We shall see. More coming too there! 
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#chirascuro #acrylicpainting #moodyflorals #bouquet #painting #acrylicpainting #stilllifepainting #semiabstractpainting #moderndutchstilllife #botanicalart
    Celebrating the new home of Dana @fiercemoves28 an Celebrating the new home of Dana @fiercemoves28 and (gift for) Samson! ๐Ÿก Illustrated with black ink โœ๏ธ, then colorized with watercolor on recycled paper ๐Ÿ–Œ๏ธ๐ŸŽจ. Ready for framing in a sustainably sourced handmade merlot dyed wood frame, to add a pop of color and joy to their new beginnings and new diggs. ๐Ÿ–ผ๏ธ
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#illustrationoftheday #illustrationdaily #illustration #illustratedhome #housewarminggift #watercolorpainting #watercolorart #welcomehome
    Branding journey beginnings for @eachdayflorals, b Branding journey beginnings for @eachdayflorals, by Amy Phelps.
โ˜€๏ธโ›…๐ŸŒ„๐ŸŒ…โœ‚๏ธ๐Ÿฅ€๐ŸŒน๐ŸŒฑ
Amy is genuine; earnest while discerning, creative yet practical, wandering in adventure spirit yet grounded in what matters most. A joy to unearth and understand. An invaluable find for clients seeking floral services. We sought organic shapes but a refined and elevated logo. To pair with a greenery-focused illustrated floral motif bank, for a variety of future print and digital applications.
๐ŸŒฟ๐Ÿ”ก
+ E is the entire thing. F is the top left shape. D is formed by the negative interior space.
+ Each day: When flipped 90 degrees on its back, counter clockwise, the unique 'F' shape is cycling sunset to sunrise spheres. A setting half-sun, between a mountain range mostly full-sun, a rising half-sun. Homage to alchemy triskele and day/night motifs, hourglass, infinity shapes. From this perspective the negative D space is a lake, Amy forages in the hugging angled banks.
+ This compass aligned sense of direction - where you are from and how you came to be, purpose - is important to Amy's client process. Understanding you and florals that are 'you'. And, guides wild foraging. 
+ The 'suns' are also floral petal-esque, with undulating edges, organic interior lines. The middle swooping curve like a bendy Gerber stem, a favorite. A bite of foraging sheers, or alternatively rose thorns / leaves, subtly create the the rounded D edge.
+ Amy's son drew a gorgeous gold design on her navy entryway wall.  A pattern the, especially lined, logo riffs on when in stepped cascade. For select service and printed uses we introduce a special yellow gold on navy colorway.
+ Core colors are a sienna red saddle-leather brown (lines also like it's lived in texture), sun mustard golds, dark rich wines and rose taupes, the occasional forest green. 
+ Sphere-emphasized lowercase typewriter typography for full name lockups.
+ The identity suite is intended to be textured, layered, with logo alternates and ability to introduce future botanical illustrations.
+ Mock-up sneak peak for now as we continue the branding process together and she lives the dream, going full time.
#branddesign #illustratedlogo #logo
    Couple o' hatchlings leaving music notes in the sa Couple o' hatchlings leaving music notes in the sand, as they head to the ocean under a pink moon. 
๐Ÿข๐ŸŽถ๐Ÿ–๏ธ๐ŸŽ‘
Small part of a very unique 2x3 feet wedding welcome sign. Dali watercolor, meets full moon wedding in Maui,  the Beatles 'I will' song + general record / album cover appreciators, with ~6 reference albums by various artists, but all pulled together in my style. There's also a nod to how Van Gogh painted olive trees. But I digress. Will share more closeups and the final. 
๐Ÿ–Œ๏ธ๐ŸŒˆ ๐Ÿ‘ฃ
These lil cuties came to be when looking at the first full illustrated proof together. Steph asked if we could add two turtles. Steve pulled up Dali's kinda scary but very cool tall turtles. We decided to live in a happier place for the purposes of wedding welcome sign vibes, but embrace the semi-abstract and colorful energy. S+S spirit animals, adventuring into marriage together.  We have music notes elsewhere in the piece. Steph had the clever idea to have their little flippers leave subtle music notes 'footprints'. 
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#illustration #watercolor #ink #linedrawing #illustrator #graphicart #illustratedwedding #artisinalbride #illustrationdaily #illustrationaday  #animalillustration #illustrationart
#weddinginspo #hatchlings #babyseaturtles #mauiwedding #romanticturtles #audiophile
    Reminiscing of ruins; a calligraphed escort cards Reminiscing of ruins; a calligraphed escort cards meets ribbon adorned vintage goblets moment, ready for guests, just inside Emily and Anthony's outdoor ceremony at the most marvelous location. 
๐Ÿฅ‚๐Ÿท๐ŸŽ€โœ’๏ธ
Not pictured: velvet couches, antique rugs and creative flower-festooned family portraits along the other walls. Incredible photos by @ashleywhitephoto, 
divine florals by @carolineworthdesign and creative direction / planning by @smoothasbutterweddings, at the Barnsley ruins of @barnsleyresort. Escort cards made from recycled paper and vegetable oil soot dip pen ink. 
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#escortcards #escortcarddisplay #escortcardideas #calligraphy #sustainablestationery #calligrapher  #weddinginspiration #weddingdetails #weddingescortcards  #moderncalligraphy
    BTS of a Botanical Monogram Emblem for Lexi (Alexi BTS of a Botanical Monogram Emblem for Lexi (Alexis) & George.
๐ŸŒฑ๐ŸŒฑ๐ŸŒฑ๐ŸŒฑ๐Ÿซ๐Ÿค
Wedding content like this is a type of identity design. Here are some process workflow tips to mesh your skills with client muse vision. This isn't the only right way, but it works for me! 
โœจ
Process:
1. Confirm brief, and complete collaborative discovery with your clients before drawing anything. You need overall design guardrails and planned approach for each core element. Unpack vision for the day-of. Consider visual aesthetics that map to personalities, style. 
2. Illustrate/paint elements by hand, on paper and/or digitally.  Use micron pens or dip pen black star waterproof ink. Add a watercolor wash after. Some people leverage art you can buy or art that's past copyright of a similar style era. I almost always draw my own content; a map lover wanted to use a specific compass rose a once.
3. Scan as needed, adjust colors to be true both while scanning and when tidying up. I like to scan while b&w and again when washed with a color. 
4. Mesh with suite lettering  workflow track to create an aligned monogram. This is a mini logo effort that needs to work with your botanical lockup. It either goes with or is comprised of typography elements for the rest of the invite.
5. Create a fully editable design you would be proud to use yourself. Envision each piece as real, arrange like a still life via digitally collage. Digitally add extra motifs as needed. Be mindful of intended application placement and scale parameters.
6. Mockup on intended paper.
7. Review and adjust in a major round (adjust layout, swap elements in/out). In this case, we decide to minimalize by shifting roses to the response card, add a shield shape we weren't sure about initially.
8. Percolate decisions across other suite elements. Will share more from this one!
9. Review and tweak to finalize things like overall scale.
10. Joyfully bring to life in print, assembly, mailing, receiving, framing+

