Coral Pheasant is a purveyor of unique custom paper goods and stationery for weddings, milestone celebrations and beyond. Designer Nichole Michel specializes in creating designs that are the perfect combination of beautiful typography, gorgeous patterns and thick, luxurious paper. A graduate of the University of Connecticut with a bachelor of fine arts and a minor in photography, Nichole spent seven years working as a graphic designer at a major consumer products company.
Coral Pheasant gives her the opportunity to bring her considerable talents to creating a feeling and telling the story of lifeâs momentous occasions. Want something fun and funky, a bit sophisticated or perhaps a timeless, classic design? Nichole will bring your vision and your event to life on paper, setting the mood as the envelope opens. Her witty and whimsical work has been featured on countless wedding sites and magazines and continues to garner rave reviews.
How did you get started designing stationery?
Art has been in my blood for as long as I can remember and my parentâs encouraged my pursuits wholeheartedly. One of my earliest memories of creating was building my dollhouse with my father. Everything on that miniature house was handcrafted from laying the chimney brick by little brick, to wallpapering the walls, to building the furniture. I delighted in working with my hands to make sure the tiniest of details was perfect. In college, I pursued my love of design by enrolling in the Fine Arts program and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.  It was during those four years that I became infatuated with typography and knew that I had found my calling.
After graduation I worked for a large consumer products company designing packaging, brochures and promotional pieces as well as art directing photo shoots. But what really tripped my trigger was outside the realm of my real gig: designing wedding invitations for recently engaged friends. (Yes, itâs a story many of us stationers share!) Custom invitations allowed me to combine my love of beautiful materials and tactile printing methods with out-of-the-box typography. When the time came to design my own wedding invitations, I pulled out all the stops and the process confirmed my true passion. Coral Pheasant Stationery was born!
Where does your inspiration come from?
Everywhere! Fashion, textiles, nature, photography, packaging. I know itâs vague, but there is so much beauty and inspiration out there!
What is one of your favorite invitation suites that you designed?
Just one? I donât mean to be cliché, but my personal wedding invitations are near and dear to my heart. Theyâre cheeky and playful while still having an air of formality to them. The black and white invitations that were recently featured in Well Wed magazine are also high on the list. I love the unconventional design, the use of foil, the unique plastic-like paper and the playful language.
What is the most unique material you have ever printed on?
I created an invitation that used a white coated metal plate. The design was laser etched to reveal the gold metal beneath. Very chic!
You have been involved in some incredible design projects lately that are gorgeous- designing Carla Ten Eyckâs e-zine and designing the newly released wedding binder of UK event planner Sara Haywood and her soon to be released book. How does designing invitation suites compare to graphic design projects like those.
Thank you! Collectively, the common thread is understanding the client and developing a design that fits their aesthetic. Once a look and feel is established, it is carried through to all of the corresponding pieces and pages. With an invitation suite there are many variables within each project. The size of the cards are often all unique and itâs common for the envelopes to be a different material. There might be ribbon to consider and envelope liners to design among a plethora of other elements. With projects such as book design, there are typography and layout fundamentals that you need to be aware of as they affect the readabilty of the piece. Itâs crucial to select the right font, set it at the proper size and create balance on the page through the use of grids, text blocks and imagery. Iâd say itâs a bit nerdier to work on a long text document! It both instances though, the difference is in the details!
xoxo, TWD