I recently spent a few days in Seoul, and the least I can say is that the stationery scene is thriving there! I couldn’t explore it all, but in a very short time I stumbled upon many nice shops and Korean brands…
Here is a short selection of notebooks and other stationery items I could gather:
‘Bam’ notebook by Sosomoongo. The character 밤, pronounced ‘bam’ means ‘night’ in Korean and it fits very well this black notebook, with a cover made out of durable denim tags and lined eco-friendly pages.
Garosu-Gil postcard, by Zero Per Zero. Zero per Zero is a design studio creating illustrations and maps based on railways systems from cities around the world. Their postcards include details from major cities like Seoul, London, New York or Paris. This one is about Garosu-gil, the fashion district where young and trendy people come shopping for international brands as well as local Korean designers.
Alphabet stickers by Circus Boy Band. I guess Korean people like alphabet stickers as I saw many on my way. These ones are from design studio Circus Boy Band, based in Seoul.
Square notebook with exposed spine, by Paperways. I think I fell in love with Paperways. This thick notebook has a beautiful exposed and coloured spine and I simply love the design of the tag. Simple yet original. It comes with matching lined pages. A favourite!
World map desk notepad, by Paperways. Yes, here’s Paperways again with a desk notepad inviting you to think about travels or whatever the world map makes you think of.
‘Everything will be ok’ letter, by Thence. A beautiful letter to send comforting words around!
‘The Voyage’ travel notebook, by Gongjang. Another crush in Korea. This ‘The Voyage’ notebook has all is required of a travel journal. Schedule, checklists, money plan, it’s all there in a conveniently sized notebook (125 x 180 mm).
‘Think Green’ notebook, by Ecobrïdge. As its name hints it Ecobrïdge pays a great attention to the environment with eco-friendly products. A small amount of every sale is donated to noble earth-related causes, the packaging is made of 100% recyclable materials and the notebook in itself is made of recycled paper and using vegetable soy ink. And the ‘Think Green’ motto is here to remind you of all this, in case you forgot what’s important!
You Great Alphabet stickers, by You Great x PaperPack. Another nice set of alphabet stickers issued by a partnership between two Korean brands You great and PaperPack. I loved the ‘You great 👍’ introduction, it’s rather boosting.
Mountain and Mapping cards, by Gongjang. The map lover in me was naturally drawn to this delicate and stitched map printed on a card made of recycled paper.
Honeycomb mini notebook, by Paperways. And yes, a last notebook from Paperways… This one is out of the ordinary: the pages come with a honeycomb pattern (forget about the ruled lines!).
Where to shop
Here are the few addresses I visited to find all these nice bits of Korean stationery. They are tons of stationery stores in Seoul, like Millimeter Milligram (MMMG) and Artbox for instance (which I couldn’t see this time), so this is surely not an exhaustive list!
In Samcheong area
Heartist. A little store curating objects from local studios and labels (design, stationery and clothes), with an emphasis on eco-friendly projects.
89 Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul – heartist.co.kr
Object. With lots of nice stationery, including notebooks from Sosomoongo and Gongjang, Object has also plenty of other everyday objects, also from local brands.
Jae-dong 11, Jongno-gu, Seoul – insideobject.com
In Garosu-gil area
Jaju. It’s the flagship store of this interior goods brand, which reminded me of Muji. They have cheap articles and lots of Paperways stationery!
15, Dosan-daero 13-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Å-Land. A famous concept store in Seoul, it’s mostly about fashion and hype brands but they also have some stationery, from Thence for example.
548-5 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul – a-land.co.kr
Epoca. Hidden in the side streets of Garosu-gil, a small gift shop with stationery items from major international brands. They had some of the very hard to find travelife notebooks while I was there (had to be in Korea to find some of these Japanese notebooks!).
546-11 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul – epoca.kr
