I am finally coming out from the glorious design fugue state I entered attending NY NOW and Shoppe Object a few weeks back. Since I get visually overstimulated pretty fast, my MO is to take lots of pictures and make sense of it all back at my desk.
There was one brand I had been really looking forward to seeing — and it did not disappoint! Founded in 2017, meet Copenhagen’s Notem Studio. If you like your design Scandinavian — that is, simple, clean, aesthetic, and easy to use — expect to be as obsessed as me.
The brand is currently distributed by Fiorentina Ltd., but it so new to this upscale importer that it is not even on their wholesale site yet! I experienced it in person as my below show shots attest, and can attest that it feels as good in the hand as it looks to the eye.
This collection includes notebooks, planners, notepads, calendars as well as giftwraps and desk trays. Its co-founder, Signe Birkving Bertelsen described the central theme of the range as the idea that we cannot live without paper.
“We remember what we write,” he said. “There is simply nothing that beats paper when it comes to gathering our thoughts and creating an overview. Having a notepad or notebook nearby remains one of the most effective and soothing solutions — both for our busy daily-day and those quiet moments, where there is space for dreams.”
These finds have a mission of adding new value to daily habits and everyday tasks — to say nothing of looking your sharpest while making it all happen!
Before I started covering stationery professionally, I was just another writer trying to figure out what I was going to write about. While still in college, I started buying inexpensive notebooks to always have on me — since what kind of writer can’t produce writing on the fly? Thirty-some years later, this habit hasn’t changed, though I’d like to think my taste has gotten more refined. What I truly love about this range, then, is that it is sharp and functional and posh without being too precious to actually use. I have found that the hardest page to write in a new notebook or journal is the first — but the very straightforwardness of these offerings removes all intimidation from the process.
Notem’s desk offerings bring that same sense of serious fun to the workspace.
And their wraps extend that chic to the gift table.
Looking distinctive, fresh and somehow slightly familiar is not an easy look, but Notem has it in spades (or is that stripes?). For now, wholesale accounts need to reach out to my good friend Brett Carter at office@fiorentinaltd.com (who also sent me all these fabulous, social-ready shots!) with inquiries. Paper nerds in the wild can shop Notem on its sleek website — but let’s get this brand stocked in American shops!
