Writing to good friends and close family is something that I enjoy. I always have a reserve of stationery for when the need to write a letter arises. I enjoy discovering uniquely designed (illustrated) stationery, and I hope that those who receive my letters enjoy receiving them as much.
Let’s look at a few stationery items that I hand on-hand, and why I felt the need to invest in them!
The attraction to this tiny set of washi letter paper and envelopes, for me, was thee-fold; the hedgehog illustration, the material, and the diminutive size. The envelopes are 120×80mm. Not sure if they’re too small to send in the mail…!! I’ve used them to hand out notes in person.
A petite letter set; good for brief letters. This letter set is made of sturdy, shell-patten envelopes (15×11cm) and washi letter paper (14×10cm) with a cute otter caricature at the top of each page. Fuzzy otter stickers are included to seal the envelopes. The simplicity and economic design is what persuaded me to buy these… alongside the cute otters.
Everyone loves stickers, right? Both kids and big kids can enjoy them! Stickers are handy to have on-hand decorate envelopes or plain writing paper.
The Wakayama Electric Railway stickers are exclusive to the iCHiGO EC line – a strawberry-theemed, red and white train boarded with natural wood and wooden furniture. I like how minimal the use of colour is in these strawberry train stickers; most of the stickers are simply red on white. Along with two other themed trains on the Kishigawa Line, iCHiGO EC is a tourist attraction.
Firework (花火, Hanabi) stickers by MIND WAVE. I really like the stylisation of these fireworks. The material is a craft paper, with gold foil finish in places. The characters used to write ‘firework’ are ‘flower’ and ‘fire’ respectively, and you can see in these illustrations that the fireworks do look like flowers.
All of the designs of these stickers are drawn analogue. All of the designs are made on paper with different pencils, markers, paints and such, and then scanned to make washi stickers, which lends the imagery a warm feeling.
The package design itself is neat. The stickers are tear-away strips stuck to a small sheet of card that folds in on itself. The card ‘wallet’ can be tucked away into a pencil case or planner, or wherever else is convenient.
I’ve used a number of Cozyca Products’ letter writing sets in the past. The envelopes and paper has always been washi, so they have a translucent element and delicate feel. Coupled with the types of illustrations chosen, the sets always feel mature, sophisticated, and even ‘cozy’.
Cozyca Products have made goods in collaboration with a number of well-established Japanese illustrators. Maybe I should look into writing about them in a future post? There’s certainly a varied range of visual directions.
Have the illustrations – visuals in general – of a product ever persuaded you to invest in it? Or perhaps the convenience or design itself won you over?
DESIGN WORKS 
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