From 2014 - 2021, I owned and operated CW Pencil Enterprise, a New York City stationery shop that specialized in wood-cased pencils. With a friendly and knowledgable approach, we sold over one million pencils, made thousands of personalized recommendations, and created a hub for the stationery community. At its core, CW Pencil Enterprise was a passion project designed to engage others in a forgotten world of mindfulness and nostalgia, as well as to encourage our community to participate in gentler, more analog forms of communication and creativity.
During my tenure as a shop owner, I had the pleasure of working on specialized projects with brands like Herman Miller, Warby Parker and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and collaborated on product with a long list of stationery and accessories makers. Additionally, I developed and oversaw the manufacturing of over a dozen in-house stationery products with independent makers around the world. Learn more about CW Pencils and browse archive content here.
Selected media
CW Pencil Enterprise was featured in scores of media publications all of the world, including Bloomberg Businessweek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, Uppercase Magazine, and more.
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The New York Times
The article that sparked CWPE’s popularity: a feature in the Critical Shopper section of the Thursday Style section, by Molly Young.
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TED Small Thing Big Idea Series
In 2017, I filmed a video for TED about the history of the pencil for a special web series about iconic design, as told by experts on each theme.
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The Passion Economy
My favorite podcast feature: an interview with Adam Davidson of NPR’s Planet Money about why businesses built on passion can succeed.
