Filed under: greeting cards, letterpress | Tags: national stationery show, stationery
Whew, my feet hurt and my head is spinning! Today was the first day of the National Stationery Show and (perhaps it’s because it was my first time at the show) I thought it was fantastic. Including more letterpress than I’d anticipated, there was also a small infusion of sewn paper details (lovely, so dainty) and even a few showing off their interests in felt (gah, I love felt! why?!), so all in all, I was the proverbial kid in a candy store.
I couldn’t be more excited about finding new people who are designing amazing work and meeting (in person) some who I regard as graphic design/greeting card rock stars.
Being in New York is a bit of deja vu for me, as I worked here (more than) a few years ago before moving to Michigan. So it feels all sorts of familiar and distant at the same time. Just the subway and walk to Javits were full of nostalgic moments, but the show itself - something new altogether. It’s a little jarring to be lifted out of my “current events” and dropped into Manhattan with my mom, but, so far - good eats, good stationery, good inspiration for I-don’t-know-what’s-next. (Above, a picture of all the fantastic cards and catalogs that weigh my shoulder down…)
Debuting at the show was Alee and Press, with full lines of stationery books for wedding and baby, as well as utterly lovely inkless textured letterpress cards. One of my instant favorites (which I’d looked forward to seeing), they had me at the linen wrapped notecards and did not disappoint. So cheery and fresh, and I hope they have a great rest of the show. More pictures and info to follow, soon!
Another new one to me is Lead Graffiti (pictured above), which also happened to feature some inkless letterpress printing and a very cool idea (Scribble). It was exciting to see people coming up with ways to make some really original uber-hip letterpress printing. For this series of cards, they used a letter press to emboss white notecards and encourage kids (or grown-up kids) to scribble over the patterns with crayons, resulting in utterly one-of-a-kind creations - fun!
There were many, many more wonderful people at the show, exhibiting really interesting work and I look forward to digging through my lists and piles of information to show more of it off. Today was only the first (long) day of a relatively long show (Sunday through Wednesday), and I sincerely hope the little presses and independent designers have a successful show!
PS. It did happen - someone said the word “bellyband” and I was prepared - I did not laugh or giggle, I just let the moment pass in an elegant fashion, as I knew what we were referring to.
