Face to Face: Introducing Mossery
We always love stocking products from new labels in our Bloesem Shop and even more supporting young independent brands. When we caught eyes on these beautifully printed notebooks from Malaysian label, Mossery, we thought no further and had to get our hands on them. With their notebooks exclusively sold in Singapore in the Bloesem Shop, we get to know more about the trio behind this fun stationery label in our latest issue of the Bloesem Gazette.
Tell us 3 little known facts about Mossery.
1. Our old logo is a chameleon and our latest logo is based on the chinese character - forest 森 which represents our responsibility to make the world a better place.
2. The tallest member is 193cm tall and the shortest member is 153cm. Venti, Grande and Tall.
3. We spent hours choosing hundreds of samples to get the paper right – so that it feels good to even flip it, smells good and works great with any writing instrument.
Tell us more about the team behind Mossery’s fun stationery.
We are a team of three graphic designers – a designer, a marketer and a printer with a passion to design and make things.
What is the Mossery style and where do you gain inspiration from?
We don’t know what is our style yet as we are still learning and absorbing different inspiration from everywhere. We try to get inspiration from other design disciplines like fine arts or architecture. Our latest batch is mainly inspired by the fashion world.
What is the Mossery Teams background? What were you doing before Mossery?
Jun: After graduating from local art college, I worked in a small design firm specialising in branding & print design. We got to work on corporate and wedding stationeries and brand identities for big to small companies. That was where I learnt about design craftsmanship and print production process. After that I started a company with a friend to work on a travel startup – that didn’t work out but I learnt a lot about life, culture and entrepreneurship and gain a technical skill in coding – which helps in the making of our new website.
Vivian: I was already interested in doing my own business while I was a student – I actually had six Etsy accounts in different businesses, as a student I really had nothing to lose – I sold digital prints, ceramics with my illustrations, digital cliparts, posters and bags. It was fun to explore these little creative projects and pay my rent with it. After school I joined a clothing design company and then advertising agency, and now I work for a publication company designing and directing the creatives for a food magazine. Trying so many different things made me realise that nothing else is as satisfying as working on Mossery. Hopefully in 2015, I would be able to just focus on growing Mossery full-time. I’ll share with you this quote from Nasty Gal’s Sophia Amoruso which I deeply resonated with, “I stopped feeling like I didn’t belong anywhere and realized that I actually belonged anywhere I wanted to be.”
Wai Lam: My family runs a printing business which is passed on from my grandfather to my father who is an engineer. When I left design school, I decided that I would use my design knowledge to run the family business in a different way – to make my own products. Before Mossery, I had a dream of collecting old recycled paper and starting my own paper mill business. I believe the world is running out of resources and recycling is the only way to go. Unfortunately – setting up a paper mill factory is too costly and hard to sustain. Now I live my mission with Mossery as a stepping stone.
Describe your creative process in coming up with new designs and prints for your stationery.
First we determine who we want to design it for – what does this group of people love? With a level of empathy, we approach things that they love and get inspiration from there. We imagine ourselves as one of their friends, and ask ourselves – what would we recommend them? For our latest batch of products, we designed it for chic and confident women – and we see what kind of clothes they wear and restaurants they go to. The rest is about exploration of materials, usability and designing the emotion it brings to the user.
We love how close you guys are to the actual production process. How do Mossery products get made?
When it comes to production, we have to communicate very clearly our expectations and vision to our printers as each process involves different people and machines, old and new. We also pop into factories to monitor the whole process from printing, binding, cutting to packaging. We think it is extremely important for designers to understand production and be very involved in the process. We comein between each process to pick out the bad apples for quality control.
If you could do a collaboration with any brand, which brand would be a dream to work with?
Jun: Playhound, a fashion brand from Thailand and Airbnb, a hospitality/travel startup from US.
Vivian: Fun British fashion label Lazy Oaf and Ceramic Maker Makoto Kagoshima (individuals are brands too, no?)
What kind of designs and illustrations can Mossery fans look forward to in the coming year?
Basic designs for serious long term users, accessories that supports our core products i.e. notebook casing, cover wise – maybe a theme from the universe - space, galaxies and planets, and a theme from Mother Earth – whimsical animal prints for our fun stationery.
Being a small and independent brand, what are your dreams for Mossery in 2015?
Jun: To make more high quality & awesome products for ourselves and our friends to use.
Vivian: To have a creative studio (with cats and dogs) to make products and grow to reach more people.
Images courtesy of Mossery.
We want to say a big thank you to Mossery for being a part of the 3rd Bloesem Gazette, The Conversation Issue. We are in love with their beautifully designed stationery and quirky prints... oh and the pugs notebooks had to be our pick! Which is your favourite? Shop them in the Bloesem shop!
.. Mossery
.. Read the Bloesem Gazette " The Conversation Issue"
.. Shop Mossery Notebooks in the Bloesem Shop
