MEET THE MAKERS

The Walpole Book of British Luxury

In the latest edition of the Walpole Book of British Luxury, Smythson proudly takes its place among more than 250 of the UK's most distinguished luxury brands. Published annually, the book champions the extraordinary creativity and heritage that make British craftsmanship world-renowned. For this year's Meet the Makers feature, Mark Hooper explores the dedication, techniques, and artisanal skills behind our signature stationery, offering an inside look at the people and time-tested methods shaping our craft.

With a storied history that dates back almost 140 years, Smythson has earned a reputation for its best-in-class stationery and leather products thanks to a commitment to craftsmanship and versatility that has never been compromised.

That is evident at the factory in Wiltshire, where age-old printing processes are combined with a modern design sensibility, offering a range of handcrafted finishes, lettering styles and colour options across the stationery range, from the celebrated envelopes hand lined with tissue paper to personalised writing paper and calling cards for businesses, weddings or other milestones.

Brad Hillcoat, Head of Bespoke Production, oversees the incredible diversity of techniques and skills required in the complex production. “I’ve grown up with the stationery side of the business,” he says. “When I joined 26 years ago, I was taking a gap year out before going to university, which never happened, obviously.”

Passing down the skills that he learnt from his own mentor over a quarter of a century ago, Hillcoat is rightfully proud of the team and their ability to adapt, which applies just as much to the company as a whole. “When I started my apprenticeship, emails had just launched, and friends were saying, ‘Why are you going into this? It’s never going to last.’ But it’s come full circle,” he says. “You see people becoming their own designers now, who want to put their own marks on their stationery, and modern technology has allowed us to do that.”

This has entailed a heavy investment in both machinery and staff, ever evolving by combining traditional and modern techniques and being less pigeon-holed in terms of roles. “When I came into this, you were a press person, or you were an envelope liner, or you were a gold stamper, but now you can be all three,” says Hillcoat. “And that makes us a lot more flexible.”

Josh Uzzell is a Production Operator working across die stamping, guillotining, digital and gilding work. “I can, if needed, jump onto another job first, do different bits and bobs if we’re on a tight deadline,” he explains. “It’s good to have that knowledge. There’s such a variety and a wide range that you can choose from.”

One of his specialities is working with the gilding iron, which involves running a hot iron (of up to 300°C) over golden foil along the edges of fanned-out pages and cards, held in place by clamps, to leave a distinctive gold finish.

Alongside working on gilding, bordering and spray-edging, Production Operator Lian Luis specialises in another of Smythson’s hero products: its tissue-lined envelopes. These are fully lined by hand with delicate tissue paper and are said to date back to the brand’s beginnings in the 19th century, when spies and diplomats required envelopes that were double lined so nobody could see through the thin paper to read the messages inside. Whereas the brand’s rivals simply add tissue to the inside parts of the envelope, which you can see when opened, Smythson takes pride in cutting no corners.

“I never knew we did tissue envelopes until I came to Smythson,” she says. “I was like, okay, this is something new!” It’s a skill that requires a great degree of patience and steady hands. Luis started off in a flower factory, but quickly moved to Smythson. “I would say it’s my first ever proper job – and my dream job. I love stationery, obsessed actually.” You get the impression she’s not the only one here.

For Luis, one of the biggest attractions of the job is being able to unlock new skills. “I learn something new every day because I’m always learning a new technique of something that I might be doing in the old-fashioned way. There are so many processes that people don’t appreciate when they see them. They know an item is handmade, but people think about it almost in the abstract; they don’t understand everything that goes into it. Many people think that the bordering or the spraying we do is actually a machine doing it.”

It’s these hand skills that Hillcoat looks for most when recruiting new members to the team. “When I’m looking at CVs, I’m looking for the extraordinary: something that stands out, that shows somebody may be into craft, unusual things,” he says. He tends to be less interested in grades than if, say, they mention a love of origami. “Then it’s okay, well, I want to see that person. And I’ll put a sheet of paper in front of them. Everybody has a different avenue in here. And I think that’s what makes it special.”