“We use joy as our compass,” says Karen Suen-Cooper, speaking of the intention behind The Punctilious Mr. P’s Place Card Co. she and her husband, Martin Cooper, launched in 2018. Bringing purpose and pleasure — to themselves as creators and to their customers — is the prevailing mission behind their brand encompassing personalized place cards, handcrafted notecards and a pantry line of jams, syrups and honey, among other products. They’ve even coined (and trademarked) their concept of purpose and commerce as The Joy Economy™. Now some of their products will be spreading the joy and helping the economy more globally, because this week, Oprah announced her annual selection of Oprah’s Favorite Things, and the Punctilious Mr. P is on the list — twice.

Imagine getting a phone call — a little retro perhaps, but in keeping with the Mr. P’s mindset —  and hearing you’ve been considered for Oprah’s Favorite Things.  (First, you’d thank Instagram, because that’s where the O team discovered you.) The primary Favorite Thing, listed in the Food and Gifts collection, is Mr. P’s Hudson Valley Jam Trio Gift Set, a threesome of hot pepper jelly, lemon curd, and strawberry rhubarb jam, made in small gallon batches from ingredients found within a 100-mile radius of the Coopers’ Old Chatham home. Also on Oprah’s personal list (meaning not a part of her deal with Amazon) are Mr. P’s personalized place cards. Those will be featured, along with a focus on the couple and entertaining, in a story on OprahDaily.com.

“It’s a wonderful affirmation,” says Cooper. “When you’re building a brand, you’re just head down, working 24/7, making Instagram posts along with your products. You don’t know if someone is listening on the other side. Oprah reaching out is an incredible affirmation that what we’re doing is ringing a bell in some way.”

The company has been a labor of love for the couple, who have been together 32 years. Both come from the fashion industry: Cooper spent 16 years building the Burberry brand and as chief creative officer of Belstaff, led the brand’s reboot. Suen-Cooper was VP-creative director at Kieselstein-Cord and founded her own line of luxury leather goods. Building brands and telling stories is what they’ve always done.

“It was important to use the platform of our home and life in the Hudson Valley,” Suen-Cooper says. Like many New Yorkers, they were weekenders for the first 15 years. Working on the restoration of their 18th-century farmhouse, B’ellow, they’d find themselves leaving the country later and later on Sundays, loathe to return to the city. As they fleshed out their Mr. P concept, it became a natural choice to move to their Old Chatham estate full time and focus on their new venture. When they were coming up in the fashion industry, they point out, pleasure and purpose were not a reason for commerce. With The Punctilious Mr. P’s Place Card Co., joy would be a reason, and the three Cs — celebrate, cherish, and connect — would be the tenet that would guide them in developing their line.

B’ellow, filled with images and items the couple have collected over the years, has been featured in ELLE Décor and is essentially a character in the Mr. P portfolio, serving as inspiration for the product lines and a backdrop for images. In fact, it’s the home and the Coopers’ flair and love of hosting guests that brought Mr. P to life.

“Mr. P is a lovechild between Martin and me,” Suen-Cooper says. “It expresses our love for the Hudson Valley and Columbia County, the home we built here and the community that has shaped our love of this place.”

The illustrated place cards are custom made with fanciful images and optional digital calligraphy on the back. “They bring people to the table literally and metaphorically,” Suen-Cooper continues. “They create a place for your guest and say ‘welcome to our home.’” The Coopers hear from clients that their guests often take the place cards home as mementos of a special evening, or to use as a bookmark — a reminder of the connection that was sparked across a dinner table.

The Coopers manufacture all of the paper products — place cards, notecards, and collateral such as menu cards, table numbers and invitations — on four digital presses at their home studio. Birds, botanicals, nudes, silhouette portraits and holiday themes are some of the images that reflect the couple’s ephemera gathered over the years.

“For designs, we pull a lot from our garden, what’s in season,” says Suen-Cooper. “Our references also come from 17th to pre-20th century artwork from Europe, channeled through a Hudson Valley kind of feeling.”

Their fashion sense — call it taste — sparked the name of their company.

“Everybody has a best friend who’s a guide with wonderful taste and who always knows what to do in any situation,” Suen-Cooper says. “We wanted a character who was that best friend.” They took inspiration from Jeeves, the highly competent butler in the novels by P.G. Wodehouse. The Jeevesvian Mr. P is punctilious, and embodies the spirit in the Coopers’ studio.

With the big announcement made, what’s next for The Punctilious Mr. P’s Place Card Co?

“Hopefully, with Oprah shining her eye on our pantry, we can continue to expand what’s in it,” Suen-Cooper says. At the moment, though, they’re steeling themselves for whatever the Oprah designation brings them.

“We are ecstatic and of course bracing for impact,” says Cooper. “We have no idea what to expect. But it’s all good.”

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Written by
Lisa Green