VIVIAN LOH and Jun Lim believe that creativity exists in everyone, and that with appropriate stationery, one would be able to express their artistic side.
With this in mind, they created Mossery – a brand that specialises in creating beautiful and distinctive book covers with colourful art and illustrations, custom-made to suit the creative mind of the book owner.
In other words, the cover tells a story about the owner and reveals a little of their personality. Mossery creates captivating exclusive covers for planners, sketchbooks and journals, and is meant to serve as an inspiration for sketching or journaling.
“As creators, we believe that art plays an important role in our lives. The ability to make us stop for consideration and to let us breathe in admiration, art brings fresh new energy into our fast-paced monotonous world,” said Loh.
“Mossery’s mission is to bring more colours and diversity to the daily tools we use. We want to spark imagination and tell stories,” added Lim.
Their unique designs include abstract art, florals, imaginative characters, names with inspiring words or images with custom-made features.
For instance, the 2021 Planner has inspiring quotes on every page, sticker sheets, a unique column called Habit Trackers, and other features. Apart from its handmade creations, Mossery, which was established in 2011, has expanded to include art kits, journaling kits and greeting cards.
What sparked the idea for creative book covers?
We wanted to show that life is not just black and white, but an array of colours that makes the world vibrant and lively. As individuals, we are all unique in our ways and so to create a spectrum of covers is to allow the complex personalities of our customers to come through.
Do you create your own art or illustrations?
Initially, we created our cover designs in-house. Now, we often collaborate with artists around the globe. When we started, the covers were mostly inspired by nature and the world that surrounds us. We looked at the natural colours of our environment and did our best to capture its essence. In that way, Mossery always strives to set out to design something timeless to match nature, which has been around for billions of years.
How did the idea come about to offer personalised services?
We wanted to encourage our customers to take authorship of their lives. Apart from their names, we also have customers who personalise the cover with words, phrases and symbols. Witnessing this sparked an interesting question: “If this book represents a chapter of your life, how would you title it?”
Tell us about the design to end-product process.
It starts with the customer. What are the things in life that are important to them? Are there any tools we can create to make their lives better? How can we enrich and guide them through their personal journey? Thankfully, most of us working at Mossery are stationery users ourselves so we simply need to create something that passes our test. Alternatively, we also take into account the feedback and ideas from our customers and artists worldwide, hoping to create something that people find useful or inspiring.
What is the appeal of personalised covers over digital options?
Digital devices and paper goods are two different mediums that have their pros and cons. We believe that pen and paper help isolate you from digital distractions, making sure that you can get some personal time for introspection. In a world of information overload, there is nothing more important than slowing down to reflect and organise your thoughts. Stationery allows users to slow down, collect themselves and grow at a pace that they can witness.
What is the meaning of the word Mossery?
It is a combination of the word ‘moss’ and ‘stationery’, as a tribute to our love for nature with all its beauty and the hands-on analogue creations that we set to release to our fellow stationery lovers.
Why do you describe yourselves as the “maker of thoughtful stationery”?
To be a ‘Maker of Thoughtful Stationery’ is to make sure that when we design our products, we have thought through all the considerations. For our products to be functional, fun, easy to use and cared for, we first need to understand our customers’ needs. This requires us to be empathetic, to observe and notice user behaviour.
What is your brand development approach?
Mossery has always championed the idea of creativity, productivity and learning. By sticking to our core values consistently, we are pleased to say that we have created a vibrant community of creative individuals who make our brand. With our community motivating us, we will continue to develop ourselves to provide them with the support they deserve.
What do you plan to explore next?
To inspire everyone in the world to create. That has been Mossery’s creed from day one. For now, we’ll continue to develop products that will forward this mission and work with creative minds around the globe to create quality products for our community. We hope to be the pillar for our users to lean on so that they can focus on their journey.
