Hey nerds, it is my pleasure to introduce you to a dear retailer friend of mine, Hannah Rodewald. Hannah is officially retired, but her store — The Pleasure of Your Company in Lutherville, Maryland — is still open for reorders. Why her customers will never leave her should be clear after reading this post.
For 45 years, Hannah was deeply enmeshed within the heart of the stationery industry and especially the invitation segment, serving as an advisor to Crane, William Arthur and National Stationery Show (NSS), among many other accolades and events. (I know she sat on at least one of my standing-room only seminars at NSS!) Thus she is uniquely well-equipped to share this history of the last 40 years in invitations — as well as its future. Meanwhile, I know It feels like only yesterday I was reading our ‘Stationery Stories’ placards at NSS — but it was actually 2017!
Late last month, Hannah wrote me:
“Hi Sarah, I still enjoy reading The Paper Nerd even though it’s eight years (hard to believe) since I had a brick and mortar. Some days I’m glad I’m retired; other days, I really miss the creativity of the store, the vendors, clients, stationery show, etc.
As an observer of the custom invitation business for the last five years, mostly in Facebook groups of stationers and designers, I’ve watched the whole industry turn upside down. We used to be a group of several hundred stores and dealers, ordering what we needed from a relatively small number of suppliers, album companies and printers.
Now the custom, bespoke business is literally thousands of home-based designers, relying on mostly small printing studios to produce their work. They don’t have a good source of information, or a base like NSS to find resources. They literally write orders and then start asking how to source and produce what they need.
So I want to start a Substack newsletter to help with that: Stationery (re)Design: Sources and Resources, Tips and Techniques for Creatives. I have enough content researched for probably a whole year of posts and a resource guide, and now need to get the technical and social media parts together.
I’ve written a couple things about how the industry has evolved and where we are now, and I’m wondering if you would read them for accuracy — I can’t imagine anyone who would know better how it has all unfolded. They are long; I tend to write a lot and then edit it way down later. Would you be willing to take a look?”
Of course I would be! There was so much great information there, so I’ve elapsed just one of her fact-filled posts — 40 Years of Stationery and Invitations — today. The image you see kicking off this post features custom selections from The Pleasure of Your Company — but I went into The Paper Nerd Archives to feature some of my own for this walk down stationery memory lane. Take it away, Hannah!
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I debated whether to include a chapter on the last 40 years in the printing business, custom invitations, stationery and event-related product. Would it be of interest or value to anyone today?
Ultimately, I decided to include it for two reasons: First, reading the depth and breadth of all the changes over the last 40 years teaches us to pay attention and keep an eye on new trends and evolve. We can never just be comfortable with what we offer today. Even if something is the hot look or a best seller today, or best practice for our businesses, it may not be tomorrow. And some trends will be waves, and turn the whole industry upside down.
In 1980 we opened our first store, The Pleasure of Your Company. We opened as a paper and party store, and had a section of cute, contemporary stationery products. I wanted to expand it, but we were very close to one location of a stationery store that had the Baltimore stationery market locked up. Everyone went there for all their boxed and custom stationery and invitations. EVERYONE.
But, does anyone remember Mrs. Grossman, the original sticker company that started the sticker craze? Or, Stationery by the Pound, a company that marketed loose papers and envelopes in many colors that could be mixed and matched and purchased by the pound? Or the first products personalized with a selection of names on mugs, lunch bags and balloons? And Frances Meyer birth announcements, which were printed in-store on a Howard Foil Stamp machine and were ready to pick up the day after baby was born? We brought those lines — and many more! — to our customers.
I was nervous that the “other store” would pick up the same lines, but word soon got back to me that the owner only carried the most traditional, classic lines. He thought what I was bringing into our store was tacky — but our customers didn’t. Soon they were bringing in cute invitations to suggest we carry them. We jumped in and started buying what our customers requested. We couldn’t get an account with Crane because we were too close to the other store, but we had plenty of other options. We grew. The other store never changed. Ten years later, we were a Platinum account for Crane, and they were out of business.
Second, it shows how rapidly things can change. It hammers home a valuable lesson: “Everything must change. Nothing stays the same.” What your clients want, what you design, how clients work with you, what the printing industry vendors provide, what events look like – all of it can and will change, and dramatically, over a fairly short period of time.
Up to the early 1990s, the invitation and wedding industry was tightly controlled and organized, bound by rigid etiquette rules and propriety. Weddings and other special celebrations were more or less cookie cutter, as hosts were concerned about doing things properly, uncomfortable about bending the rules.
Since invitations and stationery were printed by engraving, thermography or occasionally letterpress processes on commercial presses, ordering a custom printed invitation was expensive and reserved for only the most special occasions: birth announcements, weddings, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. The invitation and stationery printing business was concentrated in a handful of large companies: Crane, Buening, Regency, Elite, Checkerboard and a few more. There was no cottage industry and network of small designers and printers.
When a customer wanted a custom invitation, they visited a local brick-and-mortar stationery store and perused albums of samples. Choices and changes were limited. A staff person wrote the order, advised on etiquette, answered questions, and generally concluded the order in an hour. There were no proofs, no revisiting. When the order arrived a month later, the customer picked it up.
