Meet Alissa Bell: The Stationery Pro Who’s Bringing Back Handwritten Cards

Psst, in case you haven’t heard, we just launched Girlboss Goods, our marketplace for curated products by female-founded brands. Here, we profile some of the women taking part. Next up, Alissa Bell.

Alissa Bell makes beautiful, stylish stationery in considered colors and distinct, yet subtle branding. She also happens to run a restaurant—coincidentally called Stationæry—in Carmel-by-the-Sea in California. So, yes, paper plays a bit of an outsized role in her life and work. “I love how nostalgic it is. It’s this old, time-honored thing to send someone a card.”

But Bell didn’t come into her own brand immediately out of school. In fact she did “the boomerang thing” by moving back in with her parents after leaving behind a corporate recruiting career. Bell took Letter Press classes and worked retail to pay the bills. Then, she started a stationery business and made custom orders. Bell funded it with a $5,000 loan from her grandparents combined with her own savings. Once she got her first client—some wedding invitations—she used the deposit to buy Adobe design software.

“I’ve had this company for 10 years, but at first it was definitely doing work for other people.” Bell got to the point where she wanted to make something of her own and put it out into the world. “I just wanted to create a few great pieces. No matter what industry you’re in, there’s always pressure to constantly create more and more. I didn’t want to over-create.”

“I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now if I didn’t put the time in to learn. You have to screw up, and you have to do work that maybe you’re not 100% proud of at the start in order to get better.”

Even now, Bell’s eponymous stationery line is considered and pared back. “There’s definitely something so beguiling about the simplicity of an envelope and the letter and something about the slowness of that and the intention of that,” says Bell. “Thanks to technology, we’re all able to connect so casually, and I’m not lessening that, but it’s about celebrating the slower and more tangible ways. I was a recruiter for Deloitte 10 years ago, and I would always remember who sent a note as opposed to an email.”

Bell is also a mother, and, to her, success is “tucking creative sessions between naps.” She’s worked hard to build her business in a way that would allow her to devote time to her family. “I didn’t want to be beholden to wedding timelines, or constantly having to make business cards on other people’s timelines. I set out to create a space where I can be professionally and creatively satisfied and have time to see my kids and while some days are more difficult than others, I’m doing it.”

Bell also started her brand a time before Instagram, before anyone and everyone was a content creator with a merch line. What would have been different had she started her brand today instead of 10 years ago? “I know myself better now, so maybe I would have started with my own designs from the start instead,” she says, before recalling an episode of the podcast This American Life. “Ira Glass said something like, you have to do a lot of shit work before you get good at something. And that’s how I feel, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now if I didn’t put the time in to learn. You have to screw up, and you have to do work that maybe you’re not 100% proud of at the start in order to get better.”