There’s something covetable about beautiful stationery—crisp pages, the smell of a new book, the sheen of a fresh pencil…we can go on and on. Meet Origin One, the retail arm of The Grafiosi Studio of Art & Design and our current stationery obsession. Currently, it offers designer stationery, paper products, home décor, wall art and concept books.
Origin One positions itself as ‘a collection of everyday objects for the design loving global nomad.’ The brand opened launched by way of a six-month pop-up by the ocean in Goa in 2014 but officially launched at the London Design Festival in September 2015 and had its brick-and-mortar presence in New Delhi by November later that year.
The man behind it is Pushkar Thakur. He set up Grafiosi in 2005 and has won a slew of awards for his work from American Design Awards, Creativity International Awards, Design And Design, amongst others. When he’s not creating beautiful stationery, he likes to spend his time travelling, cycling and practicing yoga.
“This was an attempt to bring my love for design and art and translate that in to a product that is accessible by a larger variety of people, but more importantly to feed my need to create a design language for India that doesn’t exist or is rarely spoken,” said Thakur, speaking on why he chose to start Origin One.
Thakur’s designs are sleek and minimal, and he favours darker tones over lighter colour palettes. The books draw you in with their rich and smooth bindings, and there is an unapologetic simplicity in their sophistication. And perhaps, most importantly, all of Origin One’s paper is sourced from sustainable forests.
The most intriguing of Origin One’s products is their Stationery Subscription Box, a beautiful black box with gorgeous bronze detailing that contains a few ‘mystery items’. The contents of the box change every month so you can never be too sure what’s going to arrive at your doorstep, but Thakur promises you’ll love it.
We have to admit we have a bit of a soft spot for their immensely chic Blank Black Memo Book and their Hard Bound Diary, and while they don’t offer free shipping they do offer overnight shipping across India, and worldwide shipping via FedEx, which seems like a perfectly acceptable trade off.
“I’m absolutely overwhelmed by the response to India’s first ever stationery subscription service. In this short, five-month period we have a loyal following of folks who’ve switched to our thread-stitched notebooks,” said Thakur.
Perhaps the best part is that Thakur’s orders seem to come from all over the country, shattering the pop culture driven myth that it’s only urban, well-to-do folks from tier one cities that covet stationery, and proving that the love for design is universal. “It’s like stationery has democratically cut through and evoked lovers of design in every corner of the country,” Thakur says in conclusion, wrapping it all up in a neat, little bow.
Scroll down to see some of Origin One’s beautiful stationery