To design stationery that inspires people to use them for writing / sketching / doodling.
We all like to write. Infact, Anushri has been collecting notebooks all her life. (She has a collection of over two dozen notebooks from all over the world.) But what we found was most of the diaries available in market today are so mundane that they do not inspire you to write. So, we wanted to create something new that inspires you to write. Thats’ where we thought of this idea of making cheerful handmade notebooks. They had to be handmade because we wanted them to have a character. We wanted to make something that says, ‘Writing is back!’.
We reviewed many available notebooks in the market (manufactured and handmade), we found handcrafted products to be very mundane and not inspiring enough. Most people buy the notebooks but don't ever write in them.
Research
Brand Name
We wanted to create fun and colourful products that bring a fresh and modern design perspective to the rich traditional crafts. That’s how we came up with our brand ‘Mug aur Mooch’.
The Mooch (mustache) represents royal pride that we have in our crafts and the Mug represents reinvigorating freshness of inspiring design (like a cup of coffee in the morning).
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Technique
Embroidery on cloth is different than embroidery on paper boards. We used corrugated paper boards as they were easy to penetrate. We created the holes first, numbered them for seamless process. High quality fluorescent cotton threads were processed to get a sharp, finished look. We used coptic binding, saddle stitch and variations of Japanese stab binding on different books.
We trigger user's imagination with intricate geometrical patterns and lovable animal motifs. Neon coloured pages (recyclable) ensure that there's never a dull moment when you are writing in a Mug aur Mooch.
Social Enterprising
A team of 5 women from Koramangala village (Bangalore) were trained to skillfully handcraft the embroidery motifs with threads and sequins and bind the notebooks with neon colored pages.
They specialised their skills to materialize these beautiful notebooks. So, every time you buy Mug Aur Mooch, you help a family meet its aspirations.
Stories
We created unique stories for our notebook and wall art series. Our product ranges were Sequin Notebooks, Dog Pocketbook Series, Thought books, Sketchbooks , Think books, Trailblazers (innovative product with waterproof papers), Season specials (Exotic silk Ikat fabric and handblock prints) and Wall Arts.
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Platforms
We created our own e-Commerce website, listed products on Amazon and 7 other niche platforms in India which specialise in selling handcrafted products. We also participated in various pop-up events and exhibitions. The products were greatly appreciated by all age groups.
Retrospective
During our beginning years with Mug Aur Mooch, everyday was a new beginning. From sourcing the best materials to exploring the embroidery technique, from making the first 500 notebooks by hand to training a team of 5 ladies to create the notebooks, from selling at niche pop up stores to launching our e-commerce stores. We learnt a lot of new things and experienced the best emotions when little kids would come to our stall to buy our notebooks with their pocket money.
What we needed to do more was to build a team who would help to scale the business up and take it to the next level. Help in building the network to materialise corporate orders and create a pipeline to export our beautiful notebooks.
