The
Journey
Meet The Designer
Ariana Werner
Owner & Stationery Designer
Creativity has always been a part of me — long before I ever knew what graphic design was.
My favorite “toys” were journals, sketchbooks, and any art supplies I could use to transform the blank pages. The stationery aisles in every store practically called my name. I would run to fawn over the decorative graphics, marvel at the feel of quality papers and embellished covers, and wonder how it was possible to achieve such consistent tones, textures, depth, and even shimmer with repetitive perfection. Maybe a quirky fascination for a child — but one I never outgrew, despite many fads and phases over the years.
So while I didn’t formally begin studying design until I stumbled into a class during my senior year in 2008, the obsession started much earlier. With all the different directions design can lead, I can’t help but appreciate how life circled back and brought me here. Maybe I was born with this passion because it’s my calling to preserve the art and tradition of paper in a digital world that’s quick to replace it.
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of a beautifully addressed envelope arriving in the mail, announcing one of the most meaningful days in someone’s life. Or the quiet satisfaction of handwritten lists and thoughtfully designed notes that make even the everyday feel intentional. Paper holds emotion. It holds memory. And when it’s designed well, it holds individuality.
Nature influences nearly everything I create — the structure of branches, the softness of florals, organic movement, quiet color stories. There’s a balance in the outdoors that I’m always trying to translate into my work. When I’m not in the studio, I’m usually reading a book I can’t put down, indulging my millennial nostalgia with a little Nintendo, or outside soaking up fresh air.
The Studio
Paper Birch Press exists because print came first.
After dabbling in many various areas of the industry, I was always drawn back to print work and the satisfaction of turning screen design into tactile art. Everything shifted when I began working at Hodgins Engraving — a respected, family-owned print shop known for its craftsmanship. I was trained in the art of traditional, modern, and specialty printing in a way most designers never get to experience — learning how ink behaves, how paper reacts under the pressure of metal dies, how subtle design decisions change everything once they leave the screen.
Hodgins didn’t just employ me. They invested in me. They gave me the space, support, and resources to build my own design and print business alongside them — something that slowly evolved into what is now Paper Birch Press. It was through that hands-on experience that I realized stationery wasn’t just part of what I did. It was the thing.
Today, my collections and print offerings are rooted in that foundation: artistic design backed by real production knowledge, created with cohesion and intention from start to finish.
Last spring, a fire destroyed both my studio and Hodgins Engraving.
Years of equipment, printed archives, samples, and ongoing work were lost in a moment. It was disorienting — but it also clarified what mattered. The knowledge. The relationships. The craft.
The collections you see now represent a thoughtful rebuilding. Not rushed. Not recreated for the sake of quantity. Designed with the same foundation I was trained in — and produced with the same trusted partnership as we each rebuild into the next chapter.
