July Interview: Sustainable Stationery with GREEN|FINGERPRINT Co-founder Catherine Saunders

Introducing...



...GREEN|FINGERPRINT. GREEN|FINGERPRINT is an eco-friendly stationery business started by two sisters Catherine Saunders and Jacqueline Richelieu two years ago. As a child, I fell in love with stationery and pens, so it was a personal pleasure meeting with Catherine over breakfast and finding out more about the idea and execution behind this young venture.

Catherine, where did your love of stationery come from?
Jacqueline and I grew up in Southern California. Only 16 months apart, we grew up as twin siblings and best friends. Our passion for stationery started when we were seven to nine years old: we set up a stationery stand on our front lawn. Using rubber stamps and other items around the house, we made thank you notes and greeting cards for our neighbors. Now at GREEN|FINGERPRINT, the two of us work on every facet - accounting, branding, design, printing, etc.

And how about the eco-friendly part? How did you decide that your stationery business would be built around a principle of environmental sustainability?
Two years ago, Jacqueline and I were eating lunch with our mom in Pasadena and decided we would create this company and write a business plan. We visited a stationery store and asked the clerk what percent of paper was 100 percent post-consumer recycled. He said none, and we saw a business and social opportunity in that. A lot of stationery businesses are going eco-friendly. For example, Cranes's letterpress products are printed on tree-free cotton rag paper. But we're not just offering an eco-friendly option - we're based on a completely eco-friendly business model.

Printing is inherently not an eco-friendly process, and we're thinking about ways to innovate in the eco-friendly stationery space. This means staying on top of new methods as they come out into the market. From our inception, we've been eco-friendly at our center. Our goal is to be totally carbon neutral at the end of this year. In printing, there's still water involved. Energy is used when we mail things, and we want to think about our entire carbon footprint as a business - so we're looking into purchasing carbon offsets, for example, planting trees. This would cut into our profit, but consumers wouldn't bear the burden of this cost.

What products do you currently offer?
Wedding invitations, personal stationery, baby announcements, event invites, corporate identity jobs (from designing logos and letterheads to business cards), greeting cards, etc.

What's special about the paper you use?
A tree-free cotton rag paper that is made from scraps of cotton that are a byproduct of the textile milling process: it's soft and well-suited for our letterpress products; 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper, which comes in two colors (white and off-white) and two weights (130 pound and 100 pound, which we use for digital printing).

What were your first steps in launching this business?
We wrote a business plan and got things off the ground as a limited liability company. Our initial investment included buying computers and software, and we went on a search for 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper. To start off, we designed eight thank you notes and printed 500 of each. We bought the Adobe Creative Suite. The school I taught at at the time had a multimedia classroom, and the graphic designer there helped me out with my initial designs. Last summer, I started learning the programs at a deeper level. With Jacqueline's photography skills and my art background, it wasn't about learning color or design, it was more the technology piece that was missing. We had also done a lot of design work for our own weddings and bridal showers. Right now we don't have a storefront, but have plans to have one in the future.

What were you up to before GREEN|FINGERPRINT?
I taught high school for six years in West Philadelphia and San Diego and then taught law in Fresno at a progressive charter high school. Jacqueline works in private wealth.

What is competition like in the stationery business? Competition or coopetition?
Within the stationery and creative arts community, there is such a sense of community. We try to offer a personal experience. When a client calls, s/he talks directly to us and can do pretty much whatever s/he wants in terms of customizing colors, fonts, etc. Each design house has its own identity, and our's is modern and sleek. We haven’t found another company that marries modern style with an eco-friendly mission. Many eco-friendly stationery products have a more organic, seed/flower look.

Who is in your target market?
Women in their twenties and thirties who are planning weddings and of course people who appreciate design and the look and feel of high quality eco-friendly stationery. We want to be the choice for brides, moms to be, friends purchasing stationery for friends. For example, a woman from Texas called about 300 plus invitations for a Bar Mitzvah. We're currently getting much of our business from New York, California, and Texas.

