There is no prouder moment as a community than seeing our neighbors’ dreams become a reality, and that’s exactly what happened for Pen+Pillar founders, Taylor and Justin Mahlke.  

Taylor, the artist behind the wealth of greeting cards, notebooks, planners, stationery, and more at Pen+Pillar started the business as a side project in late 2015, primarily through freelancing designs of everything from tattoos to logos. In the meantime, she started building her paper brand. 

“I started with paper simply because it gave me a lot of creative control over the product and it was very inexpensive to produce,” Taylor says. “And I always loved getting mail as a kid!”