Chris Plantan was so bored with her choices for office supplies five years ago that she started designing her own. Thanks to a background in architecture, Plantan brought flair to formerly mundane items like binders and folders. When others started asking for her handiwork, she decided it was time for a business moniker. Plantan chose the names of her grandparents, Russell and Hazel.

Plantan says Russell + Hazel’s challenge was to turn commodities into an extension of self—to make office products personal accessories. Plantan’s vision for the company was conceived with the help of four partners: Cynthia Knox (formerly president of Kilter Inc. in Minneapolis), Kobe Suvongse (formerly managing director of Duffy and Associates in New York), Barbara Giangrossi (formerly head of accessories division at Marshall Fields) and Darin Opperman (a coworker of Knox’s husband at Key Investments). Their combined experiences helped solidify the distinction of Russell + Hazel products, marketing materials, catalogs and website. Russell + Hazel has found a niche it’s all too eager to fill. Sales reached $2 million in 2006. Given the humdrum choices at most office supply stores, it’s no wonder that these savvy office products have had a welcome reception in design circles.

Russell + Hazel's latest catalog, with its fable theme, is more conceptual than any of their previous catalogs. "We feel it's important to speak to consumers in a very friendly and colloquial manner," says chief marketing officer Cynthia Knox. "We always like to have a sense of humor or cheekiness to both our concepts and our writing. Those are things that are important to us. We want the brand to feel very inviting, fun and comfortable—like a fun friend that you have."

THE APPROACH
According to design director Kobe Suvongse, the approach to design at Russell + Hazel is more functional than frivolous. The end result is visually appealing, but practically useful. “We like things that are cheeky, fun and functional,” Suvongse says. “So we try to take the design up a notch on all of these sort of mundane products.” Part of the company’s approach to design is a result of the company’s “open source” environment. Ideas can come from literally anyone.

“Our process is very open and very collaborative,” says Cynthia Knox, chief marketing officer. “Everyone on the team collaborates in terms of bringing in ideas and viewing samples from different markets or just coming up with ideas for products.”

“In terms of product design, we start a project as a team,” Suvongse says. “We put all of our heads together and come up with ideas for products, and we’ll put design and put functionality on top of it. And we’ll maybe create prototypes and have our vice president of sales talk to retailers and see what their reaction to the new product is.”

In addition to vibrant colors and distinct design motifs, another differentiating factor of Russell + Hazel products is their choice of paper quality. “There are certain paper stocks—usually number one grade papers—that we tend to use on all of our products,” Knox says. “We like very bright, smooth sheets and typically a little bit thicker stocks than perhaps some of our competitors use in terms of spiral notebooks. We tend to use brighter, thicker sheets than they might because we feel strongly that the consumer appreciates those quality details.”

Russell + Hazel identified a huge gap in the office supply category: There wasn’t much variety or individuality available to consumers. “The office supply category for many years has not been very design driven and has not followed trends in terms of color and design,” Knox says. “We thought it was important to bring those things to products, and we’ve found that they have resonated with customers. They do look at office supplies as extensions of their clothing. You spend a lot of time putting on a nice suit, shouldn’t you carry a nice binder?”

THE RUNWAY
Knox says their biggest influence is fashion, and it’s evident in the unique design and quality of their products. “We are all sort of fashion junkies at heart,” Knox says. “We really do believe that is one way we have been able to have distinct differentiation in the office supply category. It’s just been a very sort of predictable industry. We wanted to come in at a completely different angle and get our influences from other places—not licensed products—but what we think are creative sources—fashion. We also believe that people do feel like their office products can be an extension of their clothing, and why spend all of this money on your clothing and have a legal pad when you can have something else that helps define your character?”

This approach to character definition comes through in Russell + Hazel’s latest catalog. Following the lifestyle theme of the previous winter edition, Russell + Hazel showcased its products in an office or home environment, but added a distinct editorial slant: The influence for the new approach was famed children’s storyteller Hans Christian Anderson. The catalog’s title, ‘Once Upon a Desk,’ fits the overall folk tale motif.

Again, Knox says, fashion was a major influences for the playful concept. “We noticed a trend in fashion circles: Children’s storybooks and fables seem to be a great influence for fashion designers,” Knox says. “We thought there was a nice connection to fables and the rules that people apply to business. We thought it would be funny to take a look at some of these children’s fables and figure out what the business application or moral to the story would be, as it would apply in the working world. We took a more conceptual approach to make it a more interesting read and again to get that cheekiness and humor into the book.”

“We tried to introduce lifestyle into this overall category,” says design director Kobe Suvongse. “The catalog’s layout of binding, files, accessories, storage—that’s how we show the customer how they can shop. At the end of the winter catalog we introduced how to shop by color. So a catalog is a good medium not only to showcase our product, but also to see if we can create a better way to shop for the customer. The new [catalog] that just came out is organized by sets.” Russell + Hazel’s logo was designed by Suvongse, and uses the fonts Helvetica Neue and Adobe Garamond Pro. The black-and-white logo hasn’t changed since it was introduced in 2002.

THE LANDING
Knox says the team noticed another trend: Retailers such as Williams Sonoma and Restoration Hardware were featuring Russell + Hazel items in a grid at the center of their catalogs. In response, Russell + Hazel designers expanded on this concept, and at the center of the latest edition, outlined each product according to how someone might shop the entire line. “We’re trying to help consumers understand how to shop our brand,” Knox says. “We are also doing more bundling in this book that we did not do in the past. We’re trying to give consumers suggestions on what products go together and what you might want to buy as a bundle or package.”

Suvongse says Russell + Hazel avoided a standard paper size since they were happy with the previous catalog’s format. “We wanted it to be a little bit different from 8½ by 11 in., but we wanted to maximize the size as much as we could in terms of mailing,” Suvongse says. “We had some examples of other companies that do catalogs so we just kind of chose what we felt most comfortable with. You can go even smaller than what we have now (current size is 7 in. X 9½ in.), but you’ll still pay the same postage. You might as well go as big as you can.”

Suvongse doesn’t foresee any major changes to their catalog in the future, but neither is Russell + Hazel locked into anything long-term. “We’re always looking for something different and better,” Suvongse says. “Not just the look and feel of it, but we’re looking for ways to make it less expensive. Or ways we can print more. Those types of items will drive your decision in a certain way. There’s something nice about keeping a catalog the same size and the same format so people get used to it … but it can always change.”

While change is a constant in any industry, creating retail products forces a delicate balance of variety and consistency. Consumers demand something new every few months or so, and astute companies try to stay one step ahead of that demand. By constantly stretching their imaginations and paying close attention to fashion trends, the creative team at Russell + Hazel makes variety a necessary byproduct of their operation.

And variety is always in fashion.

Binders are a focal point of the Russell + Hazel product line since they function as centerpieces for many other products, including notepads, dividers, folders and calendars. Binders come in a selection of vibrant colors and sizes.

Russell + Hazel cofounder Chris Plantan says she focused her early research on how other brands achieved success. “We’ve looked at other businesses that have succeeded,” Plantan says. “What did they do well? Like the cosmetic industry, or the shoe industry, what did they do that resonated? What was it that gave them the foundation for success? You just try to find the best people to offer you the best information.”

About the author
Rodney J. Moore, a freelance journalist turned communications and PR strategist whose specialty is crafting and making media pitches for companies and individuals, is the founder of Moore Creative Communications. He is the author of Design Secrets: Layout, and he is working on his second nonfiction book.