Are you open to wholesale down the line?
We eventually want to get our stationery into the the stores of independent stationers and like-minded shop owners. We would begin with our thank you notes and get our binders of wedding invitations into stores. We'll also attend trade shows, where stationers large and small get their products out there. We're also thinking about stores like Papyrus and Paper Source.

Crowdsourced companies such as Threadless have been a hit. Why haven't we seen similar successes in the stationery business?
For stationers, design is a critical element. In large part, there may be some resistance to associating someone else's style of design with your brand. We don't want to be seen as a FedEx or Kinkos.

Metrics. How do you track the social return on investment for your customers?
There are various calculators out there to help us determine the trees, water, carbon emissions, etc. that we've saved in our processes. Part of our packaging tells consumers what they've saved in purchasing our products on personalized cards that we fill in (e.g., x gallons of water saved). We want them to know that our products don't come out of factories and that they've done something positive.

What's your vision for GREEN|FINGERPRINT?
We strive to produce and create stationery and invitations that are printed exclusively on tree-free and 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper and designed in modern and sophisticated styles. Our stationery is intended to excite you and even tug at your heart strings. In this digital age, there's still a need for written communication and for sitting down and writing a physical note to say thank you or assembling wedding invitations.

A mentor of mine says that entrepreneurs must learn how to sell their dreams. Thoughts?
When you're dreaming about a business, you're not dreaming about the challenges of distribution, production, accounting, etc. Who's providing us with paper and ink? What kind of ink do we want to use? What kind of company do we want to incorporate as? It's not so easy to translate a dream into a business and especially in design, a traditionally anti-business field.

And finally, please define entrepreneur.
An entrepreneur is someone who is passionate about what s/he wants to do, whether that's a product or service and is willing to make sacrifices to make it happen, which include emotional, financial, and physical sacrifices. The big payout is down the road, however you define big. As a women entrepreneur, there's the additional element of thinking about down the road. Do we want families? Can we have it all, our careers and our personal lives? I think we can.

Thank you Catherine. Jelly Theory is rooting for GREEN|FINGERPRINT and wishing you success in Martha Stewart's Dreamers Into Doers contest.

You can fan GREEN|FINGERPRINT's Facebook Page and following them on Twitter.

May Interview: Making a Living and a Life with Artist Rochelle Ford

One thing that I love to do in the springtime is go on walks. Waverley Street is an especially beautiful walk because as you head toward downtown Palo Alto, the road begins to wind and curve - I am told that this is where the name Waverley comes from. On one such walk, I stopped everything I was doing and thinking because I saw this:


It's a bright, energetic, artistic house smack in the middle of Palo Alto's conservative professorville. Should I mind my own business or knock on the door and meet the creative owners of this house? I couldn't resist and chose the latter ... And, I met Rochelle Ford and her husband. Rochelle is a 70-something artist who makes remarkable metal sculptures out of recycled and discarded metal - or in other words, junk. Her story (and her husband's) inspired me to see the difference between making a living versus making a life.

Jelly Theory: Good morning, Rochelle. Thanks for your time and opening up your beautiful home for us to talk. You devoted yourself to a career in art later in life. What was the thought process?
Rochelle Ford: I’ve always been interested in art and have had a creative side to me. In my professional career, I ran an international nonprofit. The founder was dying of cancer at a young age and told me: Don’t die wondering, get to it. Four and a half years later, at 58 years of age, I left the organization and became an artist. I taught myself to become a welder. During the first two years, I held shows in New York. By the third year, I replicated my salary as Executive Director of the NGO, and surpassed it in my fourth year. I wanted to be a successful artist, not a starving one – and to make a living and a life as an artist. I had been in business all my life and was raised in a family in business. Art is 85 percent business.


