After a week in New York at the National Stationery Conference, my mind is still brimming with all the new trends and fresh ideas that are coming up in paper! Oh, it is fun!
Here is a list of the Top Trends in Stationery (according to me):
(Disclaimer: This list was made with absolutely no stats or polls. Strictly my opinion… and what I overheard from smart looking ladies at the conference. )
1) Letterpress – Okay, Letterpress can no longer be considered a trend. It makes us feel beautiful and it’s not going anywhere. Similar to the low-rise jean. On a side note: I am coming out with Letterpress Collections this summer!!! I can’t wait! I will feel so fancy. Yipee!
1) Something I like to call, “Uber-customization” – The Millenials want it all. And they want it with their name all over it. The entitlement is a little hilarious, but I also have to throw myself under the boat since my wedding was all monogrammed L’s. (But with our names being Lee and Loralee Lewis did I really have a choice, ladies? No. I did not. I had to run with the Ls.) Personally, I love this uber-customization trend because it’s what I do – custom invitations. But it was WAY more interesting to see how it has effected the greeting card industry. Greeting Card designers are having to design their invitations with the city, state, birthdate, gender, and personality of their client all in mind. It was amazing to see what the greeting card designers were doing at the conference in respect to customization.
2) Geometric Patterns – Everything from wedding invitations to wrapping paper featured geometric patterns. My favorite was the bold zigzag. I couldn’t believe how great it looked on even wedding invites!
3) Color – Bright bold colors were everywhere at the conference. To be specific, the following colors are hot, hot, hot right now:
a. Green: Kelly Green and Moss Green seem to be the favorites.
b. Grey or Gray (depending on you want to spell it): Grey is the new black. If it’s grey…or gray, it’s in.
c. Royal Blue: Bold blue is everywhere.
d. Purple: Every shade from Eggplant to Lavender.
4) Imperfection – Having slight imperfections (similar to what you would find in letterpress items) is pleasing to the buyer these days. I think it reminds us that it’s not a mass produced item. It’s special – one of a kind.
5) Handmade – Due to us living in a paperless world, paper has become more important to us. When so many things can be mass produced, consumers are wanting original designs with a blast from the past feel. Beautifully handmade paper items are appreciated right now. Hand-painted cards were all over the conference!
6) Numbers – I saw TONS of wrapping paper, cards, and invitations featuring large bold sequential numbers. Very fun. Very versatile. Alphabets out. Numbers in.
7) Font – Beautiful fonts executed smartly is a huge trend right now. Bold fonts combined with gorgeous scripts are eye-catching! To be honest, there were quite a few misses in this respect at the stationery show. I found that a designer that understands font is a rare bird. But those who truly know how to execute font just take your breath away!
8) Old old things – I couldn’t think of a better way to title this trend. Vendors were selling pencils from the 1920-1960s, invitations made out of wood from 1800 year old European buildings, and paper notebooks allegedly from the Shang Dynasty era. It was quite interesting. Unfortunately, I do not offer any of these items in my store. 🙂 No Shang Dynasty cardstock here. Just the regular.
9) Premade blog posts for sale – This was something that the stationery vendors were all over…and personally left a really bad feeling in my gut. I guess there are new companies popping up that will manufacture blog posts for people to buy and place on their blog. According to one new company I spoke to at the conference, you purchase a monthly subscription to their company and then choose from all their premade blog posts to place on your blog throughout the month. The posts are un-editable (so you are unable to put your own thoughts into it) and are monitored by zip codes. So people will have the same posts all around the nation…but not in your zip code? To me, this defeats the point of blogging entirely – as the point of blogging (in my opinion) is to share your own point of view! To record life and happenings according to how you see it! This was an interesting idea that was going on at the show that seemed to catch everyone’s attention. I hope it doesn’t catch on. I personally love the authenticity of blogging. There are so many people I follow and love because of their personality that has come through the screen through their words!
There are so many other fun things up in stationery right now! I could go on forever. But I’ve got to go and tuck my kiddies in for the night. I’ll be back tomorrow with a few more!
Blog to you soon,
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