Features Industry Profiles

May 1, 2012 •
Rebecca Schmidt Rubensaal

Invitations and paper ephemera from Mr. Boddington’s Studio don’t look like those from any other company, and the firm is like none other, too, in that no one has actually met its mysterious namesake. If you call and request to speak to him, you might be told he is revisiting the hillside in Udaipur, India, where he first applied silk to the back of a postcard … but most likely you will be met with silence. That is because he is an imaginary friend born during the childhood of Proprietor Rebecca Schmidt Rubensaal.

With the imagination serving as inspirational canvas, the design potential is limitless, and output from the studio is appropriately full of flourish-filled surprises and upscale details. Stationery Trends interviewed Rebecca to learn more about Mr. Boddington’s elusive origins as well as the line itself.

Background & Business
ST: Can you tell me a little bit about your background and how you first got into designing stationery? When did Mr. Boddington’s Studio debut?
RSR: Mr. Boddington’s Studio is roughly six years old. It sounds so young, but boy did a lot of sweat and tears go into building it. In elementary school, I was the only child with personalized (homemade) letterhead. It was pink with a drawing of a fuzzy and somewhat skinny looking bunny at the top. When other kids were playing kickball and dressing dolls, I was calculating profits from my monogrammed pencil bag business – a junior achievement project … yes, I was a huge nerd. On the eve of turning thirty, I felt pressure to “get it together” and went back to basics: small business and stationery.

ST: Please tell us about your company’s elusive namesake.
RSR: Mr. Boddington is a curious, persnickety and well-traveled gentleman who rarely stays put in one spot. I just hung up the phone after chatting with him while he was yachting off the coast of Sri Lanka. All kidding aside, Mr. Boddington was my imaginary friend as a child. Through the years, his personality grew into a muse and inspires all of us in the studio. He captures the studio’s philosophy perfectly – Old World, imaginative and debonair.

ST: With so many amazing stationery designers out there, it is hard to create a distinctive-looking line, which is exactly what you’ve done. Can you describe your more tangible inspirations?
RSR: The studio is humming with creativity. We employ a team of talented young artists who live in Brooklyn. They always have their fingers on the pulse of what is hot. Old movies are a critical source of inspiration because they give us a lens into design in any decade. And since much of our design nods to the past, this works like a charm. I also tend to spend a lot of time flipping through the blogs of my favorite home decorators.

ST: To your mind, how has your line evolved since its introduction?
RSR: Mr. Boddington’s Studio’s core is social stationery – posh stock to pen a note to your future in-laws thanking them for last night’s splendid engagement party. Wedding invitations were meant to be a small speck in the business model; however (they have) taken over much of our attention. It makes sense though: weddings offer an opportunity to create meaningful and creative pieces of correspondence.

ST: Does running a paper line differ from how you first envisioned it?
RSR: As any entrepreneur will tell you, running a business is so much about the hideous little bits and pieces: running numbers, figuring out who will come clean your space, having spats with the phone company, tinkering with the payroll, the server explodes, dull, dull, dull! On the flip side, it allows you to be as creative as you would like. If your work sells, it is approved. Nobody is standing over you telling you no!

ST: Do you have a favorite custom project?
RSR: Our favorite projects are when we get to explore a new design atheistic. For example, the studio keenly examined traditional Indian folk artwork for a bride who wanted to blend her culture into her wedding invitation. So we drew all sorts of lambs and goats and llamas with tons of patterning and color. Those are truly the most unique pieces.

Personal Details
ST: Can you describe a typical day?
RSR: Morning Darjeeling tea and toast and jam with my toddler; meetings with the “Three Kings” or three incredibly talented directors who really run the studio; creating whatever is next in the pipeline, today it is patterns for next year’s holiday collection; discussing potential projects with third parties, such as our favorite, Paperless Post; a meeting with that darling bride who is getting wed in Nantucket next summer; and an evening cocktail with my husband while watching our toddler eat his fettuccine (no spinach, regretfully).

