70 Years of Midori

Midori - that manufacturer of superbly-made stationery - is 70 years old. Actually it's 72, having been established in Japan in 1950. But as you may have noticed, we've had some Strange Times these last couple of years, and Midori felt they couldn't give the celebrations the attention they deserved, so it's a little late. But better late than never. And belated birthdays are often a little more fun aren't they? More time to prepare, and all that.

Anyway, many of you Midori lovers out there are fans because of its paper, and indeed the first thing they produced was letter paper, complete with a courier logo in the company colour green. This quickly evolved into business diaries, and in the 1960s was followed by perpetual diaries, an ingenious concept enabling a notebook to be as much an opportunity for notes as diarising. Their subtly-annotated pages are easily used for dates and times and just as easily ignored. The 1960s also saw the invention of the Diamond pocket notebook, which - along with the perpetual diaries - have become one of the firm foundations of Midori's success. They ventured in the latter half of the 20th century into other forms of stationery, with such quirky additions as the Mini Car Cleaner, an irresistible way of cleaning all the biscuit crumbs (sorry, pencil shavings) off your desk, and the folding ruler that fits neatly into a pencil case but can measure up to 30cm. So it's no wonder that they've reached the grand age of 72 and are still happily evolving, innovating and satisfying the needs of stationery addicts the world over.

So - how are they celebrating? Well, with stationery. What else? It's stationery that's familiar - the quirky, though entirely practical items that we've come to know and love from one of Japan's most iconic manufacturers, many of which featured in the Cult Pens Japanese Advent Calendar, which in turn managed to convert many of you into Midori fans! The colours, however, are quite new. Not new as in a brand new colour you've never seen before (that would mess with your head) but colours new to Midori. Their name - Midori - means 'green' in Japanese; the colour was chosen to represent a plant growing and spreading its leaves across the landscape, and the colours they've chosen for their anniversary - sage green, leaf green, cool beige and pale pink - are equally environmentally-inspired. The greens celebrate the company's resilience, in much the same way as a plant will strive to survive in a less-than perfect environment. The beige and pink celebrate the seeds of ideas and how they evolve into new innovations. The result is a collection of some of their most popular products presented in some really pretty and striking shades.

We love the Paintable Stamp Kits, and the iconic Diamond Memo, but what we'd sell our grannies for is the Mini Car Cleaner - because there's a Mark II! This is to the original what the Jetsons is to the Flintstones; it's sleek, it's futuristic and you don't have to propel it with your feet (unless you're very, very small). Vroom, vroom!