The setting is Darlington Estate Winery, just 20 minutes east of Perth in Western Australia. The date is mid-April, the perfect Autumn night. And the occasion is the "I Do's" of the beautiful Rebecca and Ben.

Bec had a vision in mind for their wedding invitations, which captured the venue in all its glory. It had to be rustic, soft, and feature wood along with proteas and gum leaves.

We highlighted some of her wedding information using the soft tones from the protea, and the rest in a bight white to contrast the deep textured background. This was complimented with a wishing well card featuring the elements from the invitation. Both cards were presented in a pebble-coloured pocket and white envelope.

The result was absolutely stunning.

This font is definitely trending right now; and is our pick for font of the month for March 2017: Trenda.

It's a sophisticated sans-serif typeface designed by Daniel Hernández and Paula Nazal. This font family comes complete with 8 different weights plus italics in uppercase and lowercase.

Where is it best used?

This font is a great all-rounder. I find its suitable in a professional setting such as headlines, body copy, packaging, logos, and labels. It's range of weights makes it easy to use the same font thought an entire project, which creates a beautiful harmonious feel to the design.

Trenda is a 634-character set that I just cannot wait to incorporate into my future designs!

What are your thoughts about this new font?

The Storyteller font developed by designer Elena Genova was really love at first sight for me. I am a sucker for handcrafted typefaces, and this one comes with enough swishes, swashes and swirls to make your heart skip a beat.

The family consists of 33 fonts in total; 6 script, 2 script fills, 1 brush, 17 sans-serifs, 4 serifs, 1 serif fill and 2 design elements.

The script and brush fonts are elegant and classic, yet give off a playful vibe. The serif and sans-serif faces give off a very whimsical feel, I can't help but think of Alice in Wonderland when I see these! Last but not least, the design elements – birds, rabbits, flowers, leaves, balloons, hearts, borders, swirls, circles and a tonne more. These truly make this font family something special.

This set will slide quite nicely into my rapidly growing font collection, and no doubt will pop up in my future designs!

Here are some more examples of Storyteller.Following images courtesy of www.myfonts.com.

There we so many signs growing up that I had an interest in art and design, that if I didn't end up in this field, there would be something wrong!

I used to find myself obsessed as a child with the TV show Art Attack. I would want to re-create everything they did on there, especially the small crafty projects. For a little nostalgia, here are some stills from an old episode!

Credit: YouTube: TheMeakers – Art Attack: Best of (1): CITV: TXN 1996

What signs as a child lead you to your current passion or profession?

~Lavinia

Font of the month for January 2017: Manhattan Darling.

This font is definitely in fashion right now. If you are on Instagram, you would have seen this pop up at least once or twice on quotes or in adverts, it's everywhere!

Despite its over-popularity, I still love it. It couples fantastic with watercolour backgrounds and floral designs.

What font are you loving right now?!

~Lavinia

Majority of the time, designing a logo is no simple task. More times than not you will create a few different designs and many variations of them. The Spire logo was no exception.

Genevieve from Spire was fantastic to work with. She had a clear vision of what she was after and it gave us a great foundation to design the logo. Gen even provided some sketches!

I am always a bit old school when it comes to designing. I will do my research, then grab a pencil and sketch book to jot down some ideas. Once I have a couple I like, I then move into the digital space and create more refined concepts.

I have a rule from here; don't present anything to the client you are not happy with! If you are truely happy with your designs, it will show.

Here were my initial concepts presented for the Spire logo;

Although the final logo didn't look like any of these, it gives the client an idea of what aspects of the design they like and don't, and also gives us a point to work from.

Here are more revisions of the logo before the final design was chosen;

And as the design process doesn't stop there, here are the concepts for Gen's business card design. We played with quite a few options here, Gen choosing which one appealed to her most.

Overall we achieved a fantastic result that both client and designer were happy with!

–Lavinia

A friend recently told me of how one of her close friends recently purchased her wedding invitations off a template-based site, only for her to receive them with the wrong information on them; the staff at the site had mistakenly corrected WA (referring to Western Australia) to Washington (in the USA!) Yes, it was the suppliers mistake, and yes, they reprinted them with the correct information, but does that make it right?

My answer? No.

1. Its all in the details

A good graphic designer will ask the questions a computer just wont. "Just want to double check that your wedding is in Western Australia, not Washington?"

As silly as it sounds, this is a valid question as more and more couples are choosing overseas locations to tie the knot, and well, you just never know.

