Anja Savic, the founder of the design studio The Letterist (previously: The Letterist Translates Love Onto Paper) is a creative through and through. Besides sharing our unwavering passion for paper, Savic creates artfully designed, typographically inspired, wistfully worded and exceptionally crafted wedding and event stationery for clients across all continents. We were excited to see The Letterist embracing the new decade by celebrating a major milestone with fresh branding under a new tagline: “Love on Paper”, and kick things off with a bang, releasing a beautiful, letterpressed desk calendar, printed on the Color Style range by Europapier. 
–
How was this new 2020 calendar born, what sparked the idea to produce a letterpressed desk calendar?
I’ve been making calendars every year since I started The Letterist in 2014. I had always wanted to do one that was letterpressed, but the costs of creating 12 separate plates were always a little prohibitive, or as printers would often tell me, just plain crazy!
This year, as we celebrated 5 years of The Letterist with a brand refresh, new website and release of three semi-custom wedding stationery collections, I decided it was the perfect occasion to do something truly special, unique, and unlike the previous usually black/white/neutral versions, colorful! The Letterist’s new tagline is “Love on Paper” and I really wanted this calendar to be a beautifully printed, tactile celebration of that. The calendar was printed by Temilov Print.
And what inspired you to choose the Color STYLE papers for this project? These four particular colors used, what do they suggest to you, in combination with the months that are printed on them?
The Letterist aesthetic has always been famously black & white with occasional soft neutrals, and I felt the five-year celebration called for something a little more audacious and colorful. On a personal note, I recently moved to Europe after 6 years in Africa, and one of the most striking things about this shift has been rediscovering the wonders of having four seasons. I have taken such great delight and inspiration in watching the seasons change, the light, the colors in nature, the wardrobes, events, and of course moods, with them…and I wanted the calendar to bring all this into people’s workspaces.
I searched for four colors that represented the seasons and also created a unique and striking palette together, and when I discovered the incredible Vibrant Coral and Jungle Green from the Color STYLE Range, I knew this was it!
–
I searched for four colors that represented the seasons and also created a unique and striking palette together, and when I discovered the incredible Vibrant Coral and Jungle Green from the Color STYLE Range, I knew this was it! Cream Grey for winter (January, February, March); Jungle Green for spring (April, May, June); Vibrant Coral for summer (July, August, September); and Macchiato Brown for autumn (October, November, December), all in 300 g/m 2. My friends often joke that I look like my stationery – which is to say that if you took a look through my wardrobe, these are pretty much the colors you’d find! The Color STYLE range is exclusively available by Europapier.
Did you have a specific kind of client in mind when creating this calendar?
I normally order a small print run of 100-200 primarily to use as gifts and promotional material for my own clients, suppliers and potential partners, and offer some for purchase in my online shop. They are a sort of “showoff” piece – a demonstration of The Letterist’s dedication to typography, design, and sophisticated print techniques and paper selection. And so they inevitably attract an audience that shares those affinities – people from the design and creative communities who prefer to buy unique small-batch goods over mass-produced alternatives.
They are a sort of “showoff” piece – a demonstration of The Letterist’s dedication to typography, design, and sophisticated print techniques and paper selection.
With blind debossing, screen-printing and italics type, the calendar is a true beauty! Where can one purchase it, and is there anything else one should know?
These 12 sheets sit on a custom-made white acrylic holder, which I hope people will reuse for next year’s calendar, or repurpose as a small photo shelf for their desks. Together with the holders, the calendars are packaged in matte metallic bubble mailers in black or silver. In addition to the calendar, we also have a beautiful notebook that is available for purchase in the online shop.
Images © Anja Savic / The Letterist