A Love Letter to Paper and Heritage Brand Pineider

Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

This is love letter to paper. I have always loved deliciously soft paper, the feel of a sharply pointed HB pencil writing across a soft grain, or the contrast of my peacock blue ink on a stark white page. Though I was grew up with Nintendo, Apple Its and Nokia flip phones, I’m a paper kind of gal. In the early 2000s, I spent days of unemployment at Aardvark Letterpress, my friends’ letterpress shop in Downtown Los Angeles. I loved playing with ink and the Ludlow press, but there was nothing like nosing my way through Brooks and Cary Ocon’s stash of paper.

Blue. That’s my color and one day while sorting through the Ocon brothers’ ragtag collection, I found a half empty box of blue cards and envelopes with gorgeous beveled edges. Empress, Brooks told me. Vintage Pineider stationery known as Empress. Brooks mixed a custom turquoise ink and printed my name with a dragon fly on the cards and envelopes. I felt special. I saved the cards only for people who I know would appreciate a handwritten note on bespoke stationery. And I fell in love with Pineider paper, Italy’s 250 year old heritage paper brand.

Join me with Pineider director Giuseppe Rossi as we talk about the culture beauty, craft and paper.