Leather Bookmark with Monogram

Client: Salesforce

These handmade leather bookmarks were made for Salesforce as company gifts. Handmade from naturally cured genuine veg tan leather, the soft and luxurious bookmarks feature debossed company logo and individually monogrammed initials in gold foil.

* Natural Veg Tan (vegetable-tanned) leather is unique. It is pale in colour, but once exposed to light and handling deepens to a rich tan colour. Leather is a natural material so markings such as scars, wrinkles and veining are characteristics and proof that it is genuine leather. Each piece is slightly individual which is why we love using it.

Material: Vegetable-tanned leather
Application: Gold foil monogramming, blind blocked logo

Our gallery is a curated collection of our latest one-off product designs that we have created exclusively for our corporate clients.

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If you are interested in a similar product, we can provide you with a quote based on our previous projects. Please indicate the type of product, quantity, size, material, and whether or not it requires the application of a brand logo.

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Window Gallery: Shaista Harul

BlogMarch 21, 2022March 21, 2022

We are delighted to present photographer Shaista Harul at our Window Gallery.

Our lives, our landscapes and our natural wonders make for truly incredible photo inspiration. Shaista has been fortunate enough to capture such beauty through her lens and share with friends, family, and followers alike. Shaista always had a passion for art growing up but ended up working in the corporate sector, which gives her little creative outlet. During COVID Shaista re-discovered photography and was lucky enough to go on phenomenal adventures not too far from home. Photography has allowed her to focus in the present and enjoy the simple subtleness of nature. For Shaista Photography is meditation and her aim is to transport you and evoke your senses. Her journeys are documented through the lens of “The Wandering Eye.

Most recently Shaista’s work “Whirling Dervish” was commended by The Australian Photography Magazine in the 2021 Australian Photographer of the year.

To see more of Shaista Harul’s work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram.

A5 AUS made Recycled Leather Journal with Indigenous Design

Client: MFS

This A5 recycled leather journal was designed in collaboration with Indigenous Artist Lucy Simpson from Gaawaa Miyay Designs. The Kraft leather journal features a design DUALITY and the black kraft leather features BARRAN GIIRR.

Lucy Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay woman (northwest New South Wales). She is the founder of the design studio Gaawaa Miyay (river daughter) Designs.

The journal is made from quality recycled leather, the A5 Australian made journal features a curved inner pocket with two slits for business cards, refillable A5 notepad, a pen loop and elastic closure.

The recycled leather is made from combining 60% genuine leather fibres from the European shoe and handbag industry, 20% natural latex, 10% natural fat, 10% misc/raw material with tanning agents and water.

The refillable pad is made from 100% de-inked recycled post-consumer waste collected from offices throughout Australia, it is carbon neutral and made in the Maryvale Mill, in Victoria.

This A5 journal is held in stock for a fast turnaround.

Material: Recycled leather
Application: Blind blocked logo

Our gallery is a curated collection of our latest one-off product designs that we have created exclusively for our corporate clients.

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Leather Look Zip Compendium

Client: Lavazza

This leather-look zip compendium features a blind blocked logo and comes with an A4 recycled refillable notepad. The compendium has several interior pockets great for storing documents, devices and business cards. The central pen loop allows you to keep a pen or pencil handy at all times.

This compendium is held in stock for a fast turnaround.

Material: PU leather
Application: Blind blocked logo

Our gallery is a curated collection of our latest one-off product designs that we have created exclusively for our corporate clients.

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Happy International Women’s Day

BlogMarch 11, 2022March 11, 2022

Each year we like to acknowledge and support the work of women, designers and women in business. Here are outstanding businesswomen we admire.

Lisa Cahill
CEO and Artistic Director – Australian Design Centre

We admire Lisa because she is passionate about the benefits of design-led innovation for Australia, creative education and rejuvenating our economy through making. She supports makers and designers at every stage of their careers and supports initiatives to grow audiences, for the craft and design movement.

