Our Story
Born From a Bucketlist
Not a business plan, just a few slightly ridiculous dreams scribbled on paper, that when shared, brought an eight-year-old idea back. And so Axel & Ash was born. A little reminder that the things we put on paper have a funny way of becoming real! What’s on yours?
Meet The Founder, Hanna "Axel"
A little Nosalgic... A lot of Dreamer...
Born in Sweden and now raising her kids in the idyllic surf town of Byron Bay, Hanna “Axel” Axelsson Sahlen is a storyteller, creative director, wanderluster and collector of life’s little details.
Before Axel & Ash, Hannas adventures took her living and working across four continents before landing her dream job as a TV Director in Australia. Always with a camera around her neck she has a love-affair for good stories: hearing, living, sharing & saving the little details that makes life worth remembering.
Equal parts nostalgic and restless, Hanna loves an old photo album as much as a one-way ticket. She’s a big believer in living life to the absolute fullest: chasing experiences that make you feel something, being present for the small stuff and not waiting for “one day” to do the things you dream about.
Writing, adventure, storytelling, photography and beautiful design have always been part of Hanna’s world. So when she couldn’t find a journal that brought them all together - something as inspiring as the life she wanted to fill it with - she decided to create one herself.
Your life is alreadyfull of magic. We simply create beautiful places for you to capture it all.
How It Began...
It started with a Bucket List!
As a 19-year old Au-Pair, Hanna stood in front of an enormous wall of books at Urban Outfitters in San Francisco, searching for the perfect travel journal. She imagined something less generic with thoughtful prompts, inspiring design, pages that sparked adventure and reminded you to notice the magic along the way. She could see the journal in her mind but as nothing like it existed she dreamt“One day, I’m going to create an epic journal for these shelves.”
Six years later, now living in Bondi Beach, Hanna read 100 Things by Seb Terry. Inspired, she wrote her very first bucket list- and promptly convinced all her friends to do the same. One summer evening she sat down with a friend, coconut drinks in hand, to compare lists. Many drinks, laughs and hours later, they’d only made it to #32 when they discovered they shared the exact same dream:
“Start a business.” They looked at each other. “Why don’t we start one together?”. When bouncing ideas, Hanna remembered that long-held journal dream from San Francisco - and a year later her first journal 'Swept away by WANDERLUST' was born. While creating it, Hanna realised something pretty incredible. Since writing down her bucket list, she’d actually started ticking off some of her long-held dreams. Putting them on paper had somehow made them real... So naturally, she wanted a journal for that too!
And so she started to work on her second title "My BUCKETLIST" - a journal dedicated to dreaming bigger, making plans and actually making them happen. And here’s where the story gets a little magical... just a year later, Urban Outfitters reached out. The buyer had spotted her journals in another store and wanted to stock her journal in their European stores!! Literally her dream coming true!! Soon, Axel & Ash journals were finding their way onto shelves around the world - from the iconic Urban Outfitters and Shakespeare & Company in Paris to Anthropologie in NYC.
She’s since ticked off over 30 of her own dreams, including: #37 Smoke a cigar in Cuba, #16 Slide down a fire station pole, #86 Dance on a NYC rooftop, #4 Swim with wild dolphins, #21 Road trip across America
What began as a few words scribbled on a bucket list became Axel & Ash. A whole brand born from a dream, now inspiring people around the world to "Live Your Dream Story".
Why It Matters
Off Your Phone... Back Into Your Hands!
Call me a romantic, but I miss the warmth of how we used to remember things; Old photo albums on coffee tables. Journals filled with handwritten memories. Pages turned slowly, with the same stories told over and over again.
There was something so special about those rituals.
The nostalgia. The connection. The feeling of genuinely being together.
I really struggle with watching people sit together, only to disappear into their phones. Today, so many of our memories get lost somewhere between thousands of photos and an endless scroll. My dream with Axel & Ash is to bring a little of that analogue magic back. To inspire people to write, print, feel and remember. To create beautiful keepsakes that bring our stories off our screens and back into our hands.
Because the best parts of life deserve more than a camera roll.