| It was always in the cards. Kate & Birdie was founded in 2004 by Gloria Wall, armed with only her sketching pen and a request for some simple custom stationery. What began as a love of color, illustration and the art of a perfectly stated and simply detailed greeting, has fast become a bustling stationery design studio, with hundreds of stores across North America and Europe stocking K&B goods. Inspired by everything from her neighborhood to foreign cities, from vintage cartoons to good old movies, it was her love of film and vintage movie posters that found its way into the company name. “You’ve Got Mail”, based on one of Gloria’s old favorites from 1940, “The Shop Around The Corner” became the inspiration. What she loved about Meg Ryan’s character in the remake was her warmth, commitment to a boutique style, and the way she interacted with her staff and customers of her bookstore, “The Shop Around The Corner”. Her customers were treated as friends, and her staff as family. This was the very feeling Gloria wanted to convey in her business. The shop owner in the film was Kathleen, and her quirky bookkeeper was Birdie. She shortened the name to Kate, and after judging the reactions to the name {all smiles and curiosity} from family, neighbors, and passers-by; it became easy to see the name alone had evoked the feeling she was after. “The Shop Around The Corner” film poster – the first piece to adorn the walls of Gloria’s first studio – now hangs in a place of prominence on the Kate & Birdie studio wall. |
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| “So, who’s Kate and who’s Birdie?”, you ask. Read on to find out how Kate & Birdie got its start. |
