Article: The Designers Behind The 2027 Paper Source Calendars
The Designers Behind The 2027 Paper Source Calendars
Our Paper Source designers have been illustrating and creating unique gifts and stationery for over twenty years, from planners and stationery to mugs and totes. Our amazing customers look forward to our fun holiday decor and unique greeting cards, but our in-house designed calendars always stick out. Every year our designers illustrate and bring to life six full year calendars. Each calendar has its own personality and story inspired by our designers and their lives.
Paper Source has calendar designs that our customers look forward to every year. Our collection usually includes Goodboys, Art Grid, Wall Art, Catitude, Critter Friends, Birds, and Desk Art. This year a new calendar has been added, titled "Collected". This calendar art displays some favorite bits and bobs, from shopping baskets to tool drawers.
Em, our Art Director of Paper, said, “We started development by having the designers pull inspiration to see what we’re excited about, and where there is overlap”. Calendars are usually a collaborative effort throughout our design team and Collected is an extension of that. This calendar demonstrates our designer’s individual styles in a harmonious way.
Em has been with Paper Source for 20 years, and they’ve been a very important part of our design team and inspirations behind our products. Em especially loves working on products for kids, like our Valentine's Day Collection and our novelty pens. They said, “You get to have a lot of fun there and just be silly”.
This year, Em was very inspired and excited to take on the bird calendar designs. Their family has recently taken on birding as a household hobby. They joined the local ornithological society and have had some fun adventures! The chilly, early morning guided walks have helped inspire Em and the Birds Calendar. Their drawings are a mixture of birds they have seen, birds they wish to see, and some other fun and interesting birds.
While calendars are a big part of Paper Source, our design team creates much more! Another great designer on our team is Kana, and she’s been with our team for over four years. In addition to designing calendars, Kana said, “I love crafting and designing sculptural mugs, ceramic trinket dishes, tote bags, punching pens, and wrapping paper. They all start from a sketch and it’s so fun to see it come to life.” Check out Paper Source designed products.
Kana was the sole designer behind Critter Friends calendar this year. She was very excited to share an entire story through her illustrations. When talking about her inspiration, she said, “While the aesthetic is inspired by children's book illustrations, the silliness of these critters doing human-like activities comes from my joy in making people laugh with my drawings.” Her inspiration continues with the love of her dog, Frank. Take a look at the behind-the-scenes clip of Kana’s illustration coming to life featuring Frank!
Kana also said she likes to push the boundaries to create weird and random stories. From the hair salon to gardening lessons, a rock concert and a breakfast buffet, the critter friends' calendar is full of fun and unique monthly art displays. Halloween is Kana’s favorite holiday, so the October illustration always holds a special place in her heart.
Taylar has been a designer and illustrator with Paper Source for over three years. She loves that she gets to create so many different and fun items at Paper Source, and it’s hard to pick a favorite! Some of her favorite things to design are wraps and prints, “It feels a little like solving a puzzle, trying to figure out how to fit all of the different pieces together so they can feel cohesive and seamless.” Taylar said, “it’s a fun challenge and I love seeing it all come together.”
For our calendar collection, Taylar has been the sole illustrator for Goodboys the previous few years. Last year's inspiration was from one of her favorite filmmakers, Wes Anderson. She wanted to keep some of the playfulness of those designs but focus more on the dogs themselves for the new Goodboys illustrations.
Along with the aesthetic of Wes Anderson, this year’s inspiration came from a few different places. Taylar’s Mom has always loved wallpaper, and she grew up with gorgeous wallpaper throughout her house and remembers flipping through wallpaper swatch books with her mom. For the dogs themselves, Taylar had a Dalmatian named Sharky growing up. “The idea of Sharky getting all dressed up for glamour shots in my mother’s house really made me laugh”, said Taylar. “It felt really special to be able to incorporate that into Goodboys this year".
Check out Paper Source designed calendars, gift wrap, party decor, and more!