ST: Do you personally collect anything? If so, what?
RSR: I think I collect one of everything. I started a collection of old vintage children’s books, which lives in my son’s bedroom.

ST: Are there any other upcoming products or projects that you can share?
RSR: Mr. Boddington is always a little mysterious so I cannot share everything. Just kidding. I will reveal that we are creating a line of non-custom wedding goods for the spring of 2012. The collection walks the perfect balance between wit and classic.

ST: Where would you like your output to be in five years?
RSR: I just returned from a trip to Hong Kong to check out the paper market. May I say that the East is where luxury goes to spend its precious time? In five years, I predict gentleman living in Shanghai, Beijing and other big cities will be jotting notes to their lovers on our stock.

ST: What consumer, lifestyle or industry trends do you currently find affecting your work?
RSR: The trend of trading emails instead of writing notes or sending cards is forcing a lot of designers out of the industry. This keeps us on our game… we don’t want to see a R.I.P. sign on our front door!

ST: What other designers or companies do you admire and why?
RSR: I have so much respect for anyone who starts a business; that goes all the way from Steve Jobs to the bodega owner on the corner. I would say Ira Glass on “This American Life” (I guess his “business” is an extraordinary radio program); Jonathan Adler, I picked up a little ceramic elephant in Hong Kong to find out I was buying something from a potter up the street in Manhattan); Jonathan Robshaw, textile bigwig; and Todd Selby, designer of theselby.com.

ST: Is there anything else you’d like to share with Stationery Trends readers?
RSR: Sadly I think stationery is in deep, deep, deep, deep trouble. People are losing the desire or reason to write notes, send cards and proper invitations. Mr. Boddington doesn’t believe in fighting the trend of online correspondence (in fact, we have joined it), however does believe in encouraging people to pick up a pen every now and then. Civility is at stake after all! I think we (retailers, designers, and so on) can stick together and keep the industry thriving with genuine creativity and fresh ideas.

Rebecca Schmidt Rubensaal

Signature Style: Reinventing the classics by infusing them with modern style and sensibility is a hallmark of Mr. Boddington’s Studio.

Rebecca at a Glance
Q. If you could travel through time and space and land anywhere you desire, where and when would it be?
A. I have always wanted to travel through space, so I would say the earth in about two hundred years. That should give NASA and Virgin Atlantic enough time to get it together.

Q. How would you define your signature style?
A. This is always a tricky question. I would say we enjoy reinventing classic pieces, respecting the assets that make the classic timeless while freshening them up with a little style and/or wit.

Q. What is new for 2012?
A. From six years of working with high-end clients is born an entire non-custom wedding and baby collection: escort cards, place cards, seating maps, wrapping paper, etc.

Q. What will be hot from Mr. Boddington’s Studio in 2012?
A. Our wedding “Proust” matrix for a seating chart. It is so clever. I can see them hanging in the home libraries all over the place.

Q. Which pieces reflect the direction of your line?
A. Our boxed sets best speak to our past as well as were we are headed. The correspondence cards are made from a 220-gram cotton stock with hand-painted edges and are partnered with hand-lined envelopes. Mr. Boddington will position itself as a source of etiquette not to be forgotten, even as the whole world goes bonkers with tweets and texts and that hideous game of Angry Birds.

Q. Do you have a personal favorite?
A. Wrapping paper. The red hues are so bright and cheery!

Q. What other designers, music and movies inspire you?
A. My favorite movie in the universe is “Out of Africa.” I love every outfit Ms. Streep wears as she trots around on safari with the very dashing Mr. Redford. I am also loving Margaret Wise Brown’s lesser known designs (she is famous for “Goodnight Moon”) and I listen to Phoenix on my jogs everyday.

Q. If you couldn’t do this, what would you do instead?
A. A photojournalist that lives out of Paris, or maybe a producer on Bravo television with a darling bungalow in Santa Monica.


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