The scenario I just described worked for a couple generations.
In the 1990s, it all changed. It’s hard to even remember the first changes, but they just kept coming, and by 2000, everything was different.
Technology:
- Desk top computers became affordable, although the software to run them was in its infancy.
- The first inkjet printers, priced for consumer use, became available.
- The first design software was appearing – an early version of Photoshop, Quark, and software and systems developed by Inscribe and Social Secretary. These programs were ground-breaking and innovative then, but barely scratched the surface of what we can do in-house today.
In 1994, the appearance of the Martha Stewart Wedding magazine upended the wedding industry. Her philosophy was that a wedding was one of the most special days in a couple’s life, and it should illuminate and celebrate their personalities down to the tiniest detail. She and her editor, Darcy Miller, packed the magazine with colorful photos of weddings with special touches. They loved paper, and for invitations, they promoted colored papers, patterns, different ink colors, non-traditional fonts and layouts, different sizes and shapes. I remember leafing through the first issue thinking, “OMG, Wow! But what are my customers going to think?”
We found out: an entire decade of arguments among mothers, daughters and grandmothers. The bride loved something; the mother said it would make the grandmothers faint.
By 2000, these alternative designs were firmly embedded, allowing innovators like Envelopments and Lallie to thrive. Maybe the most important part of the evolution was that it set the stage for individual designers —no longer just the design department at the big printing companies— to exert an influence.
Martha Stewart also created the desire for new kinds of event-related products, and for existing event-related products to be more creative. Calligraphy was no longer just well-written Copperplate; she introduced the use of creative styles and beautiful artistic monograms. Artwork showed up on invitations. Wedding programs were no longer a folded piece of cardstock listing the ceremony parts and the wedding party. Instead, they were multi-page, with dedications, thank-you notes, and bios of the wedding party tied together with huge bows. Napkins, cups, glasses, cake bags and boxes were all custom designed and personalized. Tables of plain escort cards became installations. Curated welcome bags became gift-level. Every wedding was encouraged to create their own unique, memorable details.
All this translated into add-on items and higher sales for stationery stores and wedding designers, and created healthy competition as new designers and printing companies emerged. Creativity flourished. The wedding industry was no longer cookie cutter; designing something no one had seen before became the goal. And with all the possibilities for elevated design and add-on sales, the wedding (and other special events) industry was in really good, financially healthy shape.
From 2008 to 2020, things get complicated. And chaotic. The traditional channels for selling invitations started falling apart, while the new channels don’t quite have it together.
First, the Internet. The first attempts at selling online were not very impressive. Tech companies tried it, but they didn’t understand invitation customers. Stationery businesses tried it and got the design aspect right, but they didn’t get the technology. It would be a number of years before companies like Minted, Paperless Post and Zazzle would acheive both, but obviously the Internet was a major disruptor. And it made traditional stationery stores and their long-standing printing partners competitors instead of collaborators. The large printing companies saw a huge opportunity to go directly to consumers and sell at retail prices for larger margins, and stationery stores were not happy about that at all.
But, at the same time, the large printing companies had a different huge problem to deal with. They were used to driving design – what they offered was what customers had to choose from. Their business model was to take two years to design, print and distribute new albums to their store accounts. They couldn’t cut that time frame. But now the Internet and platforms like Pinterest, Etsy and Instagram were showing new design ideas to customers that were catching on at lightning speed. The large companies started to fall behind in design, and that left a vacuum for other models to steal their business.
As customers wanted more creative choices, stores needed actual designers on their staff, not just order-writing salespeople. Customers were bringing in inspiration they found online, and stores had no idea how to find and order it. Some stores did hire designers. Some couldn’t add more staff, and salespeople were very reluctant to try to learn design skills. They struggled to meet customers’ expectations.
New graphic designers saw an opportunity to enter the field with a home computer, software and resources for materials and printing. The drawback many of them faced is that they didn’t have the years of experience in learning printing processes — how paper, fonts, and ink and foil interact with each other – as well as what you can do, what you can’t do, and how to quote it. So they had design skills, access to printing, but often found themselves in a mess because transferring a design idea to print, profitably, is often not easy. One way we saw this over and over was when a designer created a fabulous invitation, but it didn’t fit into any size of available envelopes.
Then, in 2008, we had a brutal recession. Most of that year’s events were planned and at least partly paid for before the housing bubble burst and caused the financial crisis, so our industry didn’t feel the full effect until we started booking 2009 customers. Or rather, NOT booking them, because a lot of weddings were postponed. And the ones that did move forward came in with pre-2008 aspirations and ideas, but half the budget. For some reason, we heard over and over that the wedding planner suggested cutting the wedding invitations and paper budget to save money for the reception. Have the stationery industry ever recovered?
Stores started to go out of business. Because the stationery retail category had been strong up to 2008, a lot of independent stores had recently expanded into chains of stationery stores and they were financially over extended and particularly vulnerable. They went out quickly, and what they owed to their vendors for inventory rocked many of those companies. Talented designers left the industry for other jobs.
