I have a confession to make: I have a bit of an addiction to stationery. I was one of those kids who spent ages organising my pencil case, and who got strangely excited about buying new notebooks before going back to school. It’s an obsession that’s lasted into adulthood, and I’m still drawn to pretty paper and pens.
I’m particularly happy at the moment because I’ve just had fun rearranging my office space for summer with the help of some lovely goodies from Danish stationery and homeware brand Design Letters & Friends. The company was founded by former copywriter and journalist Mette Thomsen, who wanted to create a range to reflect her passion for words and letters, and many of its products use striking typography hand-drawn in 1937 by renowned architect and designer Arne Jacobsen.
To sit alongside its classic alphabet line, Design Letters & Friends has just launched two new collections which showcase different elements of Jacobsen’s work. The first, ‘AJ Royal Vintage’, features designs conceived for the 1960s-built SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, of which he was the architect and for which he created his iconic ‘Egg’ and ‘Swan’ chairs. They include oval vases which he designed for the restaurant and bar area, along with an alpaca-wool throw, greetings cards and notebooks emblazoned with a geometric pattern used on the hotel’s carpets.
The second, ‘Flowers by Arne Jacobsen’, centres around a monochrome anemone print created by Jacobsen while in exile in Sweden during the Second World War. I was surprised to learn that a man known for his clean-lined furniture and buildings was also an avid landscape painter and botanical watercolourist, and it’s great to see this side of his skillset gaining recognition.
For my office, I grouped the three collections together, choosing a personalised ‘A’ notebook, cup and bottle, along with the ‘Flowers’ notebook and the ‘AJ Royal Vintage’ travel journal (which is ideal for keeping track of discoveries from my various trips). I also treated myself to an AJ pencil set, a calendar and fun ‘To do’ and ‘Not to do’ post-its, and added a few camellias from our garden to bring a touch of summer inside.
To see the full Design Letters & Friends range and find details of stockists, head over to designletters.dk.
Design Letters & Friends kindly provided free stationery for this post, but all words and opinions are my own.
Photography by Abi Dare
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