DESCRIPTION 60th Birthday Invitation CLIENT Mom DATE September 2010 DESIGN CREDITS Design: Maarten Deckers Photography: late grandfather Thanks to the printer who designed her birthday card 60 years ago TYPE CREDITS Bodoni Antique Light Saturdays Girl Helvetica Neue Condensed Black FlemishScript BT

QUANTITY PRODUCED 150 PRODUCTION COST €90 PRODUCTION TIME 1 week DIMENSIONS: WIDTH × HEIGHT × DEPTH 105 mm (4.13 in) × 150 mm (5.9 in) PRINT METHOD Offset PAPER STOCK Coated 300g NUMBER OF COLORS CMYK

There is something about a well-put-together collage that fascinates me, the way they tell a story by snipping pieces of smaller stories weaving themselves to something bigger. I especially like them when the subject or theme portrayed is something I am familiar with—such as a family member who needs to be celebrated. Hesitant at first, Maarten dug deep into his mothers past and found just what he was looking for.

When my mother turned 60, she gave a big party for all of her closest friends and she asked me to design the invitation. Designing for friends or family can be tricky and it’s usually best to kindly turn them down. But this was something special. And since she’d always liked my collages (as mothers do) I was determined to give it my best shot. I dug deep and found some fun pictures of when she was small, her actual birthday card, the address stamp of her mothers sewing shop and some other things that would remind her of that period. I made some scans and turned them into a collage in Photoshop. She loved it!