There’s nothing like the promise of paper samples and sprinkles to get busy designers to take a break and venture out of the studio for an afternoon. Last week we teamed up with two of our faves, Millcraft and Neenah, to host an intimate paper & ice cream social for creatives.
Showcasing the brand spanking new swatchbook release of The Design Collection, creatives got a first-hand look at some inspiring ways to use color and texture to enhance their print design. Along with the swatch book update, Neenah released a fab little sampler of designer’s fave techniques produced on the fifteen different grades that make up The Design Collection.
It’s funny how the simplest things, like the feel of a sculpted blind emboss on a richly tactile paper can get creatives excited. Add in a few foil stamps, metallic inks and shimmery papers, and we’re talking full on frenzy.
As if that wasn’t enough, Neenah sparked a ton of ideas with their luxury packaging samples. My fave was the copper foil stamp on their new Turquoise Powder finish in the “alluring atmospherics” papers among their folding board options. OMG, talk about swoon worthy – I needed smelling salts after that one. Luckily there was Sea Salt Caramel ice cream nearby.
Of course hosting an ice cream social was the perfect excuse for us to showcase our newest paper installation. P&P teammate Molly created the amazing op-art installation on our wall, inspired by the bright colors in Neenah’s Astrobrights grade line. Molly also created the hand-lettered signs for the ice cream station and painted the watercolor note cards. Oh, and she’s pretty amazing at mocking up paper dummies too.
Here’s a look at the notecards produced on Neenah’s WILD grade from The Design Collection. The paper has a beautiful heavy vellum finish, a great match for this project. We think these were the perfect treat to send home with guests.
The thing about samples is that they really do spark a whole host of ideas and inspiration when it comes to print design. It might be the color combo of a saturated paper shade + foil like the dark blue infinity foil on the soft touch orange shade of Plike; or the monchromatic feel of mixed metallics like the sample of silver metallic ink on Stardream Anthracite; or the metaphoric appeal of a pattern like the moroccan design highlighted by a registered embossed on the heavily textured felt finish of Esse in Cardinale.
I try to share a lot of the details that make a piece special here on the blog, but sometimes you really need to touch and feel the piece for yourself to get the full effect. If you have a local resource that shares this kind of print and paper inspiration with you, consider yourself lucky (and do your best to support them locally).
But if you’re like most of the creatives I hear from these days, you’re at a loss in terms of where to find these resources – let alone understand how to use them to up your production game. And that’s exactly why I created The Parcel. I wanted to give everyone who wants it the opportunity to learn and be inspired by fab print design. So while you may not be able to join us in the sample studio for an ice cream social, The Parcel subscribers enjoy all the same benefits – beautiful print and paper samples, complete with notes by P&P.
Oh and you can even get the social aspect by joining our private facebook group for fans of paper, print and design. It’s open to everyone and it’s FREE (for now), you don’t even have to subscribe to The Parcel to join us there. We’ve got some big things planned for this group, I hope you join us while you can!
