10 Pieces Of Stationery That Will Inspire Handwritten Notes (PHOTOS)

Despite the highly digitized world that we live in today, as a writer, and perhaps more importantly in the context of this article, an avid paper lover, I am happy to report that stationery is currently enjoying something of a revival. It seems that while emailing, texting, social networking and blogging most certainly have their place so to does a thoughtful 'hello' card sent through the post or the words saved forever in a hand-written journal. From greetings cards to gift tags, diaries to notepads, stationery in all its different guises has never been more popular, and to celebrate this I wrote a book about it. I Heart Stationery (Rizzoli ,US, Jacqui Small, UK) was published this month and is packed full of some of most beautifully designed contemporary stationery and paper goods from around the world today. For the most part the work featured in the book comes from smaller, independent designers and crafters working out of home studios. In true entrepreneurial spirit many of them either sell their goods online in their own shops or via Etsy, or they sell to independent brick and mortar shops. Many of them also produce their work using artisan processes such as letterpress printing, block printing, paper cutting, screen-printing and calligraphy, each of which have actually enjoyed their own revivals of late. As well as these artisan processes illustration features heavily throughout with examples of work from Egg Press, Gemma Correll and Draw City, to name a few. It was a fantantastic book to research and write and just goes to show that there are many of us today who still like to indulge in the slower more tactile art of the written word. The slideshow below features some of my favorite examples of work from the book together with some newly discovered stationery goodies.

All photo courtesy of Charlotte Rivers