Tools to Liveby

Taipei, Taiwan · Stationery

Stationery from Taipei: scissors, paper clips and wire clips, rulers, brass pens, inks, stamps and staplers, designed with the precision of an instrument and vintage-inspired packaging.

Classic tools revisited, bringing weight and poise to the desk. Distributed by Robinson in France, Benelux, Switzerland and Germany.

Order on the B2B portal Online shop

Origin

Taipei, Taiwan

Tools to Liveby in one minute

Our product video, shot by the agency. On the final site, it plays directly in the page; it is free for our retailers to use.

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The brand

Tools to Liveby in detail

注重细节

Attention to detail

Enjoy the precision and aesthetics of stationery inspired by the 19th century. Tools to Liveby is constantly searching the world for the finest writing instruments, with a mission to go back to what was best and bring it into the modern world, to make everyday tasks more pleasant.

All products are designed around the same criteria: beautiful, timeless, functional, made of high-quality materials, with vintage-style packaging. “The uncommon beauty of common things” sums up the brand's philosophy.

Box of Tools to Liveby wire clips held in both hands

コレクション

Much more than scissors

The steel scissors, gold or black, are the best-known piece, but the collection covers the whole desk: paper clips and wire clips in their illustrated boxes, tortoiseshell acetate rulers, brass pens and mechanical pencils, inks, stamps, staplers, notebooks and canvas bags.

Each object takes a classic – the 1908 paper clip, the 1918 clip – and reissues it in durable materials, with packaging you keep. From small entry-level prices to collector's pieces, a range that is easy to display in a shop.

Steel scissors, gold or black
Paper clips, wire clips, binder clips
Acetate rulers, brass pens and mechanical pencils
Inks, stamps, staplers, notebooks

Inside the Tools to Liveby shop in Taipei: rulers, pencils and an old machine

台北店

The Taipei shop

Opened in the Da'an district, the Taipei shop sells the brand's products but also offers a highly curated selection of the finest European, American and Japanese stationery. Karen herself picks the “classics” of the genre: TRAVELER'S notebook for leather notebooks, Kakimori for pigment inks, Brass for brass pens…

No. 15, Aly. 72, Leli Rd., Da'an Dist., Taipei.

Inside the Tools to Liveby shop in Kaohsiung, with its antique press

高雄店

The Kaohsiung shop

The second shop, in Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, carries on the spirit of the first: chests of drawers, an antique press, black bookcases and shelves of stationery from around the world, in the old harbour district of Yancheng.

C6-10, No. 2, Dayi St., Yancheng Dist., Kaohsiung.

Karen Yang and Marco Tsai with Kévin from Robinson in Taipei

創業者

Karen Yang & Marco Tsai

After working together at several advertising agencies, Karen and Marco launched their own agency, ADC Studio, in Taipei and Shanghai more than ten years ago: advertising, print, branding, fashion, digital and web design.

After years in these creative fields, Karen decided to combine her taste for beautiful things with her passion for stationery by creating Tools to Liveby. “Some very beautiful stationery items are terribly unusable, so it is important that they are easy to use.”

In pictures