About PIPO

WHAT IS PIPO?

PIPO designs for and with paper. It sole purpose is to celebrate one of the world's oldest and most widely used materials, and inspire others to explore what can be achieved by any creative individual who does not take their basic materials and craft skills for granted. Specialising in greetings and stationery, PIPO produces handmade crafts with the sole intention to inspire, entertain and be of practical use.

WHAT DOES PIPO STAND FOR?

The actual name PIPO comes from the old printing term "paper in, paper out", quite simply describing the process of putting paper in one end of the machine, and out it comes again at the other end. PIPO believes that what happens in the process can be the remarkable part.

Paper is not only a sculptural material in its own right, but a tool that can be used to bring ideas into a physical reality before they evaporate. But we should not assume that paper is a disposable material only suitable for ephemera: approached with an open mind, and in the hands of an imaginative soul, paper can be used to create almost anything.

The birth of paper originates from a need to write, illustrate and document; it is the medium on which marks are made. But when creative attention is turned to the material itself, the medium becomes the object and the true personality of paper emerges.

Through the imaginative use of simple and common techniques, a two-dimensional sheet of paper can be dramatically transformed. Exploiting the paper's potential and using basic manipulative techniques, it is possible to create work that is both imaginative and innovative. It is the tactile quality of paper that is so appealing – there are very few materials capable of presenting such a diversity of form-making though manipulation solely by hand.

BEHIND PIPO

Behind the name PIPO is Zoe Louise Platt, a designer, typographer and craftsman who graduated from Leeds College of Art and Design in 2004 with an HND in Graphic Advertising, and then from Cambridge School of Art in 2007 with a BA(hons) in Graphic Design and Typography. 

Whilst studying, she developed a unique style of pushing each project in a direction suitable to the client, whilst discovering something unique to itself and the brief along the way. She now freelances in various creative disciplines, producing paper-based work for independent artists, photographers, local groups and societies, and even newly-weds.