When Cinderella received her invitation to the ball, had it been via email or text, she might not have been so concerned about going.
“When you receive a beautiful invitation, you think – this is so luxurious, so special, you feel important holding it. It makes a huge difference.” So says Michelle Lopez, 28, who along with Catherine Stam, 40, founded the luxury stationery company White Ink to fill a gap in the Abu Dhabi market for personalised stationery.
White Ink specialise in custom-made, personalised stationery, which sells for Dh1,500 for a set of 50 embossed letters and envelopes. Most recently, the pair designed 100 stunningly crafted keepsake boxes with moon-shaped pendants inside for Dh12,000, which were hand-delivered as invitations to a Sheikha’s daughter’s first birthday party.
Ms Stam explains: “We got an email from the Sheikha saying she was holding a nursery rhyme-themed first birthday party for her daughter. She wanted very creative invitations. So we came up with a keepsake box – you call pull out the insert and use it to put items in.”
Ms Lopez, who used to work as an architect designing flagship Apple stores, and Ms Stam, a former attorney, both lived in San Francisco before moving to Abu Dhabi. On relocating here, the pair struck up a bond reminiscing over their favourite San Francisco stationery store, Paper Source. Realising they had a shared passion for paper, in January 2012 they set up White Ink, which has been growing through word of mouth two-fold each year since.
“Usually a client has an idea what they want, and Catherine and I will brainstorm on the computer and send them some images,” says Ms Lopez. “They’ll say which ones they like – it’s an ongoing conversation. Our clients don’t usually have budget constraints, so we’re lucky in that sense. They’re used to having things that are perfect, and immediate. We have had emails at midnight that have to be answered straight away.”
The entrepreneurs are both mums with two young boys who try to work at night when their boys are in bed. They also design unique children’s party invitations that double up as gifts. Ms Stam’s own son’s seventh birthday party had a spy theme, so they designed invitations containing a cipher card to decode the password needed to get into the party.
q&a inspiration on a paper chase
Michelle Lopez and Catherine Stam reveal more about their luxury stationery brand White Ink.
How would you describe your design aesthetic?
Ms Stam: We definitely have a design aesthetic that is very true to northern California. We like clean lines – classic, with modern twists of colour. We're also now influenced by our surroundings here. Our first project included patterns inspired by those on mosques around the city.
Where do you turn for inspiration?
Ms Lopez: Sometimes it's the tiling on floors – I'll be walking and look down and think 'that's so beautiful', so I take a picture which is then used as inspiration for the background to a card. There are patterns everywhere in this city, it's amazing. Pinterest is also a good source. We bounce ideas off each other. And because we do a lot of custom work, we get ideas from our clients. One client wanted stationery for her mother, who loved Palestinian patterns, so we designed stationery using those.
What’s next?
Ms Stam: We're now working on a knight-themed party – the invites are shields with scrolls attached.
Ms Lopez: We also have an idea we'd like to do for a kite party. You send each guest a box with a blank kite inside which the children decorate, then bring to the party to fly their kites together.
Do you sell through any stores?
We’ve been starting to stock our cards in some stores around town (Bits and Pieces on Muroor and Café Arabia), and we’d love to do wedding invitations. We’re hoping to expand to Dubai. We’d also love to design our own custom-made stationery.
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