Emeric Thibierge — Quality is a match for all senses
Emeric Thibierge has been working with paper for more than 30 years. I call him the king of paper. He has invented the profession ‘paper designer’ and became the creator of gorgeous Thibierge notebooks.
THE STORY
When I was young I wanted to become an architect but my parents are conservative, they wanted me to be a banker because it is safer. I was not a guy made to be a banker, I was an adventurer — when I was 20 y.o. I went through Africa driving a car. Creating products and creating businesses is a modern adventure.
I started working for a large paper manufacture in Europe and I created a paper with a very fine texture. That paper was for printing, for invitations, and has been a huge success. I was only 27 years old when I created a big value.
— Was it luck?
I don’t know if it was luck, but I created it with my hands, my brain, my heart, my energy.
Then, the company merged with an English company, and I was fired.
When I joined the paper industry I thought that the choice of paper was rather limited. I decided to make a comparison with fabrics — fabric choices were nearly unlimited. A Life is not enough to discover everything that exists in the world of fabrics. Paper was much poorer. I discovered there was a job called fabric designer. Wow. There was no paper designer. This was missing. So when I was fired out from this company I though — OK. This is a chance now. I can establish my own company and I will establish myself as a paper designer. So we started a company and new products, new technical process, and so on. It’s been a huge success around the world.
One of the great products was inspired by my trip to Glass blowers of Murano. I saw these deep colours with a transparency when the light is going through. Wow. If we could transfer this into paper, it would be great. I don’t know if it will sell but at least I will be very happy with that. And, maybe some people will also say ‘wow, this is beautiful’. It’s been a headache to develop, it took us two years and after that, it’s been a huge success all over the world. We sold that in 35 countries and set up a subsidiary in New York.
THIBIERGE NOTEBOOKS
It happened same year as I introduced the paper, inspired by Murano.
I went to Hermes and purchased a very beautiful notebook with a nice leather cover. I was writing and drawing with a pencil there and after a while all of my writings and sketched just faded, disappeared, because the paper quality, the piling system, all was not suitable. The basic function of notebook is to keep safe. But they were erased by time. I was surprised because, for me, Hermes was doing only perfect products. But this one was not.
At the same time I was contacted by Mr. Jean-Louis Dumas, the head of Hermès, who said, ‘I’ve been following your work for several years. Would you accept advising Hermes team because my team is not paper experts?’ But sadly, he became ill and passed away.
Years later, in 2012, I was requested by Louis Vuitton to help because they created their Cabinet Des Créatures, and wanted to develop notebooks, paper, inks, letters, envelopes and so on.
I thought, wow, there is something to do here, even if Hermes and Louis Vuitton didn’t have the knowledge in my expertise, let’s do it ourselves.
QUALITY
— What is quality?
—Quality is to match all the senses. For, example, paper, what is not obvious to people. Sometimes, I am asked, ‘What are the key quality features of the paper?’ I say — sound! You hear this is a high quality paper. Nobody thinks about that.
A MOMENT FROM OUR DIALOGUE
SUPERPOWER
— What is your superpower?
—My vision. The ability to see, to anticipate, to understand the future. But there is a danger. You might be not synchronized with today’s expectations. When I started this project of creating a notebook, I went to design this paper. And the Manager told me: ‘Mr. Thibierge, if you are willing to create the writing paper, and we are in the digital age, you are crazy.’
I am not crazy. People want to write with high quality, they want a good sensation, good feeling, they want to purchase good quality paper. Four years later I can see that there are a number of people that a great care of writing. Mass go only digital, but many people who have a certain level of education, certain professional position, and have a certain level of culture, they all write on paper, of course.
Everybody thinks that there is a war between paper and digital. This is not true at all. This is complimentary. Instead of different directions, it will come together. Because to write is absolutely key. It’s nonsense to use a keyboard. The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, said around 4 years ago, that the keyboard will disappear because interaction between human and machine will be talking, speaking and writing. This is very natural. So paper and digital will soon come together. It’s not really a shift yet. But, for example, we have created an application, so you can scan each page and all of your pages are taken care of.
Writing on the paper is absolutely gorgeous. Ideas are more beautiful when you write them. Because you have a pleasure, it’s the feeling. When you type, there you do not like it, when you write — it’s so smooth.
DEVELOPMENT
It took me 7 years to design the notebook. Because there are 5 worldwide innovations in this product.For example, the cover of this notebook. I looked at Chanel makeup boxes and thought —wow, if we could make these boxes for makeup, we can make them for the cover of these notebooks. Now these boxes are made in France with special techniques. The paper was never produced before, so how could we design the notebook without knowing the thickness of the paper we will produce? The paper itself took 2 years to develop. Or, to find the way of closing it took one year. It’s so obvious. You look and say - ‘wow, it’s so simple.’ But it took one year to find such a simple system. Emeric added, ‘What is done with time, time will respect it. Auguste Rodin’
— Where did you get the power to carry the development on for 7 years?
My vision. I could project myself into the future and say wow, it will be a tremendous product. I will be very happy to have that. Maybe some other customers will also be happy to. It’s a sort of satisfaction.
DRIVING FORCE
— Are you driven by satisfaction?
—Future satisfaction. I am always unsatisfied with things. Sometimes, I feel to visit all the companies and say why do you do your products like that?
I was working for KODAK. I wanted to work for pictures. But they offered me to start in copy machines. After a few weeks I say, ‘OK, you should not do the copy machines like that and I will explain to you how you should do the copy machines.’ They said, ‘Wow, Thibierge you are crazy. Please sell the machines and don’t care about the design.’
VALUES
—What are your values?
—Honesty.
—What else?
—Honesty is a lot already.
COMMUNICATION
— How do you do communication of this special brand?
I am the one who can sell this product. It’s very important. Many people do not understand that. When I tell my story I also transfer passion and people say ‘’wow’ and they love that. Because this is pure, this is authentic. It’s not just a marketing story. My story is the best proof as this is my passion. Someone else can not do that.
Of course, we use social networks, we publish beautiful images but more and more we bring cultural information to our customers. I wrote an article on Leonardo Da Vinci because he was left-handed and he mirrored his writing. Most people thought that he did that to make difficult to understand his works. This is not true. The reality is much more interesting. Leonardo is somebody who was curious of everything and someone who was into experimenting with new solutions and pushing the boundaries. Therefore, the mirror writing could have been a simple practical choice: if I write from right to left I pull on a pan but if I write with left hand, I push on the pan so mirroring the writing requires less effort with the left hand and you can avoid friction of a wrist with a wet ink.
Also, we work with paper artists, for example, I often go to Japan and work with designers there to make paper sculptures.
PASSION
— What is your relationships with paper?
—Passion.
A TREASURE
One day, he heard a little girl, with the pretty name of Victoire, saying to her mother “Isaure is really lucky, her daddy does the best job in the world: he designs lovely paper”. He marvelled at her enchantment.