How does your very unique home and garden fit into your artwork?
Well, after I decided to give up business and become an artist, I came home and made art. I put price tags on my work, but the question became: How do you get people to come inside and take a look? The first thing my husband and I did was paint the house. This area of downtown Palo Alto is in an historic part of town where everything is neutral – white, beige, and gray – and so we began by painting the inside of the house and worked our way to the outside. Everyone was attracted to the house, both negatively and positively. The colors drew attention to our abode and signaled that something was going on in here that was different. As people were drawn to the exterior of the house, they gradually started coming inside and realized that I made small $20 dollar pieces to three-story high sculptures that were thousands of dollars. They would buy something modest and then many would call back about the sculpture upstairs or bringing a friend from out of town to visit. It was a snowball effect. I would say yes to opportunities even though I didn’t have previous experience in them. For example, 3COM asked me to design and build a chair for Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.


That’s genius! I noticed that the outside of your house has three main colors. How did you pick them?
Martha Stewart had just started a paint line of floral colors. The colors are Martha Stuart flower colors because in a naïve way I thought that would makes the appearance of the house more socially acceptable. I was already set on the first two colors and was deciding between olive green or purple for the third color. My neighbors were going to have to live with the colors too, so I put it up to a vote. They picked purple because this was 15 years ago when many families were affected by war, and the green reminded them of the military.


Does that mean that your home is essentially an open gallery?
Yes, after going through many galleries and shows, I decided my house and yard would be my gallery, and I wouldn’t put my work in the hands of galleries. People can enjoy house and yard like a living gallery. There’s more art in it than any gallery would ever have. People come, and I make myself available to anyone who wants to visit and bring their guests. It really does work. Visitors find art they like or commission me to do a piece for a special part of their homes. I enjoy people and welcome them. There’s no pressure whatsoever. If they find something they like, I’m thrilled; and if not, we still get to visit over a cup of tea.


Your work is famous for being created from recycled and discarded metal. How does this aspect infuse meaning into your work?
We live in a throw away society. People throw a lot of things away that you can take and turn into something desirable. I used to find my starting materials in junkyards, but now people will randomly leave me items like a wrecked car fender hoping that I can use them.

This model runs in the family. My mother owned a second-hand clothing story. We lived in an upscale small community where people would wear something to a fancy party and never wear it again. My mom brought these worn once outfits to people who couldn’t afford clothes, and this made her happy. My father was a new and used car dealer. The new car business was cut and dry, so my dad loved the old car business more because he could take an old car and make it run perfectly for someone who couldn’t afford a new car: again, taking something no one else wanted anymore and turning it into something desirable.


So what are example parts that you can use in your art pieces?
Steel mill splatters in Pennsylvania
Melted aluminum windows from Berkeley fires
Sardine and tuna cans
Mirrors covered in copper from the roof of the oldest house in Saratoga
Inserts from hot water heater
Copper piping from an old fridge
Car muffler pipes
The outside of hot water heaters
Old metal trash cans
…

Wow. How did you go about finding and getting these kinds of parts?
When I was first getting started, I visited the local dump to see what I might find. This one time, I needed a spring from the hood of a car, so I went out, lifted the hood, and used a torch to spring it out. Six guys were standing by the dump clapping, and I ended up becoming good friends with the workers at the dump. They told me anytime I need a part, they would help me get it. I was given carte blanche to go to the dump, but I don’t go very often anymore. I already have a lifetime of garbage to work with.


Fifteen years ago at 58, you began your life and career in art. It’s inspiring and remarkable for those who may be thinking about life transitions. Haha, this is a comment, not a question, but feel free to respond.
The truth is that our home is a phenomenon to people, and I hope it says that you can get started in life late. I remind my customers of their mothers, grandmothers, and even themselves, and I encourage them to think that at even at 73 years old, your life isn’t over. I’ve given presentations at senior centers and retirement places. I tell the people there that life isn’t over and that they can use their creativity to express their interests. They shouldn’t miss the opportunity to do so.

