Meet The Founder

Hello there,

I’m Ashlyn, founder of Desk & Co Stationery.

I’ve always had a love of paper. Even as a youngster, born before personal PCs were in every home, I found myself creating things out of paper. I’d not only draw and colour in, but I’d also cut and glue until I’d fashioned all sorts of things - like a handheld video recorder - out of paper! Yes, it's possible and I remember pretending I was a director and recording everyone around me and narrating what they were doing. It just goes to show that paper is a versatile medium for all kinds of creativity and expressions of art. It's a canvas for the imagination.

As I matured, paper took on a new form - a writing material. I practised my ABCs and grammar, and wrote speeches, letters to friends, and secret notes passed during class.

As a teenager I poured over my diary, filling it with all my thoughts and feelings. More letter writing to friends (and occasionally to parents when I couldn’t express my feelings in any other way), and many more secret notes passed during class.

 At university, paper (in the form of study notes) was my constant companion even in the earliest hours of the morning, when all others were asleep. 

Now, several years later and in a technologically driven culture, I still find value in paper. I use technology as I see fit but there are some things I just prefer to have on paper. Like a warm note expressing “Thank You”, or birthday messages that are handwritten and handed in person to those I care about. Having a paper daily dairy is another preference, as is a week-at-a glance desk planner. These both help me to stay organised and writing my commitments down seems to embed them in my memory too.

As a mother, I share this love of paper and writing with my little one. We colour, scribble, paint, cut, glue, fold to make paper planes - essentially, we play with paper often and it's one of my favourite activities to do with my son!

As traditional as it is, writing on paper is a form of expression that, for some, cannot be replaced. 

It’s part of who I am and how I process my thoughts, organise myself, but also, shows those that I love and care about that I have taken the time to think about and also write to them.

It’s tangible and can be beautiful and colourful. Well, that’s how I like my paper! I couldn’t imagine my desk without a single paper item on it - could you?