54 AUTUMN//WINTER 2018 Taymoor Atighetchi, founder and CEO of Papier THE LAST WORD How did Papier start, and how has it grown? I founded Papier in May 2015 and launched the website in August 2015. The concept for Papier as a site where users can order personalised, design-led invitations and greeting cards came from a lack of choice in the marketplace. I felt that there was an opportunity to focus on quality, both in terms of design and materials, without compromising on speed of delivery or the shopping experience. Papier has grown in its product offering since then and we now offer custom stationery, including notebooks and diaries, as well as a personalised kids’ book and most recently, photobooks. The number of designers we now work with has also increased to over 40 partners, ranging from independent artists and illustrators to fashion brands and iconic institutions. We are also now operational in the USA and Australia, and have launched French and German sites – 2018 has been an exciting year so far. Tell us how you’re using digital tools to sell paper products. Technology enables us to deliver a best- in-class ecommerce experience where people are able to easily create beautiful stationery via our website or app. On our app you can order a personalised birthday card in three steps and have it delivered the next day, and our website lets you easily create beautiful wedding invitations or personal stationery without having to go through a traditional and expensive stationer. Who’s your core customer and why do they love Papier? Papier is used at 1 in 25 British weddings – so a large proportion of our customers are brides and grooms- to-be between the ages of 25 and 40. However, the majority of our customers are women – over 80 per cent. With our newest collaboration with Henry Holland we’re definitely looking at a younger, millennial audience, and as our personalised kids’ book is a popular gift for little ones, we see an older customer buying these for their grandchildren or nieces and nephews. It’s a cliché but our breadth of products, designers and content means that I think anyone who loves beautiful design can be a Papier customer. STATIONERY BIZ Your portfolio of artist and designer collaborators is diverse and continues to grow. How would you describe the Papier ‘look’? We do have our own Papier designs on our site, created by our talented design team, but the Papier look isn’t specific. We try to offer a curated collection of products which appeals across the board from bright slogans by Henry Holland to beautiful watercolours by Emma Block – our offering is diverse but always with strong design credentials. The simplicity of the brand aesthetic lets the designs come to the fore, so our website is pretty pared back and our brand colours are quite simple. What are your plans for Papier for the next 12 months? We have more product development in the pipeline to expand on our photobook offering as well as establishing ourselves firmly in the USA. Any embarrassing stationery crushes? I definitely have a list of designers I would love to collaborate with, including the likes of Erdem, Rodarte and Tory Burch. But I would also love to hear of someone like Stormzy using our stationery! OUR OFFERING IS DIVERSE BUT ALWAYS WITH STRONG DESIGN CREDENTIALS.