{local markets} :: made in paper

hello there! how was your halloween (for those who celebrate it!) yesterday? we have a very different tradition actually, and this actually might be different from place to place in this very small country. but when i was a kid the tradition for this first day of november included an early morning rise, a fabric bag and a few friends, usually one or two. and then we would go from door to door asking for some sweets, just like the “trick or treat” without the trick part! so, here i am almost in the end of the afternoon… it was not suppose to be this way, posting this late, but you know, we ended up going out for lunch, took a walk and just got home! it feels good to go out for lunch. and to be home now… so, moving on to what matters today… {local markets}! today’s guest is a girl with a wide horizon and brave attitude. her name is rita and she is a graphic designer.

hello there, how are you? so, can you tell us something about yourself? hi, my name is rita, i’m a graphic designer and worked in advertising  for 10 years. in january i decided to embrace on a new adventure, following my all time dream and start my own online shop {made in paper}.

how did your business start? it all started from recognizing a personal need due to the lack of finding and buying good quality and design paper products. i’ve always loved paper. everything made with paper. despite the arrival of the digital age with all its accompanying gadgets, i still use a paper agenda and several notebooks on a daily basis. {made in paper} started because i always spent a lot of time selecting original stationery products and ended up providing recommendations for my friends and colleagues. the feedback i had was that i always found the most original and unique materials, so sharing them was the natural step. this type of high quality design stationery products are not easy to find in portugal, and even in europe and that is why a carefully curated online shop makes all the sense. not with products that you can find everywhere else, but only with the design “jewels” that i find all around the world.

sometimes i have orders from some remote places in the world and people tell me that’s just because they can’t find these products anywhere else. this was the motto from day one. for example, i love moleskine notebooks and also use them, but they are already available everywhere, and so we decided not to have them, as it would go against madeinpaper’s initial values.

{made in paper} is simply this, a place where you can find all these cool things made of paper or to use with it, from little artisans and suppliers around the world. on the other hand, i also want to spread the word about the good portuguese design. portugal is a small market but with very good design, for example {made in paper} sells color pencils with this unique identification system for people with color blindness, which was developed by a portuguese designer.

do you do anything else besides that or is it possible for you to make a living out of your business? i’m 100% dedicated to pursuing this dream, but being a mum and managing your own company is quite a challenge. i spend a lot of time researching new products and finding interesting ideas all over the world and in parallel i manage all the orders, shipping, and the relations with {made in paper}’s customers and suppliers. anyway, being a huge challenge i’m very happy with the result in such a limited time.

where do you seek for inspiration? everywhere… specially in my blog roll, which includes browsing design blogs, photography websites, but also museums and exhibitions. interestingly enough i keep a close look on the new design trends that are coming from some asiatic countries like korea for example, which are offering great quality design products and influencing other better known markets for their interesting design propositions.

what do you do to promote your business? what has been helpful? i obviously do a lot of work to promote  {made in paper} on the web, either in interesting similar websites or using facebook. but an interesting learning experience i’ve had since starting {made in paper} was that the best advertising is actually word of mouth, people feeling happy with the results and what they found through the site and actually recommending it to their friends and acquaintances. as a result, i’ve had some nice references in some of that cool sites and blogs and have regular customers from places such as mexico, united states and australia as well as the majority of the european countries.

what advice would you give for those small business owners/design-makers in portugal? loving what you do always help because you become more persistent. it’s not an easy time to start a business in portugal, but i am proud to say that i am helping the portuguese economy even on a small scale, and at the same time proposing an innovative design platform which is what i love to do. what else could you ask for?!

i love this shop and rita will forgive me for saying this, but when i received her submission and explored her website i was very happy to find out that there was a place in portugal, where i could buy japanese tape! we all love that tape, don’t we? and we all know how hard it is to find it in portugal… along with a lot of other things as rita says. what rita did is actually one reason for which a lot of businesses start, the need for something that you cannot find for yourself in your country… so either you start producing it or you become the supplier to whoever else needs that! you can find more about rita {here} and join her on {facebook}!