New Farm | Calling all Stationery Obsessives...We’ve Found Your Empire

Author // Shannon Edwards for Place New Farm

With the store stacked with gorgeous stationery pieces and unique invitations, The Paper Empire has opened their doors on James Street, helping all stationery junkies get their fix.

Having always been fascinated by the beauty of paper for lifes memorable moments, owner, creative director and “Chief Executive Paper Obsessive” Emily Anthon created The Paper Empire 4 years ago.

“I’ve always been a stationery obsessive - I was the kids who kept a separate stash of stickers that were ‘too good’ for sticking on things,” shares Emily.

We asked Emily the story of The Paper Empire and how it all began.

What exactly do you do at the Paper Empire?

Our two main loves are beautiful stationery and gorgeous invitations.

In our ‘empires’ we stock greeting cards, wrap, notebooks, journals and other stationery goodies from around the world, and also our own products.

We also create invitations for wedding and all manner of special milestones. We have a selection of in house designs and can also work with clients to create custom designs.

When you built your empire, what was your mission?

It’s hard to believe that we opened 4 years ago. We started with our store in Armadale in Melbourne, and earlier this year we opened on the lovely James Street in Brisbane.

Our mission has always been to bring beautiful stationery to passionate aficionados and casual paper lovers alike.

We’ve had a mix of retail and design services from day one, and it gives us the best of both worlds.

Making our invitations in house as well as selling beautiful paper and card means we can give our invitation clients a wonderful amount of flexibility.

We love stocking the latest stationery trends and classic favorites. We especially love stocking smaller independent brands from around the world.

We have several amazing greeting card brands where we are their only Australian stockists, and hunting down new talent and supporting other small businesses is absolutely one of the best parts of the job.

We are so pleased to have now opened our second store in New Farm. Not only do I get to put my gorgeous mum to work (who also happens to be a professional gift wrapper!), but we really feel like we’re bringing something new and unique to Brisbane.

How are your designs created?

Our invitations are all designed and produced in our Melbourne store. With our invitations, we have in house ranges that are constantly being added to and updated.

This offers clients a selection of different styles, from on trend minimalism to traditional ornate designs.

As we design everything in house, we can also work with clients to create all kinds of amazing custom looks.

We also create and produce a range of our own stationery products, including cards and art prints featuring illustrations by local artists.

We’re currently in the process of expanding our range of The Paper Empire branded products. We not only love creating and designing new things, but we also have a unique insight into the kinds of product people are looking for, whether they need a gift, an amazing greeting card for a special event, or elegant personal stationery for themselves.