Designer Spotlight: Kristine Mae
Screens may run the day, but paper still has a way of slowing the mind. Kristine Mae understands that instinctively. With her handcrafted journals, she invites us to slow down, to reconnect, and to experience design in its most personal form. Kristine approaches each piece with a strong design eye, balancing beauty, utility, and restraint. Each journal feels considered, elevated, and timeless, a reflection of someone who doesn’t just create, but curates how we move through our everyday lives. Having known Kristine for years, I’ve always admired her ability to see design at its core. Sitting down with her felt less like an interview and more like a conversation rooted in creativity, clarity, and vision. What follows is our discussion on the inspiration behind her journals, her approach to craftsmanship, and the art of bringing something beautifully analog back into focus.
Dean Hall: Your journals feel almost like accessories for the creative mind. How did you first begin translating the language of leather and texture into something meant to hold people’s personal stories?
Kristine Mae: I’ve always had a personal relationship with writing things down, it’s the analog girl in me. Over the years, as I leaned more into that practice, I found myself constantly rotating between and through notebooks, guided journals, random scratch pads - each one holding a different phase, version of, and intention for myself. I had this whole ecosystem, but no real anchor. That’s honestly how the idea of a leather cover became such an organic next step in my journal journey. I didn’t want to replace the variety of what I was writing or working through, I just wanted a way to ground it.
DH: You work with beautifully textured leathers. What draws you to those materials, and how do you decide which textures ultimately become part of a collection?
KM: Leather just made sense. It naturally has its own story in how it picks up marks, how it softens with time, how it ages alongside you. It’s truly the perfect textile to hold something as intimate and evolving as someone’s thoughts.
DH: In many ways your journals feel closer to luxury fashion pieces than traditional stationery. Do you approach designing them the way a fashion house approaches a handbag or accessory?
KM: Because these pieces are meant to be held, carried, opened, and returned to every day, the tactile experience is foundational. So before anything is written, before it becomes part of a daily rhythm, it has to feel right.
FULL ARTICLE ON FINE MAGAZINE