THE HISTORY OF PAPELINI
In 1990, upon the advice of her mama Nelly Favis-Villafuerte, then popular Export lecturer, consultant, and author of books on banking, exporting and Christian topics, she designed handcrafted greetings cards for entry application to take part in an international exhibition.
To her surprise, despite having no fine arts background, her original 3-D handcrafted card designs debuted in an international trade show in Manila and attracted a host of foreign buyers including Hallmark and American Greetings.
Her initial biggest buyers in her first year were Italians, Japanese, and Americans. With her growing export production, while managing her family’s publishing firm, she thought of a new name for her designs to delineate it from her family’s publishing firm.
Thinking out loud, 23-year-old Marita asked in the family dining hall, “What name can I use that relates to high quality Italian style products? When you think of pasta, you think of spaghetti, cannelloni, tortellini, rigatoni…” Fifteen-year-old Lori, happily interjected, “PAPELini!” “YES! I love it!”, Marita jumped for joy! That day, PAPELINI CRAFTS was born.
“Papel” is a Filipino word that means “paper”. There is also a Filipino dialect that pronounces Papelini as if it is two words, “Papel- ini” which Marita realized means, “This is paper.”
PAPELINI points to everything paper, creatively produced in high-quality processes, handcrafted with love and with a Christian consciousness to community building.
Papelini Crafts took part in the annual international stationery and houseware shows in New York, Paris, and Germany for 12 years. A selection of Papelini designs graced the front covers of international houseware magazines in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Australia, and others.
When Marita’s foreign buyers think of PAPELINI, they smile as they envision innovative paper designs. The most remarkable comment that Marita remembers from her buyer was, “I dreamt of your products last night!”
PAPELINI CRAFTS was the enterprise that produced and distributed Marita’s original environment-friendly paper designs ranging from greeting cards, stationeries, journals, paper bags, boxes, paper mache houseware decors, and paper wrapped wrought-iron and wood-based furniture. She catered to the top tier paper giants (wholesalers, distributors, big retailers and even exclusive boutiques) in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Australia and other countries.
Marita was the very first paper designer of journals, gift boxes and greetings cards to take part in the prestigious CITEM (Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions) in Manila, Philippines.
PAPELINI Crafts was a leader in paper design. Its 100+ paper woven designs debuted in Paris which excited designers for its infinite possibilities in houseware and commercial interior decoration.
Unfortunately, the hectic creative production and international trade show stints (about 3 in a year) kept Marita so busy, leaving her no time to apply for the tedious process of trademarks and patents. As soon as she debuted her new collections in Paris, Germany and New York, copycats duplicated her creative pieces two weeks later.
Her experience in handling a 1,000 man production inspired Marita to educate and train her workers to motivate and inspire them, resulting in efficiency in production and high quality and output. Thirteen years later, Marita transitioned into an educator.
MISSION OF PAPELINI
All the top department stores and exclusive boutiques in key cities of the world sold Papelini Crafts through the famous brands of her foreign buyers. Several department stores and boutiques constantly featured her products on window displays.
One of her delightful experiences was seeing her different products on window displays at the front and center of a line of boutiques in New York, Paris, London and Denver while shopping with her friends who boasted that these were their favorite stores and pointed out her products with great compliments. They did not realize that Marita was the designer and producer of said products.
Behind notable paper brands, distributors and resellers was the happy heart of Marita presented in various paper forms. She innovated so many designs which to this day are being copied, like the journals made of Kraft paper pages, corrugated and GI sheets covered journals, paper twine wrapped furniture, paper twine wrapped boxes, paper twine woven ropes and trims.
As an educator, Marita established the Preppi School Foundation, Inc. and designed the concept, layout, furniture and teaching materials she dubbed as Preppi Power Kits.
Life has come full circle. From designing other people's book covers and page layouts, and producing handcrafted blank journals, Marita has come out to publish the first of a series of books that she has written and designed.
How fitting that PAPELINI has been reborn from being a producer of premium paper products to a publisher of inspirational messages. This is the heart and soul of Papelini.
