e.m.papers originally started as a wedding invitation business over 10 years ago by me, Eleanor, and my friend Molly. The first initial of our first names were the 'e' and 'm' in e.m.papers. The business never really got off the ground, mostly because we were young and ambivalent about what we wanted and where our lives would take us. We also couldn't our heads around the business of printing, distributing and selling stationery. The designing part was the most fun, the rest...not so much.
Molly went on to start a family, a small design practice and a coaching business. It was the middle of the dot.com boom, and I had just graduated from art school as a graphic designer. I wanted to see the world, and while living in Munich, found a job at an American web consulting firm launching it's Germany operations. I have been at the company and in Germany ever since.
While a corproate job has subsidized a nice life in Europe and a lot of great experiences in my early professional life, It has provided fewer and fewer opportunities to actually design, or design anything interesting. In the meantime the internet has grown out of it's infancy and starting a home-based, on the side business on the web has never been easier or more enticing. On top of that, the home-printer market has matured (when I was in art school a a home color printer costed $1000.00.) Considering these facts, sometime in the summer of 2007 it seemed like a good idea to give e.m.papers another go and bring it online selling printables - download and print-at-home greeting cards, invitations and paper goods. A good friend of ours was getting married in California, in the course of the celebrations I brought the idea up to Molly, her response was basically 'Go for it!' and e.m.papers was reborn.
The business is primarily run by me, Eleanor. Molly and my aunt Elizabeth (who also runs Good Form Design) contribute their designs to e.m.papers on the side as they run their other businesses.