Visit and support the Australian Design Centre

Michelle Bowditch
CEO & Founder Door20a

We admire Michelle’s compelling philosophy ‘Be You. Do You. Amaze You.’ To empower female professionals at all stages of their career to find their unique voice, achieve peak performance and disrupt the status quo by developing the right mindset. Her bespoke corporate workshops, keynote presentations, and mentoring sessions are consistently sought after.

Connect with Door20a

Gabrielle Mordy
Artistic Director & CEO at Studio A

We admire the ideas, tenacity and professionalism that Gabrielle has achieved as a passionate advocate for the rights of all people to access the arts. She has led the Studio A enterprise creating professional pathways for artists with intellectual disability. The work of the Studio A artists is much sought-after.

Discover more and support StudioA

Suzi Dafnis
CEO & Founder HerBusiness

We admire the work Suzi continues to do with women in HerBusiness. It is a collaborative and supportive community for women business owners, from a solopreneur to growing and scaling a business, expanding networks and learning from world-leading role models, to create a business they love.

Join the HerBusiness community

Luggage Tag with Indigenous Print

Client: Qantas Frequent Flyer

This luggage tag was made in collaboration with Indigenous artist Lucy Simpson from Gaawaa Miyay designs. The design – Wagibaa – speaks of Yuwaalaraay country. The line traces the north-west plains where the sky touches land. The luggage tag is blind blocked with the Qantas Frequent Flyer logo.

This luggage tag is held in stock for fast turnaround.

Material: PU leather, cotton lining
Application: Blind blocked logo

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BARELY WEARABLE

BlogFebruary 28, 2022February 28, 2022

Play Video

At Corban & Blair we applaud creative people with clever ideas who communicate the need to honour and protect the environment – while also making art that delights us.

If you want to be inspired catch Ruth Downes new Exhibition at the Hurstville Museum & Gallery. See Items that could be ‘ barely wearable’ body adornment for the age of consumption. This body of work is a continuation of Ruth Downes’s passion for reappropriating everyday materials and objects to celebrate their intrinsic beauty. Gleaned from a diverse range of sources; airline headsets, coffee capsules, pens, detritus from nature, pencils, piano keys to the ubiquitous face mask, all to be reborn as new fashion statements.

To read her story and see more of Ruth’s work, visit her website ruthdownes.com.au.

CAFFEINATED

Used coffee pods, neoprene.

A VERY CLOSE SHAVE

Disposable razor blades.

HARD WIRED MOUSE

Computer keyboard parts, adapters, mouse.

Now at Hurstville Museum and Gallery Sydney

29 January – 24 April, 2022

14 MacMahon St, Hurstville, Sydney

Opening times: Tuesday – Saturday: 10.00am – 4.00pm; Sunday: 2.00pm – 5.00pm

Be inspired by poetry

BlogFebruary 14, 2022February 14, 2022

A collaboration with Indigenous poet Dakota Feirer featuring his poem “A Haiku Garden Bed”. Inside the journal includes a full poem and his background story.

This journal is made from quality bonded recycled leather, combining 60% genuine leather fibres from the shoe and handbag industry. The refillable pad for the journals are made from 100% de-inked recycled post-consumer waste collected from offices throughout Australia, it is carbon neutral and made in the Maryvale Mill, in Victoria.

About Dakota Feirer

Dakota is a Bundjalung-Gumbayngirr man based in Dharawal and Yuin country on the south coast. Since graduating from an honours degree at the University of Wollongong, Dakota has consulted for NITV, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and AIATSIS. He is carving a path as an independent researcher, educator and advocate for cultural sovereignty and progressive warriorhood.

Corban & Blair with Femeconomy

BlogFebruary 4, 2022February 7, 2022

Gillian and Amanda had the opportunity to talk to Femeconomy about Corban & Blair’s enduring business. This interview was first published by Femeconomy. Click here for the full interview.

HOW ARE CORBAN & BLAIR’S ENVIRONMENTAL CREDENTIALS MATCHING THE EXPECTATIONS OF ETHICAL CONSUMERS?

It has always been our purpose to create products that are designer, handmade, useful, relevant and valued, using recycled materials and collaborating with others.

