Yesterday, Mrs. Guthrie and I celebrated our first anniversary. Since we are both graphic designers, it only made since that we should make gifts for each other in honor of the paper anniversary.

Mrs. Guthrie’s Gift for Mr. Guthrie

We both approached the projects very differently. To her, content was king, and she went to great lengths to generate a massive amount of content.

Mrs. Guthrie made a page-a-day calendar. Every weekday shares something she loves about me. The notes range some personal behaviors I never noticed – like how I look over the top of my glasses when I’m saying something serious – to personal appreciation for how I treat her (which is like a princess, thank you very much) to, uh, dirty stuff. Since I know you’re going to ask, the weekends in the calendar are devoted to dirty stuff.

I read through every single page aloud and, as is my wont, cried like a baby. It was overwhelming to read over 200 reasons why I’m special to this amazing woman, and I just couldn’t keep it together.

I also appreciate the Futurist/Constructivist slant she gave the design, knowing my affinity for those styles. A perfectly executed design from the best designer I know.

I love you, sweetie. Thank you.

Mr. Guthrie’s Gift for Mrs. Guthrie

I wanted to emphasize craft. After all, it’s the paper anniversary, so I was determined to make this gift about the paper.

I am so amazed at how quickly one year went by. In thinking about the past year, I wondered if I had forgotten anything that happened. That’s when it occurred to me what I should make for my gift.

What you see is 51 individual booklets representing our wedding and 50 separate anniversaries, meant to serve as freeform diaries of our marriage, all scored and trimmed by hand. The booklets fit in a slipcase that stays shut with a magnet. The magnet isn’t strong enough to grab the spent X-Acto blade glued underneath the bookcloth on the lid, so I threw that bulldog clip on the front to hold it shut. It was a temporary solution, but fortunately Mrs. Guthrie liked it; she can use the clip to hold a photo when the box is closed.

Each booklet has a number stamped on it to represent the anniversary. When there is a traditional gift for that anniversary, I added a drawing to represent that gift. (The 25th anniversary and the 50th anniversary, in lieu of drawings, have glued-on PMS 877 and PMS 871 chips, respectively.) The pages have a simple grid of dots for writing, sketching, or even gluing on a photo. The inside-back cover has a pocket to hold photos, concert tickets, locks-of-hair – whatever she wants to hang on to. While it may appear that the booklets are in there tight, the cover stock on the booklets is not folded too flat, making the booklets springy enough to fill the slipcase. There is still plenty of space for it to expand with photos and other items.

Oh, and those stamps? Carved by hand:

I wanted the type to match the font we used in our wedding invitations, and I’d always wanted to try my hand at carving my own stamps. Seemed like a perfect opportunity to give it a chance.

By the way, if you’re making your own stamps, try this: print your artwork on an ink jet printer to vellum or tracing paper. Then, while the ink is still wet, rub the artwork onto your block. You’ll get pretty good transfer of what you want to carve. Just be careful when you’re working – it will smear.

All in all, I wish the box had turned out a little better. I hadn’t allowed myself enough time to make it, and frankly, I took a risk making it anyway since I’ve never had much luck making boxes. But Mrs. Guthrie seemed happy, I had a lot of fun making it, and that’s all that matters.

Future Celebrations

The Mrs. and I decided to create a book. We’re going to design a page for that book to commemorate every holiday and celebration that we share together. The box will serve to chronicle the events in our lives; the book will track our work as designers. Of course, I will share those here.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go reread over 200 reasons why someone thinks I’m awesome.

(Updated on 7/2/08 to correct some grammar and to share this link to the photos on Flickr.)