Marissa and Ned came to me with the idea of printing a poster for their wedding invitation that would fold down to fit into an envelope. Their inspiration was their location... the Bronx Zoo, and specifically this vintage poster:

I felt we could reduce the awesome hippo to a two-color linoleum cut and combine it with some of the 20's era type in the studio, both metal and wood. Here are the linoleum cuts along with some of the type used. There's a great deal of tricky spacing with more stylized typefaces and forced justification. It was also an opportunity to use brand new casts of the swirly ornaments from the fine folks behind Skyline Type.

And here's the final piece! It measures 7x20", and folds like an accordion down to 5x7". The accommodations card (which has directions on the reverse side) and reply card are both perforated so they can be torn off of the invitation to be both used and returned. Who will have the most fun at this wedding, the guests or zoo residents?