Mood Board

When considering how to design my invoice I decided to begin by gathering some inspiration from Pinterest and Dribbble, shown above. As I am currently freelancing I do currently have an invoice template. However, as I have now updated my portfolio website and made some changes to my brand e.g. removing the wordmark and using the typeface Satoshi for headings and Helvetica for body text, I wanted to incorporate these changes into my invoice. I have provided a sample of some of the invoices I felt were the most visually appealing above. I have drawn from these examples to produce my wireframes

Wireframes

I created the above wireframes to consider vertical and horizontal line placement and how I could best organise the information on my invoice. I also considered how I could experiment with typography and consider making the word invoice stage enough to span the page.

Invoice development

I then moved to illustrator to create my invoice. I began by referring back to my previous invoice shown above left. I stuck to the same principle elements I had used in previous elements as I would like to use this new version for my current freelance work and don’t want to confuse my current clients by sending them a radically different invoice. I began by removing the wordmark in my logo and the verticle grey column. Instead, I treated a grey header and used a column grid to produce a balanced 2 column layout (excluding the table). I was pleased with this update as it allowed me to include my own address (I have put on a fake address in the example) and the clients it also gives me more room to list the services I have provided and in my opinion is easier to read. I have included payment details and terms at the bottom and finished with a thank you for your business in the footer.

I decided to remove my web address and social media links as these are included in my email footer and are clickable for there so I imagine if a client were wanting to view these accounts they already have access to them.

I have also included my account name under payment details as I had found that given my business name is Rachel’s Design Lab and as I do not yet have a business bank account this was causing some confusion. I have also opted to include my hours and hourly rate in line with the project pricing I have included in my Project Proposal.

I have dated the invoice and included an invoice number that corresponds to the date that prevents clients from being able to tell how many invoices I have sent out between their payments.

Final outcome: Invoice

I am very pleased with my final outcome as I feel the design matches my new brand guidelines and compliments the design of my proposal. I believe that I have included all the relevant information and that the amendments made to my original invoice make this information slightly more digestible.