In the beginning (1988) it involved imported recycled papers, but we continued to grow our philosophy, by using recycled and upcycled leather, carbon neutral frames, refillable, recycled carbon neutral paper pads, expanding our collaborations and supporting other creative talent in our Window Gallery. We also work with customers to challenge their assumptions about what makes gift and marketing items successful to ensure their message is valued and appreciated.

WHAT IS AN EXAMPLE OF ONE OF YOUR PRODUCTS THAT DELIVERS ON YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL PROMISE?

This journal is made from quality bonded recycled leather, combining 60% genuine leather fibres from the shoe and handbag industry. The refillable pad for the journals is made from 100% de-inked recycled post-consumer waste collected from offices throughout Australia, it is carbon neutral and made in the Maryvale Mill, in Victoria. Material: Recycled leather, A5 plain wire-bound recycled paper pad – 70 pages of 80gsm paper. Made in Australia.

HOW DO YOU HELP EMPATHETIC LEADERS COMMUNICATE THEIR KINDNESS, CONCERN AND THEIR CORE VALUES TO THEIR STAFF?

We question WHY and HOW and what their staff or clients would value as a thank you, acknowledgement or marketing item carrying a company message.

Will it be used, is it seen as value, can it personalised with a logo, monogram or personal note? How is thought and care communicated? How will it enhance the relationship and be seen as appreciation? All these elements need to be designed into the product.

WHAT OUTCOMES HAVE YOU SEEN AS A RESULT OF COLLABORATING WITH AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURERS?

A positive from COVID is that we questioned how we could make and deliver more in Australia. We imported quality recycled leather from Germany, found a local manufacturer. It has grown his business, increased employment and enabled faster turn-around and more personalization. It is wonderful to find new solutions when you have to. It was a risk we took, and it has opened up many new opportunities.

THE PROVENANCE OF YOUR PRODUCTS IS IMPORTANT TO YOU AS A BUSINESS AND TO YOUR CUSTOMERS.

Provence is important to the customers we work with. They want to understand the process, the designers, materials, the makers and collaborators. This has always been our aim. It is now a trend big companies are considering in their decision making.

HOW DOES YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN SHARE AND CELEBRATE AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS’ STORIES?

As a creative company that relies on our next clever idea, we support and honor the work of other creatives. We do this by incorporating their designs into the linings of our products, as cover designs, provide cards in all items telling their story and how they can be contacted, by partnering with them to inspire new ideas and voice. This is communicated in all our marketing collateral, website and also via the window gallery which is located beside Lewisham Station, in Sydney.

ABOUT FEMECONOMY

Femeconomy is proudly a for profit social enterprise, role modelling female leadership and entrepreneurship. They believe that if you see it, you can be it. Corban & Blair is a Femeconomy Platinum Member.

You are the female economy.

Whether you are a female consumer, business owner or a woman in the workforce,

create gender equality by choosing female led businesses.

If you would like to know more or join Femeconomy, visit their website for more information.

Back in the studio for 2022

BlogJanuary 28, 2022January 28, 2022

We’re back in the Corban & Blair studio where we are busy working on new product designs and dispatching orders. Everyday has created new challenges – Covid, supply, logistics, cancelled meetings, rotating staff and keeping us all safe and motivated.

Our passion and purpose is to create products that deliver what people are seeking, whether they are corporate clients or customers who buy online. This means making in Australia, using recycled, upcycled and recyclable materials. Designing inspiring, relevant, and meaningful products that tell the story of their provenance as well as a personal or marketing messages. To bring diverse cultural voices to our product offerings, we partner with other artists, paper makers, designers, artisans, poets, and potters. We do this while treading as lightly as we can on the environment.

We continue to recycle nearly everything that comes through our doors, we collect with the help of neighbours, friends and local businesses, newspapers, magazines, boxes, shredding of old files and papers, all used in the packing and dispatch of orders.

We minimise packaging on products and pay the carbon credits on our New Zealand made frames. We use recycled leather made from off cuts from the European handbag and shoe industry and our refillable notepads are made from Australian recycled carbon neutral paper. We are always open to more opportunities to reduce and recycle.

This is our current challenge as we dodge covid and work together to design products with meaning. We are very busy!