KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 — The 22-year-olds met at Sunway University where one was studying design while the other did corporate communications. Anni Tai and Rachel Chew then decided — right after graduation — to take some time off to explore their creativity. And Pebble Paper Design was born.
The unusual name is a play on the words paper and scribble. They wanted to start their own design line and notebooks became their choice since they personally like notebooks. “We found that there are limited designs and if you find good ones, they are expensive. The paper quality is not good. Sometimes you find something nice but it is either too formal or too fancy,” said Chew.
Established in May, Tai and Chew started designing covers for the notebooks, sourcing for the paper locally and getting them printed in Malaysia. Their notebook pages are 100 grams per square metre thick, which means you can safely use gel pens, brush pens and even calligraphy ink on it without worrying if the ink will feather or bleed.
Both of them enjoy designing on Adobe Illustrator. Sometimes they do a sketch but most of it is in digital form. Pebble Paper Design started out on Instagram before they launched their website and they now have about 13,000 followers. Most of their customers find out about their business through social media where the girls post up beautifully curated shots of their stationery.
So far, the start-up has launched two collections. Each collection has a total of four designs. Their next collection will be out next January and it will be a collaboration with Just In Case, a phone cover company. The designs of the notebooks will also be on the phone covers.
Pebble Paper Design’s first collection was a floral theme called The First Bloom while their second collection was a fruits-based one called Fruit Garden. “We did a floral design because the trend now is floral. We also want to do something whimsical hence the design,” said Chew. For those who prefer to mix and match, Pebble Paper Design also has plain pastel covers in light yellow, pale pink and mint green.
The girls try to come out with new designs based on their personalities. In future, they will work towards making more unisex designs. For the next collection, it would be a Chinese New Year theme but it won’t be too obvious. Using festive colours, it will feature Oriental blossoms like peonies, sakura, chrysanthemums and other Asian flowers.
The notebooks are available in three sizes: A5 (medium), A6 (pocket) and A5 (slim). The co-founders plan to make planners in the future. They also do customisation for people who want to order them as door gifts. However, customisation such as names are complimentary. All their notebooks have blank paper but for customised notebooks you can choose a lined style, grid style or whatever style you like.
Priced from RM11 to RM18, the notebooks are affordable and of high quality. “There is also wholesale pricing if you buy more. For 50 pieces, you get 15 per cent off. 100 pieces is 20 per cent off, 200 pieces is 25 per cent off and 400 pieces is 30 per cent off,” said Tai.
Pebble Paper Design has also collaborated with temporary tattoo company Habitatt to produce a range of pretty floral temporary tattoos. “When we first released our first floral collection, The First Bloom, we wanted to do more with our floral designs instead of just providing notebooks. We thought that our floral designs would make fun tattoos for events like birthday parties, weddings or just for casual outings to vamp up their day look. We’ve always known and admired Habitatt so we decided to get in touch with them to propose a collaboration,” said Tai.
The girls extracted a floral bunch from each of their four designs from their first collection. The temporary tattoos can be bought on their own, as there’s a tattoo pack with 10 tattoos with 2 of each design for RM25. You can also get a bundle set with a notebook and three pieces of tattoos. It’s RM17 for the pocket sized notebook bundle, RM24 for the slim sized notebook bundle and RM24 for the medium sized notebook bundle.
For the future, the duo do not rule out more collaborations. “We are always interested to do creative projects... anything can happen. Just follow us on our Instagram and get updated with our new happenings,” said Tai.
Pebble Paper Design used to be sold at DESIGNation but now you can also find them at other stockists such as Fiska Lifestyle in Kota Kinabalu and The Wedding Shop in Bali. The duo also take part in bazaars around the Klang Valley to promote their brand.
Those who catch them at these bazaars can also get their postcards with their signature motif with a personalised message written by Chew in beautiful calligraphy for just RM5.
As most of the customers are women, their best-selling designs are the red rose and lemon. “We get students, working mums, working ladies who are into stationery. Some of them are from the scrapbooking community. We discovered a lot of people who are into notebooks,” said Chew.
For more on Pebble Paper Design, go to:
www.pebblepaperdesign.com
www.instagram.com/pebblepaper
www.facebook.com/pebblepaperdesign
