IF NOT NOW…WEN?

There’s no time like the present to update your image, both personal and professional. A bit of advice from image expert and gracious living-guru Wanda Wen: put it on paper.

And do it now.

Wen, founder of SOOLIP(www.soolip.com), LA’s most renowned stationer and artisanal paper arts boutique in West Hollywood (on Melrose, right across from the PDC), reminds us of something our mothers and grandmothers took for granted: an actual thank-you note – made of paper, signed in ink, put into an envelope, and posted with a stamp– after a job interview or personal meeting places you into an entirely different, more genteel, and far more desirable category than sending an email (or text, or tweet).

She comments, “In this highly digital world of ours, nothing makes more of a statement than the refined, tactile quality of paper, whether it be handmade or machine-made paper.  Communication via email is ubiquitous, too common, and everyone receives up to hundreds of emails and text messages a day. Technology will not make your letter obsolete.  It’s personable.  It’s personalized to you. And it will warm people’s hearts.”

The note, in any medium, should be written and sent the same day that you saw the recipient. The next day is also okay. Beyond that, you’ve forfeited the appropriate social urgency.

SOOLIP is also the LA go-to for distinctive wedding invitations and other personal printed correspondence, as well as utterly unique business card treatments. The vision here is modern, fresh, and relevant—never fussy. No wonder Wen’s expertise on fine papers and how they are used has been sought out by the Today Show, HGTV, Style, E! Entertainment, Vogue, Elle, W, InStyle, Martha Stewart Weddings, Brides magazine, and The New York Times.

When it comes to business cards, the revived art of letterpress—crisper, cleaner and classier than offset printing—says the most, with less. Although something akin to a sugar-rush is inevitable when reviewing SOOLIP’s mouthwatering array of paper stock, typography and ink selections, Wen advises restraint. She says: “A business card stands out when there is a clear vision for the card, and that the creator wasn’t attempting to be all things to all people.”

SOOLIP Paperie, 310.360.0545, www.soolip.com

CIVILIZING INFLUENCE:

WANDA WEN, Creator of SOOLIP Paperie