Should I do a more detailed post on this? Considering adding how-to's to my site. 

#bespokeinvitations #monogram #invitationdesign #behindthescenes  #weddinginvitation #illustratedwedding  #stationerydesign #modernheraldry
    Ja-mie-Fox do do do do do (how many dos are there? Ja-mie-Fox do do do do do (how many dos are there?) ๐ŸฆŠโšก๐ŸฆŸ๐ŸŒฟ 
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I am trying to be better about showing my work and process. Going to start with spot lighting more of the little details and decisions that go into a piece. Amidst discovery planning and proof rounds for a save the date earlier this year, a friend of the creative couple went, wait. You are getting married at Fox Hall! Do you have a fox amidst all your creatures? Amidst our other priority animals, we'd skipped over an obvious contender. And thus our little young cub friend Mr. James Hal Fox Jr got added to the mix. I got the Ted Lasso Ja-mie-Tartt cheer stuck in my head about him. He is playing with fireflies featured on both the front and back. We decided we liked the little lightening bugs interacting with the other Georgia wildlife. Here they are engaging in curious awe and wonder. A wonderous evening. Inspired by my watching the fireflies around our cabin campfire this fall. This is their little vignette excerpt amidst other botanicals, birds, and more. Now we are getting to play with riffing the motifs within the invites and revisiting all our little friends. Half of the fun of illustrating wedding suites is the sharing in the proceeding dreaming. 
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#illustration #watercolor #ink #linedrawing #illustrator #illustratedwedding #bespokeinvitations #artisinalbride #invitationideas  #illustrationdaily #illustrationaday #illustrationoftheday #stationerydesign #weddingssavethedate #georgiawedding  #foxhall #animalillustration #illustrationart #lighteningbugs #fireflies #fox #meetcute
    Hi friends! You may have noticed that I've been mo Hi friends! You may have noticed that I've been mostly sticking to limited stories the past few months and avoiding posts! Here's where I've been hiding out, focusing on knocking out lots and lots and lots of art. Plus having Phoenix approved smoky mezcal negroni's by our fire pit. Decompressing with hikes. Etc. 
๐Ÿก๐ŸŽจ
And, sometimes helping my husband with staining his word working (see, chairs in back of my truck, wood workshop to the left not pictured). We both have our little creative havens here. We actually finished this previously raw wood shed together. Still need real furniture on this side! But it's so nice to draw nature while throwing the doors open and enjoying nature. During the week we are down in Atlanta and most weekends up here.
๐Ÿ“ฃ
 Anyways, it seemed like there were many other voices and topics needing to be heard for awhile there, so I quieted mine and listened or reshared some of those. Plus, I needed time to self reflect and focus. A nice outcome of quiet time has been to consider how to better leverage time, talent, treasure and process to better align to my mission and values. Now I'm bursting at the seams with some lovely art and more to share with you. 
๐ŸŽจ๐ŸŒณ๐Ÿ’ป
Here I am drawing some psychedelic flowers on my Surface. Did you know that I do a ton of my work with a digital pen? It helps save paper and paint as just one way to make stationery work more sustainable.

#studioscenes
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