Seed muse
VOL. 1 ALEXANDRA COLLINS For Alexandra Collins, good design comes down to a personal touch. Working from her studio in Melbourne’s south east, she creates everything from wedding invites to menus for fashion events. You might recognise her work from our Seed by the Sea event last year. Alexandra is also our very first Seed Muse, so we caught up with her to find out how she makes it happen.
  • CALLIGRAPHER
  • DESIGNER
  • BUSINESS OWNER
Alexandra’s work is inspired by travel, and interior design. Her goal is to make classic ideas feel fresh.
Q: How did you get started with one mimosa please? It was my own wedding - I just couldn’t find anything that I liked in terms of invites and menus. I was a graphic designer anyway, so I knew I had the skills. I’d just had Florence, my older daughter, and launched the business while sitting on my couch. It was a bit scary, but I just thought, there’s so much potential here. I still think I have the best job in the world. It’s what I’m meant to be doing.
Q: What’s your process like for a bespoke job? Every brief starts with research for me, whether that’s old books or online. Even if it that takes me two days, it just makes the design process that much smoother. My favourite part is finding little references that I love, and translating that in my own style. I tend to start on my iPad, drawing and writing by hand.
Q: What’s your process like for
a bespoke job? Every brief starts with research for me, whether that’s old books or online. Even if it that takes me two days, it just makes the design process that much smoother. My favourite part is finding little references that I love, and translating that in my own style. I tend to start on my iPad, drawing and writing by hand.
“I’m always trying to think ahead. Now, I’m looking to a New York bistro-style menu, with lots of hand-drawn details. I’m loving old fairy tale books, the illuminated letters. That faded imagery, I find it really romantic.” ALEXANDRA
Q: what do you do to keep your designs feeling fresh? All my references and inspiration are vintage, I never look at anything modern. I love old travel books with images from Positano, the Amalfi coast, Patagonia, South America. It gives you this sense of how people used to live. It could be furniture, store signage, any design from the past. It could be even a can of sardines. My job is to make it modern and to translate it. It’s so interesting to see how some little bakery in some city I’ve never been to will set up their menus or their windows – design is an international language. Because so much of my work is weddings, I’m always looking for symbols of love that aren’t cliché. It could be a something from a Renaissance painting, a harp, angels, clouds, things that represent love but haven’t been done to death.
Q: How do you approach your wedding work? Your wedding invitations are so important; they set the tone for the whole day. I think what sets me apart is my attention to detail. I’m very particular. I want it to be amazing, and sometimes it needs a crest or something else special that the couple didn’t initially ask for. It’s about having that eye.
Q: How do you organise your working life? I work on about five designs at a time, so I probably get through 20 in a month. Things always happen with the kids, and I try to be really transparent about the little delays that can come up. All the couples I work with, it becomes a relationship. I mostly get clients by word of mouth – it’s super important to me to become friends with them. I need that time to communicate with them and do my best work.
Q: How do you approach your wedding work? Your wedding invitations are so important; they set the tone for the whole day. I think what sets me apart is my attention to detail. I’m very particular. I want it to be amazing, and sometimes it needs a crest or something else special that the couple didn’t initially ask for. It’s about having that eye.
Q: How do you organise your working life? I work on about five designs at a time, so I probably get through 20 in a month. Things always happen with the kids, and I try to be really transparent about the little delays that can come up. All the couples I work with, it becomes a relationship. I mostly get clients by word of mouth – it’s super important to me to become friends with them. I need that time to communicate with them and do my best work.