They will also ask you questions you had never though of, potentially saving a re-do later down the track and overall saving you time and money.

2. You'll have more options

Ever wanted to view and touch samples before forking over your hard earned cash on something? Choosing a local designer means you can meet up with them in person and see exactly what you are getting. See the quality and make a decision from there.

3. Supporting YOUR economy

I hear it time and time again how we don't like the government or big corporations sending jobs overseas for jobs we can do here on our own shores, but when it comes to our own money, we are more than happy to sources these services elsewhere. Most of the time the local graphic designer is running their own business, trying to support a mortgage and possibly a family. So give back to your community and support your neighbour.

If you're looking for a local designer, ask around your circle of friends, colleagues or check on Facebook groups (such as , and I'm sure you'll get at least one contact.

Have you had a overseas design mishap?

-Lavinia

Recently designed and printed A4 flyers for Ross Cleaver at Varga Realty. Ross services the Canning River area including Waterford, Shelley, Willetton and Rossmoyne, so we developed two separate designs showcasing his latest sales and newly advertised homes, in a unique fresh way not normally seeing in the real estate industry.

To compliment these flyers, we redesigned Ross' testimonials in a more eye catching and easy to read way, to maximise his future leads.

If you are looking to buy or sell in the Canning River area, check out Ross on his Facebook page!

~Lavinia

Everybody needs a passion project. My salesman husband does woodwork (he's currently building model grand national cars), my school teacher best friend writes a food blog (check her out here), and well me, I create design projects I secretly wish people commissioned me to do.

My first passion project was most likely my recipe book. For as long as I can remember, I used to stand on a chair on the opposite side of our kitchen bench and watch my mum cook and bake. There were countless times when my two brothers and I would sneak a piece or two of raw cut-up potato (yes, raw – we're odd like that!), grab a slice of fresh cut Italian bread (I can still hear my mum "We're about to eat dinner, don't eat all the bread!"), or fight over who got the lick the beaters after mum finished mixing up a cake.

One of mum's original hand written recipes

Needless to say, I was brought up around food, and I loved it. As I got older, I'm talking about 14-15 years old, I would experiment in the kitchen. I would cook up these outrageous meals for the family from ingredients found in the pantry and fridge. Some not so bad, some not so good. I even used to stay up late and watch cooking shows on TV and actually couldn't wait to try and replicate the recipe the next day. Most times I usually adapted them a bit to suit our tastes. One recipe I remember was a zucchini pasta with anchovies. Who eats anchovies? They were removed immediately! If I had to pin point a time when I realised I could 'cook', this was it.

During my discovery for a love of food and cooking, of course all of these recipes had to be documented in my very own cook book! Looking back, I always had an interest in art and design, but until you grow up and realise not everyone typed out their recipes and designed them in Word as a teenager, you think everyone does it. Every page had a title, ingredients list and method, along with it's very on clip-art image to compliment the recipe. I would print these out and insert them into a A4 display folder. I still have the original print outs to this day.

Old recipe books from Home Economics in high school, and printed recipes I did as a young teenager.

Fourteen years on, here I am. A lot has changed but one thing remains the same – my first passion project, "My Recipe Book" is yet to be completed. I have studied graphic design, I moved out of home, married the love of my life, started my business while working full time, gave birth to a beautiful daughter and we have another one on the way. Over these years I have refined my cooking and my recipes, and have definitely added to the list I would love to include in the book. Most parents know that once you have a child, your dreams tend to be put on hold. My recipe book unfortunately has been one of those dreams, however I do revisit my working files every few months and make my changes and additions.

The great thing about passion projects in that there is no deadline, and there never will be. That's the best part! But I do believe I will get there in the end, and will be sure to share it with you all.

Do you have a passion project you are working on? How long has it been in the making?

~Lavinia

It's great coming back to the place I studied my graphic design course in, it brings back fond memories. Seeing familiar faces of those who passed down their knowledge and wisdom to young hopefuls brings a smile to my face. It's great to see them here year after year.

Tonight I am at North Metropolitan TAFE's Graphic Design graduates final exhibition in Northbridge, Western Australia. A night to show off their portfolio from the past few months and years of blood, sweat and tears, and hopefully a night to be spotted by some of Perth's industry professionals.

There are some great portfolios on display from the 25 students, with focuses on branding, illustration, typography and digital design. Typography is one of my favourite aspects of graphic design, and it was great to see some amazing work come out of these recent grads.

