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My name is Prentiss Douthit (pronounced dowth•it). The youngest of three boys and named after my maternal grandfather, I’m a fairly simple guy born and raised in Alabama. I grew up in a relatively small town and currently live in Birmingham. I love it. This area is beautiful, friendly, extremely rich in culture, and I have everything I need here: great friends, family, dogs and plenty of elbow room.

I love being a designer – always have. I’m a very visual person. Even as a youngster, the balanced layout of a room, great color and even typography were hugely motivating forces (sometimes misunderstood in small-town Alabama). I grew to appreciate the beauty of things being pleasing to the eye.

Socializing, too, tends to be another motivating force in my life. My parents were very social people. Our house and my old neighborhood were always abuzz with the lives of friends and family coming and going. Today I carry that torch proudly into my own life and the lives of my friends. Over the years they’ve grown accustomed to my drive for staying connected. I insist on drop-ins, drive-bys and a general overlapping of one another’s lives.

So you put those two things together – a designer whose life revolves around the social activities of friends and family – and you’re bound to end up a stationery designer.

I graduated from a small liberal arts university just south of Birmingham. Great art department and lots of fun. After college, I worked as an art director at a small advertising agency that was fast on the path to becoming a very successful shop. But I think it was in my blood to go my own way. So I left that position and started doing freelance design which quickly led to running a small advertising and design house of my own. Over the 12 years I had my shop, I was fortunate enough to earn projects like the national campaign for Cooking Light Magazine while building long-term relationships in the publishing, insurance, banking and medical industries. I had wonderful clients that trusted me and allowed me to grow as a designer.

Looking to broaden my reach in the world of design, I launched our first line of birth announcements in 2002. Introduced at the National Stationery Show, the collection fortunately found success quickly. Many people seemed to be looking for what we were offering – a love for modern design infused with elegant sophistication and light-hearted whimsy. We were thrilled and quickly set out to design and produce two more collections: Party and Wedding. These were shown the following year at the National Stationery Show, and again the designs were greeted with open arms. It was great to know that the style that felt so natural to us was filling a niche in the market.

So here we are, navigating the sometimes rocky waters of building a stationery company and looking ahead toward future goals and bigger successes. There’s a great team of individuals making it happen every day, and I am eternally grateful to each of them.

I work hard to balance my passion for design and efforts to build a business to showcase it along with a life outside the office: friends that are more like family, home and garden, a little time in the country and making a home for any stray dog that crosses my sometimes clueless path.

To all of you who have an affinity for our designs, I sincerely thank you for your encouragement and support. I look forward to the opportunities ahead that allow me to expand the Prentiss Douthit collection and hopefully make life a little more fun for you – at least on paper.

©2010 Prentiss Douthit