Hand-drawn Sketch to a Beautiful Final Product in 4 Simple Steps

At Evan Webster Ink it’s become clear that our partners in crime (what we sometimes call our customers) always have serious design skills. Every one of them (that means you!). We think everyone in the world has some idea about how things should look. That’s design!

Here’s a step-by-step recap of how we converted a beautifully laid out concept sketch by a 13 year old into a gorgeous and unique screen printed bat mitzvah invitation.

First, check out the original sketch:

Nina's hand-drawn Bat Mitzvah invite sketch.

1. Go over the concept to make sure everyone’s on the same page. We met in person to go over the sketch (and other project details). During this meeting I confirmed what each element represented and inquired about what general style they were going for (for this part I talked to Nina, the young artists, and her mom!). We decided on a clean but simple look, staying away from other options like hand-drawn, ornate, grungy, post-modern, or vintage.

A close-up of the hearts in the original design.

2. Tweak design based on conversation (if necessary). With our style decided, I suggested we consider eliminating the hearts because they didn’t fit with the Bat Mitzvah invite. Doing so would allow people to focus on the other core elements, which are all awesome!

Zoom in on some of the other graphic elements in the sketch.

3. Create the digital reproduction. Next, I scanned the original sketch. Then I found or made each graphic element and placed it on the invite wherever the original was. Sometimes, after everything is in place things need to be moved around to make an invite work. Usually not though, and in this case everything was perfect. I didn’t move a thing!

The digital mock-up, approved prior to screen printing.

4. Tweak the digital mock-up until it’s perfect (and then print!). At this point, I sent the digital mock-up to Nina and her mom to find out if they liked it. Besides a couple of grammatical changes, it was a go. I made the corrections, got final approval and then screen printed the Bat Mitzvah invitations which were based on Nina’s original drawing. They loved the final product!

The whole invitation.

There was also a matching screen printed RSVP card!

I’d be lying if I said it was always so easy to turn a concept into a finished product. But regardless of how easy or hard the conversion is, working from customer-designed sketches is always very rewarding, for me and them. Here’s a few more pictures:

Get sketching! You don’t need a degree from Rhode Island School of Design or a five-year apprenticeship with a layout designer to have an inkling about how you’d like your design laid out.