There were two on the 'ISTD table' about font designer Adrian Frutiger which were pretty impressive, and the recipe book by Matt particularly caught my eye.

About an hour into the night awards were given out to those who excelled in a certain area of their work. Unfortunately I was unable to note all the winners, but special congrats to Betty who won the typography award, Sam with the portfolio award, and Henry who took home the Travis Walker award.

I managed to view most of the portfolios on display, all have set the bar very high and I look forward to seeing what comes from them in their careers. For those I missed, they have included a brief overview of each grad in a handy little book to take with you in a neat goodie bag. The bag is usually full of sponsors marketing material, knick knacks promoting the graduating group and most importantly, the book showcasing a couple of pieces of work from each student.

Here's a couple of shots from the night and some highlights from the grad book.

Get down to support your local up and coming designers, the exhibition is on until this Saturday afternoon. Find the expo in the 'pink container building' – Gallery Central, North Metropolitan TAFE (formerly Central Institute of Technology), 12 Aberdeen Street, Northbridge.

~Lavinia

Instagram, Pinterest, Etsy and the like, are full of creative ideas from across the globe, and have given couples so many new options for their big day, including their wedding invitations. However purchasing invites off these websites and having them posted to Perth (or anywhere!) isn't always what newlyweds-to-be want to do.

I have done quite a few jobs where they will bring in an example of what they are after and want to create something similar.

With current trends for weddings heading down the rustic/vintage theme, I have received quite a few requests to create invitations with various styles of flowers on them. This had forced me to become a digital florist and I must say, I love it!

They seem like a simple thing to do until you break it down and see what these images are actually made of. Check out the before and after pics!

Have you seen some amazing digital floristry?!

-Lavinia

Spring has well and truly sprung! Flowers are blooming and colour is all around, which has inspired this spring themed wedding save the date card.

Printed on an off-white card, we have used soft modern script fonts complimented with handmade sans-serif typefaces. Purple, pink and apricot hues with a touch of green bring the design to life and definitely bring us out of the winter blues!

~Lavinia

Watercolours take me back to my childhood. Back when mum and dad would buy me the $10 art suitcase sets that a creative kid could only dream of!

It had everything; pencils, crayons, textas, glue, scissors, sharpener, eraser, ruler and of course, watercolours and a paint brush.

These days I've traded them in for some pots of ink, but lets be honest, its essentially the same process. Dip the brush in some water, add the colour and paint.

No matter how many times I see designs using watercolours and inks, or however common the style is now, I still admire the work.

These are some of my favourites at the moment;

Image credit: Instagram – katerina_mihailina_07

Image credit: RejoicingCrafts

Image credit: Etsy – Littlecatdraw

Have you created or seen some great watercolour or ink paintings?

-Lavinia

Big congrats to newlyweds Melinda and Matt who said their vows over the weekend.

I had the pleasure of creating their wedding invitations for their big day!

Melinda & Matt were after a classic vintage style with a touch of modern. We used shimmer cards and paper – Glamour Puss in Diamond White and Fairy Pink. The brief was quite simple with the only main requests were having "M&M" 'sketched' in the background, and keeping it quite traditional with a script font.

To finish off, we added a lace pattern to the background to enhance the vintage theme, and bundled them in a soft pink textured pocket – Coco Linen in Petite Pink.

All and all, a lovely wedding invitation set to design. I hope the day was one never to forget!

~Lavinia

Check out these awesome ute decals we did a few months back for Advanced Vision Security Installations.

Advanced Vision specialise in the supply and installation of security alarm systems, HD digital CCTV systems, intercoms and construction site CCTV surveillance and monitoring.

Advanced Vision Security Installations service the Perth Metro area, check out their website for more info. Click here!

Themed invitations are one of the best ways to let your guests know what they are in for! These basketball ticket invites I was fortunate to design for a 30th truly portrays the passion and personality of the birthday boy.

When going for a theme for anything, you need to go into those finer details to pull it off.

In these invites, we ran with the idea of it was the guest's ticket to the event, so naturally, they were designed as a longer thinner card. The wording on the invite was even slanted towards the basketball court with terms like 'stadium' for the location, 'tip-off' for date and time and 'RSVP to Coach...'.

The colours chosen were those of the birthday boy's favourite team, Oklahoma City Thunder, and it wouldn't be a milestone birthday without an embarrassing photo on there!

These unique and fun projects are some of my favourite to design.

What are some of the best themed invitations you have seen?

- Lavinia