SPRING//SUMMER 2018 63 62 SPRING//SUMMER 2018 “Creation, creation, creation.Whether that’s building a vision for the new season, dreaming up ideas for our marketing campaign or working on the aesthetic of our spaces, I’m most productive, effective and fulfilled when creating. I spend a good amount of time travelling. Yvon Chouinard, founder of outdoor apparel company Patagonia, wrote that someone in the business needs to be out there gauging the temperature of the rest of the world. I’m inclined to agree. I’m writing this from my Airbnb in Los Angeles, having spent the past few days soaking up the feel of interiors, brands and locations in LA, from ATWORKWITH:Rebecca Ostrowski, Marketing Executive,Maped Helix ATWORKWITH:Jennifer Rea,Director,Ink MonkeyArt ATWORKWITH:SidonieWarren,Founder,Papersmiths Downtown toVenice to Echo Park.Today I’m going further out. I’m on a mission to find what you won’t find everywhere else. When I come across an item that instills a sense of wonder and curiosity in me, it’s like discovering buried treasure. My heart literally leaps. I love that instinctive feeling and it’s worth the wait. I’m a stationery aficionado through and through. I handwrite letters to friends, I journal and I keep a pocket book for notes, quotes and reminders. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for documenting and communicating on paper doesn’t extend to the digital realm and my email inbox is frequently overflowing with submissions and enquiries. My colleagues are constantly frustrated at my inability to use our digital diary management system. But who in their right mind would choose iCal over Hobonichi? When I’m in the UK, I live in London. I’ll visit our Shoreditch store and our pop up inWhite City to check in and see how they are and what needs fixing.There are always improvements to be made. Operationally, opening new locations has thrown up all sorts of new challenges for us. My day will usually involve meetings, site visits to potential locations for Papersmiths, some press,financial matters,and reviewing designs and marketing campaigns. My favourite part of the day-to-day side of my role is press enquiries. I love talking about stationery and what we’re doing at Papersmiths. Interviews tend to culminate in me and the interviewer getting our pencil cases out and dissecting the contents. Once a week I travel to Bristol to visit our store there. I take the coach so I have six hours in total of admin time.The day flies by in a flurry of catch ups with my business partner, Kyle, the store team, the design team and marketing manager, Becks. At the end of the day, wherever I am in the world, I like to curl up in bed with my beloved journal, mechanical pencil and fountain pen and document the day in words and pictures, with pencil and ink on paper. “Over the course of the year I arrange our attendance at a number of trade shows, ranging from specific wholesaler events to the major shows – the Education Show and the London and Manchester Stationery Shows.I really enjoy this element of my role because at these shows I get to meet new people and customers within the industry.The hard work of liaising with contractors,briefing and organising set-up is all worthwhile in the end when the stands are complete. The independent stationery sector is still very important to Helix and to me as part of my role.I run our Premier Partners programme,which gives a high level of support to key retailers and enables them to showcase our products in the best way possible.I meet and talk to them regularly to ensure they benefit from our point-of- sale materials for their window displays. It’s great to work with people that are so passionate about their business and the stationery industry as a whole. As part of this, I also organise the annual Premier Partners conference,to present our new products and cement relationships.It really helps when you have this level of trust with your customers and I get great feedback at this event from the people who are closest to the consumer. National StationeryWeek is very important to me. As partners of National StationeryWeek Helix understands the importance of encouraging people to write Running our bricks-and-mortar store has opened up a world of opportunities that I could never have previously imagined. First and foremost we’re all about community.Ink MonkeyArt currently sponsors two monthly drawing events.One is a life-drawing class run by Loft,a local art collective,and the other is a more informal ‘drink and draw’ sketching event organised by SeedheadArts.We supply the stationery for attendees to use during each session,as well as a prize for the best drawing on the night. It’s through our association with Seedhead Arts that we became the hub for HitThe North, Belfast’s annual street art festival.We love this event as it brings so much vibrancy to our area, and means that we’re able to meet some of the UK’s most talented artists, including Dan Kitchener, Smug One, and Nomad Clan to name but a few. It’s thanks to this event that we were able to secure an in-store exhibition with Bristol graffiti legend Inkie, who is regarded as the godfather of street art and one of Banksy’s personal friends. For the past two years we have held a charity auction where local artists donate a more.It is the one time of year that the stationery family works as one to highlight the industry and we always make sure we have some exciting activity planned to promote this key event in our calendar. As well as producing and overseeing our social media content,I have great success in working with established bloggers and vloggers to get new products reviewed.It’s always interesting to hear their feedback and opinions on our key product ranges. Since Helix became part of the Maped group in 2012,we are able to offer a much wider range of products,particularly in colouring,office and early learning.I have visited the Maped head office inAnnecy, France,for training and product updates that enable me to help integrate and launch new Maped products back in the UK. I work closely with our NationalAccounts team and helped to successfully deliver major national multiple retail promotions in floor- standing displays during Back to School 2017. A highlight of my year was presenting to the board of a national retailer at their‘Dragon’s Den’ themed promotion opportunity day. Above all I realise that hard work is still the only way to achieve results.I have found the stationery industry to be a lot of fun and there are some great people to know and work with,and this is what motivates me to do my best.” piece of their work to be sold at an evening event in our store.Every last penny of the proceeds go to local mental health charity MindWise,and so far we have raised more than £1500 towards this worthwhile cause. Being creative ourselves,my business and life partnerTommy and I decided to make our own artwork to sell in store and online.Soon after opening the shop we set up our Etsy page (search‘InkMonkeyArt’) and joined a monthly artisan market.The market has become much more than just a selling platform.It has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere where you can catch up with old friends and make brand new ones. Through our involvement with the market, we realised that Northern Ireland lacked a single community database encompassing all of our arts and crafts collectives.Over the past year we have been working on our online hub,which we are pitching to a local grant scheme in the coming months. Our small business has become so much more than simply selling art supplies and stationery.It’s been a wonderful journey so far,and I can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store for Ink MonkeyArt. I’M WRITINGTHIS FROM MY AIRBNB IN LOS ANGELES, HAVING SPENTTHE PAST FEW DAYS SOAKING UPTHE FEEL OF INTERIORS, BRANDS AND LOCATIONS IN LA.