• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Whitney English

Mindful Tools for a Meaningful Life

  • Planners
  • Desk Accessories
  • Health & Wellness
  • HEART GOALS™
  • SHOP NOW

Memory Lane

May 6, 2010 whitneyenglish 5 Comments

We leave, in less than a week, for our umpteenth stationery show. It’s the sixth or seventh–I can’t remember exactly, and I’d have to go dig through accounting records to figure it out. And I’d prefer not to dig through accounting records.

I just checked out Anna Griffin‘s latest blog post, and was thoroughly amused by her early scrapbooking. I have one of those I could pull out, but we’ll save that for another day. Her scrapbooking journey did send me off on a sentimental tangent of my own, however, and I started to think about our early days as a company, and how far we’ve come.

Back in 2001, when I was graduating from college and trying to decide if I should move to Dallas or start a stationery company, I journaled–nay, TYPESET–my thoughts about my future. At the top of the list was “start a stationery company–should I, or shouldn’t I?” I should have, because I moved to Dallas and found heaps of trouble instead, only to return a year later and THEN start a stationery company.

At the very beginning I called it Whitney&Co.;, no spaces please. The telephone bill still lists us as Whitney&Co.;, so every time I call to change something I have to reflect back to why I named it Whitney&Co;, and I can’t remember. I was working during the day, and drawing all night, putting together my first album, so let’s just say the sleeplessness caused memory loss. I used Microsoft Publisher, gasp. The logo was Caslon and Bernhard Roman. I was crazy about kate spade.

I couldn’t find a picture of the “Whitney&Co.” logo, so here’s a picture of my desk, early on. PC? What was I thinking? Zebra carpet? That’s more like it.

At some point in the next year, someone told me I should just call the company “Whitney English”, and I paid good money to have them come up with a tagline, “Define the Moment”. It’s still on some of my old business cards. I couldn’t decide if I liked aqua or pink best, so I flip flopped between color schemes, and typography case. Our first National Stationery Show used all lower-case Baskerville as a font, and we used a monogram I had created in AutoCad in college as a motif.

Somewhere along the line, I read an article that said, “NEVER change your logo.” You may get sick of the color, DON’T CHANGE IT. You may get tired of the typeface, DON’T CHANGE IT. You may get disgusted with the layout, DON’T CHANGE IT. And I realized I had been changing our logo far too much.

I was a big fan of the “notched out corner”, (evidence above) and hadn’t seen it very many places yet. It reminded me of paneling on old ballrooms, in the Sound of Music and in Grace Farrell’s suite in Annie. It was French, and I was English, but who cared? I wanted life to be EVERYTHING that a notched-out corner represented. I was also rather pre-possessed with small caps, and having recently upgraded from, ahem, publisher to Adobe suite products, found that Adobe Garamond Pro had everything dreamy to offer when it came to small caps.

And so, our logo, in it’s NEVER-CHANGE-IT format, was born. We made it black and white, because I was still struggling with the pink vs. aqua vs. lime green vs. brown color scheme. And let’s face it, black and white goes with everything, right?

It’s a good logo, and it’s stood us in good stead. We’re not changing it–it’s still the core of who we are at Whitney English. But the monogram, re-released on our candles last fall, caught fire with our fans quickly.

We are introducing some new products at the stationery show this year with our monogram–you’ll have to stop by and check them out! In addition to this minor expansion to the Whitney English brand, I’m also excited to debut a few others–some new, some classics–under the English Paper Company brand.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Business

Get Updates!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. marzi says

    May 6, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    what a fabulous post! i love seeing the progression and the change! so excited about the show and finally meeting you and your team in person!

    Reply
  2. Kristen Steele says

    May 12, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    I found you through a tweet by Emily Ley the other day & I LOVE your products. I was even more excited when I went into our local gift store here in Brentwood TN today, Hot Pink to see that you had products for sale there! Such a small world & I love your work.

    Reply
  3. Aunt Spicy says

    June 13, 2010 at 11:10 am

    love your logo! and love seeing all the different products!

    Reply
  4. David says

    August 14, 2010 at 6:59 am

    Hey Whitney! We are super excited to get all the new stuff in for our new, 2nd store! http://www.t-heegifts.com And just wait – our new website will be premiering about the same time! It will be an explosion of English Paper all over Dallas!

    Reply
  5. David says

    August 14, 2010 at 7:00 am

    Hey Whitney – just ordered all the new stuff for the current store http://www.t-heegifts.com and for our new store on Mockingbird & Abrams opening October 1st! And soon there after our new website comes online – it'll be English Paper Company explosion all over Dallas! Can't wait!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

About

Recent Posts

How to Set Up A 2022 Academic Planner

June 3, 2022

5 Tips for Planning a Great Summer

May 24, 2022

How to Create A More Beautiful Life

May 20, 2022

Favorite Recipes

Perfect Summer Recipes

June 24, 2022

My Favorite Family-Friendly Recipes

October 28, 2021

4 Great Fourth of July Recipes

June 28, 2021

Best Summer Fruit Dessert

May 24, 2021

Best Muffin Recipe Ever

April 2, 2021

Best Weeknight Meals

December 1, 2020

More Posts from this Category

Popular Posts

Footer

Recent Posts

  • Perfect Summer Recipes
  • How to Find Your Perfect Planner
  • 10 Minutes to Start Your Day Right
  • How to Set Up A 2022 Academic Planner
  • 5 Tips for Planning a Great Summer

Follow Along

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Get Updates!

Copyright © 2022 · WhitneyEnglish.com