To celebrate Stationery Week and the opening of the two day London Stationery Show today (at London’s BDC), PGBuzz asked industry bods what stationery items they just couldn’t be without!
Mark Janson-Smith, director, of independent card retailer Postmark, London:
“Lamy fountain pen: These pens are stunning to write with. They look great and even customers who’ve sworn off fountain pens love them when they pick them up. A very reasonably priced, quality product that writes as good as it looks
Leuchtturm1917 notebook: It was a close call between Leuchtturm and Moleskine but in the end Leuchtturm just edged it for me. Fantastic range of colours and sizes, great quality paper and matching pen loops, they are deservedly popular.
Esmie: Beautiful to look at and beautiful to use Esmie stationery is, for me, one of the best luxury stationery brands out there. A real treat for any stationery lover.”
Jessica Hogarth, owner, Jessica Hogarth Designs:
“None of my designs would exist without the 0.38 Muji pen! I buy them in bulk every time I see a store and have been my go-to drawing pen since first year of art college. I’d be lost without my floral Rifle Paper Co diary. It goes everywhere with me. It’s nice to look at, has loads of room for writing in and without it I’d definitely be guilty of double booking. When in the studio I of course need a calendar on hand. This year’s calendar of choice is from Oxfam, and I designed the art for it! It’s a slim calendar so doesn’t take up too much space, but there’s enough room for me to write important work dates on that I must not forget.”
John Haslam, joint managing director of paper company G F Smith:
“I love Ajoto pens for very special occasions, they are beautiful and are encased in gorgeous Colorplan packaging. But for everyday use I like a Muji 0.7 pen and we can’t be without a Moleskine notebook, we need a paper diary as we work for a paper company after all!”
The London Stationery Show
The London Stationery Show opens today (25 April) at the Business Design Centre in London. The two day stationery extravaganza offers buyers the biggest selection of writing and paper products from around the world, with everything from the everyday to high end.
As well as the seminar programme and series of workshops, a team from leading online curated marketplace notonthehighstreet.com will be at the show on Wednesday 26 April looking for new partners via a mini Pitch-Up event. Exhibitors and visitors alike will have the chance to share their ideas and products with the notonthehighstreet team on Wednesday morning from 10:30am.
There’s a big buzz around stationery at the moment with National Stationery Week (24 – 30 April) also well underway. This year over 75 retailers have pledged their support to the event, taking part in the Seven Days of Stationery challenge as well as entering pictures of their POS displays to win £hundreds of pounds-worth of stock courtesy of the sponsors of the 2017 campaign.
