Having launched in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2019, Wordbits is now available down under as it launched in Australia just in time for Christmas last year.
The alphabet magnets are designed to inspire, organise and decorate any home, office or café with fun and functional magnetic letters, according to founders Shanna Hermansen and Annabel Weber.
The Australian and New Zealand expats love the playfulness of nostalgic alphabet magnets, but felt they should be both functional and beautiful.
“Some friends had the old-school alphabet magnets on their fridge and I loved how fun and retro they were, but thought it was a waste that the magnets were so weak they couldn’t actually hold anything,” says Weber.
“The idea to create strong and beautiful alphabet magnets from recycled plastic came about back in 2011-12, but it wasn’t until 2017 when I convinced Shanna to join me that we actually began making them a reality.”
Having met in Sydney while working in advertising together, both independently found their way to one of Europe’s coolest and most design-centric cities, Copenhagen in Denmark.
In late 2019, Wordbits launched as a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, with the duo meeting their funding goal in just four days and finishing the campaign with 240 per cent funding.
“For us it was all about testing the concept; we loved the idea but didn’t know if anyone else would feel the same. Also, because our product is injection moulded that meant a significant up-front cost even to just produce a few sets. Through crowdfunding we were able to validate the idea and raise the capital required to get started at the same time.”
Made using recycled plastics and super strong rare earth neodymium magnets, each Wordbits set contains 60 letters and characters to list, label or bring a little tactile fun to magnetic surfaces.
“We worked with some of Denmark’s top designers to create the world’s first typeface for alphabet magnets. The type design is award-winning, they’re made from post-consumer recycled plastic and best of all they actually hold stuff,” they enthuse.
Weber and Hermansen grew Wordbits from a humble passion project into a business headquartered in Denmark.
“Technically Wordbits is not either of our full-time jobs yet (Hermansen works full-time in advertising and Weber is a mother to two young children), but we love the creative freedom that having a small business gives us.
“Bringing an idea to life and then holding it in your hands in the form of a beautiful product is incredible, we are privileged to have experienced that. Both of us have a background in marketing and advertising, so it has also been fun for us to get to experience the journey of bringing a brand and product to life completely from scratch as we normally only get involved much later in the process,” the duo adds.
“We believe that every home should have a magnetic surface at its heart―displaying cherished memories, achievements and of course family banter using our magnetic letters. We are introducing numbers in early 2022, which is exciting, plus working on new colours, and we have plenty of other ideas up our sleeves too.”
