The Story behind Travelista Shop: Premium Stationary & Deskware

In this exclusive article, Travelista Founder and Editor Jessica Ruth Gibson shares the full story behind the launch of the new Travelista Shop and the creative process behind the collections.

This September 2025, Travelista is launching a brand new venture and entering into the world of e-commerce. 6 months in the making, Travelista Shop will be the ultimate destination for premium stationary and deskware, helping you to elevate your desk and bridge the gap between home and away. out everything you need to know here.

Subscribe to the waitlist to get 24-hour early access, a VIP discount code and exclusive product previews.

The long-time dream of launching a product line

Over the past 12+ years of running Travelista, I’ve often played with the idea of launching a product line. But nothing has ever felt quite right, until now. With Travelista being rooted in travel, my first thought was travel accessories, but this felt too obvious. And realistically, most people would make use of them a few times a year max.

I considered clothing, but I didn’t want to contribute to fast fashion or overconsumption. I considered doing digital products, but I’m not going to start charging for travel content when my entire business model has been built around giving it away for free.

What I really wanted was to create a line of premium products that people could use every single day. Something that felt good to pick up, even on a grey and drizzly Monday morning. So I stripped things right back and thought about simple pleasures and daily tasks. This brought me back to something I’ve always loved; beautiful stationary and putting pen to paper.

Inspired by the ritual of putting pen to paper

Even in this fast-paced digital world that seems to be evolving at a rate of knots, I still think there is something so grounding, calming and cathartic about putting pen to paper. Sure, we can make lists on our iPhones and brain dump onto a Word Document, but writing things down helps me to empty my brain like nothing else.

Whether I am writing a daily to-do list, planning the week ahead, journaling my thoughts or taking notes at a meeting, I still do it all on paper, and preferably, in a beautiful notebook.

As I snowballed on this idea, I also thought of all the many notebooks I turned in to travel journals over the years, which I’ve held on to as they’re full of vidid travel memories. This brought me to the idea to include a collection of travel journals within the range, which would also bridge the gap perfectly to Travelista’s main topic of travel.

A stroke of luck – International Women’s Day 2025

Of course, being a stationary girly myself, I was never going to sell something unless I would 100% want to buy it myself. But how would I go about sourcing quality products, finding samples and stock? I didn’t have a clue where to start.

On International Women’s Day 2025, I had bought tickets to attend an all-female networking event at York’s Hotel du Vin. When the day came around, I wasn’t feeling that dynamic or ‘networky’ but I made myself go anyway, and in hindsight I am so glad I did.

By a stroke of luck, I met a wonderful lady at the event who happened to work in the stationary industry. She played an instrumental part in getting my idea off the ground and for that I am incredibly grateful to her – and also Avocado Events for bringing us together. Side note; this is your sign to ALWAYS attend the event, even if you don’t feel like it, as you never know who you might meet and what doors they can unlock.

The search for the perfect notebook and diary

So IWD 2025 turned into the start of a beautiful partnership, because it’s the way I found and met my supplier for this exciting new venture. It was a huge stepping stone into getting my dream of a Travelista Shop off the ground. From then I went on the quest for the perfect notebook, and I think I have hit on something pretty close.

All premium Travelista notebooks and diaries feature;

A premium buttery-soft cover
Top quality 100gsm paper
Ribbon bookmark
A choice of joyful pastel colours
A choice between lined paper and a week-to-week diary
The option to add FREE gold foiling personalisation within our designs

Developing the concept of ‘Deskware’

Fast forward a few months, and I had the designs and samples for our notebooks and diaries locked in, but I knew we needed something more. I loved the idea that the right notebook can elevate your day, improve your mindset and enhance productivity, so I began to build on this. What else could contribute to this on a daily basis? What if it’s wasn’t just about elevating the notebook on the desk, but the entire desk space itself?

I decided to expand our product range by introducing functional but aesthetically pleasing deskware items (deskware = like tableware but for your desk). The collection includes;

Hitting on our USPs – Matching colours and FREE personalisation

The two main unique selling points of our curated collection of Travelista products is that they are all available in a matching colour palette, and that all items offer FREE personalisation.

A palette of 9 beautiful colours to mix-and-match

The products we sell on Travelista shop come in a colour palette of 9 beautiful colours, ranging from pastel pop shades to muted and dark navy (subject to stock levels). The palette has been designed to harmonise together and each colour is named after a destination from around the world, as a nod to Travelista’s adventurous roots. The beauty of our matching colour palette is that you can curate your desk with items all in one colour, or mix and match shades to make a playful and mood-lifting statement. From soft blue Seychelles to candy pop Miami pink and a Provence-inspired purple, the choice is yours.

FREE personalisation with every order

Once you’ve chosen your favourite products and colour palette, you have the option to add personalisation to our products, completely for free. You can make each product your own by adding a name, your initials, a nickname, a star sign or some secret code language only you know about.

The only products where you can’t add personalisation is on certain notebook and diary designs which already feature a specific slogan.

The perfect gift solution

With so many ways to customise our products, they also make incredibly thoughtful gifts for a loved one. Whether you’re shopping for birthdays, Christmas, a wedding or a thank you gift, Travelista’s premium stationary and deskware always come wrapped in quality paper wrap and packaging, meaning you can send gifts directly to a loved one, with a gift note to boot.

To conclude

So that’s the full story of how Travelista Shop was born, and the journey so far. As I write this, we are 3 weeks off launching the online shop and going live with our Shopify store. I am so excited for this launch and I am busy putting the finishing touches to the website, creating content to spread the word and building our waiting list for launch.

I’ve truly poured my heart and soul into this project and my hope and intention is for it to provide a new e-commerce dimension for Travelista that will evolve over time and strengthen our community.

How to get involved

If you love the sound of what’s to come, there are a few ways you can get involved and support it;

1. Follow @thetravelistashop on Instagram

2. Subscribe to the Travelista Shop waitlist for 24 hours early access to the shop, a VIP discount and exclusive product previews.

Stay tuned for our next article about Travelista Shop, which will guide you through our product ranges and show you the full collection.