Showcasing Gina Marie Design!

How did you pick the name of your business? This was tough for me, believe it or not. For years before actually going out on my own, I had tried thinking of something that was unique and would get people asking “what is that?” because I have always felt, if a company is getting attention – that is good! But, I couldn’t think of anything “unique” enough, and back in 2009 when I decided on Gina Marie (Graphic) Design, it was in style to use your name for your business. But, I wasn’t married yet, and I didn’t want to use my maiden name, so I decided on just going with my first and middle name. Then, the struggle with having just “Design” and “Graphic Design” came in, I worried having just design would make people wonder what type of design I did. Now, I have shortened it back without the word graphic because I don’t think it affects it much.

Tell us a little bit about your background in your career prior to starting your business. I have always been interested in art, specifically graphic art/design since I could use the computer. I went to a trade high school to learn graphic design, and graduated high school with my certificate in Graphic Communications. I wanted to be able to get my best foot forward in my career though, and continued to graduate college and receive my BA of Science in Graphic Design. Before graduating college, I was awarded with a paid internship at the American Cancer Society, which then lead me to my first “real design” position when they hired me for my first ad campaign. I loved working there and feeling like I was making a difference. I went on to another position at an insurance company as their lead designer, managing all marketing, designs and campaigns. It was during this time that I decided I should start my own business on the side of my full-time design job. I was planning my wedding and had to design my wedding invitations since I didn’t find any that I loved. I fell in love with designing for weddings, as I felt I got my fill of all the other general design/marketing from my full-time job, but wedding invitations, and the feeling behind an invitation is so much different from a marketing piece. Love sparked so much joy within me. After a few years managing the marketing at the insurance company, I went on to designing on an incredible team of designers at a publishing company, and this was where I think I learned the most in my career – in way of techniques and how to design more efficiently, as I learned from the designers around me. I found that previously I was kind of the only one in my field at the company, and therefore wasn’t able to grow like I did at the publishing company where people took me under their wing and taught me a lot. After becoming a mom though in 2012, and feeling the strain of balancing my full-time design job and my side freelance work, I decided to quit my job in 2014 to run my company full-time and be home for my son.

What motivates you? Inspiration . . . I know that sounds a bit funny, but more often than not, couples come to me not knowing really what they want. I hear “I have never done this before, I don’t know what to do or what to ask for” and that motivates me to inspire them to show the world, or at least their family and friends, what they are all about as a couple. Are they funky? Are they traditional? Are they luxurious? Are they laid-back? Wedding invitations and stationery sets the tone for a wedding, or I feel like it should, and I love the challenge of working to showcase that for the couple, which then helps them set that tone further within their wedding planning/theme/style.

Tell us about a memory you have from a past wedding that sticks out in your mind. I have a lot of great memories from amazing couples or amazing invitation suites I have been able to create, but one time I had a couple, that while I was printing their guest addresses on their envelopes, I saw their list was 75% celebrities! I never had the nerve to ask if they actually knew all the celebs but, I thought it was really cool that my invitations were being sent to them! Taylor Swift being one!

If you had to give just one piece of advice to couples planning their wedding, what would it be? Invite only those who bring you joy. So often, couples feel a pressure to invite people they hardly know (or don’t know at all) to appease others. This day is about you as a couple.