Can you share a couple memorable stories about your interactions with visitors to your home?
Teachers will bring their students here to show them that we’re not always a throw away society. One time, a second grade class came over, and the kids were exploring the house. One little boy didn’t say a word the whole time, but would examine the price tags. At the end, the teacher asked if anyone had anything to say. All of a sudden, the boy raises his hand and says, “Lady, you charge a lot of money for junk.” I replied, “When you can turn junk into art, you can charge a lot of money.” And I could just see his brain working away. Another time a man came, stepped into our home, and bought the first sculpture he saw. I asked him what prompted him to buy this particular sculpture without looking at the rest, and he said it reminded him of the hat his mother used to wear to church.

I love that child’s honesty, and he definitely raises a good point. How do you price art that’s made from … junk?
A lot of people who buy my art say it’s reasonably priced. I used to think: Oh my goodness, this is a wrecked car part that someone threw away and has no value; and here I am, making it into a piece of art and charging for it! A lot of art is buying raw materials, making a piece of art, and then selling it. For me, I have to unmake raw materials first and then make them into something, so this justifies why I can take junk and sell it. Personally, I tend to be very conscience of how I spend my money, so I think: What would I be willing to pay? Other factors include time, equipment, gases, glaze, paint, size, materials, how good I feel about myself, etc. There’s no science to it. If visitors see something out of their budgets, I’d rather them have it if it makes them happy. That’s going to outlive me.

What inspires all of these pieces in your home, and do you have a few favorites?
The material motivates me. If you look around the room, you may notice the sculptures that are made out of nails. At one point I was given $300 dollars of rusty nails, and I made $5000 dollars worth of sculptures from that. I thought: I’ll take the nails and make at least $300 and then some. I then took the rest to the recycling center because I knew I’d never live long enough to use them up.

My favorite piece is always the last one I made. When I complete a project, I’m satisfied, forget about it, and move onto the next one. I value the process, not the end product. Every piece is one of a kind. I never reproduce my art.


With your home as your gallery, and your gallery as your home, do you find it hard to balance work and life?
I once made a sculpture of a woman, and she ended up with seven breasts, which was fitting because it captures a prevailing theme for women: they’re the wife, mother, neighbor, friend, etc. When I’m in the studio, it’s the only place where I’ve ever been able to concentrate on me and what it is that makes me whole – not that I don’t love these other roles. But when I’m in my studio, that’s my world, and I don’t think about another thing except creating what makes me happy and the whole artistic process.


This last question is a tradition for all Jelly Theory interviews. In your life’s work, how would you define entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur makes a living and has a life at the same time: she makes a living and a life.

Thank you, Rochelle. You're an incredible woman who is putting positive energy into the world.

At the end of our interview, Rochelle gave me this magnet: On the road of life, be a driver, not a passenger:

And here are other fun pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Fractal Love

I found this "Sierpinski Valentine" on xkcd, a witty math webcomic. Where romance and mathematics meet...fractal style. Happy Valentine's Day.

Be Genius-inspired

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, speaks at TED2009 (last week) about the creative process and how artists are culturally conditioned to be afraid of it. Watch this.



"And then the Renaissance came and everything changed and we had this big idea and the big idea was let's put the individual human being at the center of the universe, right?...People started to believe that creativity came completely from the self. And for the first time in history, you start to hear people referring to this or that artist as being a genius rather than having a genius. And I got to tell you I think that was a huge error."

Gilbert's talk reminds me of a couple conversations I've had:

• I sometimes tell my sister that my friend so-and-so is a genius, and every time she rolls her eyes and informs me that I think everyone is a genius. She is the one person who has expressed such a strong aversion to the term genius, and I'm beginning to see her point.
• A seasoned entrepreneur shared with me that his philosophy is to fail fast and fail often. He's not an artist per say, but what is it about his (entrepreneurial) spirit that seems to embrace failure as a platform for arriving at genius-inspired success?
  

To paraphrase the end of Gilbert's talk, you don't have to believe that any greatness you bring to the world comes from just you; don't be afraid or daunted -- just do your job with human love and stubbornness.