Some of the industry suppliers closed or cut way back on their offerings. Companies merged, and generally that wasn’t a good thing for design choices. 2009 was a huge shake out for the whole industry. Because marketing budgets were cut, most companies stopped exhibiting in trade shows, or at least cut back to only those that did best for them. The wonderful NSS was a victim of the cutbacks – it once took three days of walking to adequately cover NSS, now stationery is but a couple aisles in the larger gift shows. One ramification of that is that NSS was the major vehicle for paper and invitation suppliers to meet new customers, catch up with existing customers, show them new offerings and get feedback, and for retailers to find new sources and resources for products and printing. Our industry no longer has that in-person convening of creativity and resources.
So by 2020, every part of this industry was in flux, morphing and changing. Traditional sales channels and partnerships were rocky – new ones had not settled down yet. More competition was on the horizon; smaller budgets, saving money, and home access to software and printers, greatly motivated and empowered the DIYers. The big box stores developed products to help customers create on their own.
And then we had a Pandemic, with a shutdown of every business related to special events.
2026. Where are we now? Five years later, the stationery, custom invitations, and special events industry is different. It’s been turned upside down.
The large printing companies that once had probably 95% of the wedding market are now mostly either out of business, or scaled way back and feeling their way forward. Some of the smaller printing companies are doing well – they were able to adapt faster, pick up new technologies, create healthy niches for their services and grow their businesses. The most successful printing and production companies in today’s environment are the ones who are meeting the needs of independent designers. They are not trying to create design. Instead, they are marketing their printing, finishing and kitting skills as a blank canvas for independent designers to work their magic.
There aren’t anywhere near as many traditional brick and mortar stationery stores, and many of them have down-sized to studios open by appointment only. But they have a loyal following of customers who want the personal, “touch it, feel it” service only a store with face-to-face meetings can offer. And they have the advantage of representing many different designers and styles, unlike the independent designers who have only their very specific style.
eCommerce and online stores seem to be doing well as a category. From starting with offerings for lower-budget customers, some platforms have grown and expanded their offerings to be more in line with what a client with a generous budget would want. Others seem to be fading away. Amazon is deep in the space. Social media is becoming a strong factor in generating and capturing purchases, and seems to be especially effective at landing the luxury, totally custom customer. Things will keep changing. AI will drive many of the next changes and everyone will have to fit into a new reality.
Then there is the already huge, and growing pool of independent designers, artists, illustrators, calligraphers, educators, coaches, printers, creators of print on demand products, tech suppliers, planners, and other vendors who want to expand their offerings. How do they find each other to partner and be their most creative selves? How do they find new sources and resources to fill their needs? That is what I think the next chapter in this industry will be about. And that is what I will address in my newsletter: spotting the trends in the industry, figuring out where you fit in, thinking about how you will change and adapt, how to prosper from the changes.
From the history of the stationery and custom invitation business, we can pull two lessons and move forward with them:
- Everything is changing and change is accelerating.
- Success comes from staying on top of new trends, new products and new directions. Always look for the next thing. Always be prepared to change course to meet the needs of your customers.
Today, the business climate of the stationery/custom invitation + related product industry favors:
- The retail stores and studios who learned to adapt and combine out-sourcing with in-house production and an online presence. They are able to deliver a superb hands-on customer service experience.
- The entrepreneurial designers who are good at design and fast to react to what customers want, and have developed great resources for production. And they are good at using their social media skills to reach customers.
- The printing and production resources who have learned to respond quickly, reliably and accurately to designer accounts who are working with their customers and trying to land sales. And who try to say “yes” when designers are thinking outside the box, because that’s what today’s customers want.
- The online stores that can offer a smooth, easy to navigate online experience for ordering, along with choices and options, and individual customer support when needed.
The creative ideas that so many new designers have brought into the invitations and special events world have elevated the entire industry. Successful designers and good new design come from being inspired and then changing the look to create something new. EVERYTHING that we do today was once someone’s new idea or look. Hardly anything can catch on without being (re)designed, (re)imagined and (re)interpreted. Even things that we take for granted as integral to the invitation world were once unique and took a while to catch on.
Stationers no longer just provide printed paper products. We combine paper with other materials — like vinyl, acrylic, fabric, wood, foamboard, ribbon, embellishments, metal, wax seals — and use various printing processes — letterpress, embossing, digital ink — and manufacturing processes — laser cutting, die cutting, edge painting. Some of these creations have so many parts, they are engineered! Where escort cards were once always little tented cards, they are now sometimes full installations.
We have to be experts at supplying both physical and digital content.
So who are we? When you see what we provide for an event today, it gives the feeling that Dorothy expressed so well, “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore!”
Are we still stationers? Or do we need a new name — event designers, event branding experts, experience and content creators — or what? I’m hoping that the Stationery (re)Design newsletter will be a place where we can have a lively, ongoing discussion about the stationery and invitations world.
Thank you so much again, Hannah — and congratulations on the launch of your new project! As I realized looking through all my old NSS shots, stationery is many things, but never truly stationary. I will continue sharing Hannah’s posts as she generously shares them with me — and will keep you posted as she brings her Substack to life.
