We recently connected with Karl Heine and have shared our conversation below.

Karl , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I entered the market through a happy accident. While teaching and lecturing at design schools, I noticed many students weren’t writing anything down. I strongly believe that writing or sketching during a talk, conference, or event is an important element to keeping that connection between ideas and remembering. So I decided to make journals by hand and give them away at my talks. They were a hit. After receiving numerous requests for more, I crafted larger batches.

At the time, the market was saturated with a wide variety of mystery papers and covers. My mission was to create a line of journals with recycled paper geared towards the design community with unique covers and fabrication techniques. Our first line was an experiment using Marmoleum covers made with natural materials, a 100% renewable material previously only used for flooring and counter treatments.

The experimenting continued with other sustainable cover materials that included recycled Italian leather, which became one of our main signature surfaces over the last 13 years. Our core interior pages have included Mohawk Options made of 100% PCW (post consumer waste) material manufactured in upstate New York with renewable energy. Most important during this process is keeping a low-carbon footprint and to produce everything locally. Most fabrication takes place in our studio in Bridgeport Connecticut.

Karl , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

After graduating from the University of Bridgeport with a degree in Graphic Design and Illustration, I naturally gravitated towards channeling my creative energy into airbrush illustration and retouching. In the early 1980s, the computer technology we have today was not yet prevalent, so my skills were in high demand. However, after a brief stint in a design studio, I quickly realized that my nature was better suited for freelance work rather than a full-time in-house position.

Needing full-time employment, I landed a job selling art supplies to agencies and design studios. It provided a great opportunity to establish my own freelance Illustration and retouching studio. There was one hurdle, asking for permission to freelance after hours from the art supply store owner. He approved, and added, “If you build a good relationship with the studio manager, you’ll always have business.” This advice not only helped me understand business from a people perspective over sales but also set me on a path of success.

After several years building relationships with various agencies and design firms while establishing my studio, a new opportunity arose with a specialty fabricator. They were a screen printing and proprietary reflective products shop working on projects for top national brands. My success was immediate.

Within six months, I had landed many new clients. One was a specialty marketing promotion company serving major CPG brands, including Ralston Purina, Quaker and Kelloggs. They had launched major programs for McDonald’s Happy Meals and others, and called upon me repeatedly for creative presentations. Little did I know that they were simultaneously interviewing me for a new position at their company.

Five months later, they hired me as an Account Manager, responsible for developing concepts and meeting with brand managers to bring ideas to life through design and manufacturing. My time was cut short when unexpected family matters meant I had to move out of the area.

I returned to my former position at the art supply company, but soon quit to run my own studio full-time. Initially, it was scary not knowing where work would come from, but staying positive while venturing into uncharted territory was invigorating.

After several years, a peer approached me to work in her recruitment company where I first learned talent placement and management. One year later, I was full partner in the business, and that continued for 13 years.

In 2001, I launched my own talent agency, creativeplacement. When 9/11 came nine months later it hit hard. The following few years were challenging, but I slowly grew a loyal client following, and have run an agile business for the past 22 years.

In 2007, I ran into my now wife and partner, kHyal, at an industry event. We had met once 17 years prior. She was exploring new job opportunities, so we began to talk. What began for both of us as a professional relationship, almost immediately became personal. We were in sync on every level and obvious to us both that we belonged together. We have worked and played creatively around the globe since then, always with encouragement and inspiration.

In the end, it’s all about relationships, recognizing how they can be instrumental in your creative process, and personal growth for a positive life while giving back to others doing work that matters.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

At the beginning of 2011, I received an urgent request from the Style Editor of Oprah’s O Magazine, who was working on a story about journals for an upcoming issue. At first, I thought it was a fake request and decided to call. It was the real deal, and I gathered my top DesignerJournal™ samples for possible national exposure. The Style Editor said they would not provide any advanced notice, but any of the chosen journals would be featured. “You’ll know when you see the April edition” I was told. Waiting for three months seemed like forever, and to my disappointment, my journals were not chosen.
Later in the same month, Mohawk’s new publication about excellence in paper, Felt & Wire, published a feature around my work, “Sketchbook: Heine’s Journals Build Histories and Futures.” This allowed me to tell the whole story of how my Grandmother inspired me to create DesignerJournals. She was a consummate adventurer and documented all her experiences. I found this out simply by being a passenger on her travels, not by physical means, but as a guest on her journaled adventures in the filtering light of my youth. Her diary helped inspire me and understand the importance of writing in a journal to capture memories and tell a story.

Later the same year, a packaging company was researching custom journals for one of their key clients and reached out for my expertise. I was told the client was a world-renowned designer and DesignerJournals was the right fit in terms of sustainable luxury. As it turned out, it was for Yves Behar and his firm, fuseproject. The team was tasked to source a unique cover and use recycled paper throughout. We prototyped a journal using raw recycled Italian leather for the cover with the logo foil-stamped in matte silver. It was a huge hit with fuseproject, and the packaging company doubled the order to use for samples.

Since then, we have successfully designed and produced journals for clients including; Lynda.com, School of Visual Arts, Type Directors Club, Typographics, Adobe TypeKit, TypoBerlin, Monotype, Richard Sachs, LuluLemon, Yves Béhar, Richard Branson, MegaGlam x P!Q stores at Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center, Sammy Rae & The Friends, Blue Buffalo, Type Drives Culture, and Forbo. We are committed to providing a durable, sustainable, high-quality, and useful product while keeping our manufacturing and fabrication local.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, using a camera to capture images offers a distinct creative perspective, enabling fresh insights extending my idea and stopping time in the moment. It provides a deep sense of personal fulfillment as I transform my unique vision and emotions into visual narratives interpreting light, textures and space. Photography, to me, is not just documentation; it’s an art form that allows me to see the world differently and share my stories through images, enriching my creative journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://designerjournals.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designerjournals
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karlheine
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlheine
• Other: https://creativeplacement.com

Image Credits
All images by Karl Heine