Craft Focus - October/November 2020 (Issue 81)

71 PROFILE that there is a way for anyone and everyone to get involved in modern calligraphy. Talk us through your current collections. We have a variety of kits and we’re really passionate about high quality functional tools that are also beautiful and feel great to hold. We have a varied price range so that there’s something for everyone’s budget. We have a Luxury Calligraphy Kit (RRP £34.99) which contains everything a budding calligrapher needs including original templates designed by Kirsten in a gorgeous gift box. We also have our bestselling Essentials Modern Calligraphy Kit (RRP £13.99), with a penholder, three nibs, ink and a lesson plan to get you going. For brush calligraphy we have our Kirsten Burke Dual Tip Brush Pen, unique in the UK (RRP £7.50) created for us by the experts at Sailor in Japan. All our kits work as the perfect companions for our range of books too, so we really do cover most things! What’s your bestselling product? Our Essential Modern Calligraphy Kit online, is an Amazon Bestseller, and it also retails in Waterstones and Anthropologie, so we sell a lot of them! It pairs perfectly with our book The Secrets of Modern Calligraphy , so we sell that bundle from our website most often. What styles never go out of fashion and why do you think that is? Quality learning resources and materials offering affordable accessibility. How often do you launch new products? We’ve launched a new book every year for the last five years, so that’s been a lot of work! We add new products only when we feel there’s a gap to fill or we fall hopelessly in love with something, like we did with our coloured inks! At the moment we’re finalising two new luxury kits, so watch this space! How would you advise a retailer who is interested in stocking your products? Contact us directly to ask our advice on the best combination to stock and we will also supply a range of POS material to encourage sales. We could also host an event in store, personalising gifts for customers or run a pop-up workshop, so that people can ‘have a go’ (socially distanced and safe of course!). What sets you apart from your competitors? When we first set up the company, we really didn’t have any competition which in itself was hard because no one knew what modern calligraphy was! These days there’s a lot of modern calligraphers, or modern calligraphy items for sale, but what sets us apart is our wealth of experience and the strength of our name. Kirsten Burke is the leading modern calligrapher in the UK, and her name is synonymous with high quality beautiful calligraphy. The Modern Calligraphy Co. is the only nationwide calligraphy workshop – you will be taught the same lesson in Leeds, London and at out HQ in Chichester – with a lesson plan and worksheet designed by Kirsten using her decades of experience and knowledge, so that when our customers buy/book with us they know they’re getting a high quality product. How did business cope during the Covid-19 pandemic and what are your plans going forward? It was pretty frightening for us to begin with, since what we do is very people focussed. Our workshops all had to be postponed, as well as all our luxury eventing work where our team of calligraphers create custom packaging in store for leading brands. We had to think fast as we knew our customers were trapped inside and still wanted to engage with us. We created lots of online content, both free and paid for, as well as lots of posts on Instagram and YouTube. Luckily Jill lives right next door to our HQ so she was able to still go in and fulfil our online shop orders, which of course went through the roof! What new products can we expect from you in the future? Our Luxury Modern Calligraphy Kit has been hugely successful, and we’re currently finalising a Luxury Brush Calligraphy Kit so that people who are interested in brush can get the same kind of bundle, with beautiful stationery, templates and a lesson plan and we’ve created a combined calligraphy kit specifically aimed at children which has proved very popular through lockdown for parents to encourage their children to improve their handwriting. +44 (0)1243 512 845 info@kirstenburke.co.uk themoderncalligraphyco.com