This year's edition of the National Stationery Show (NSS) featured the debut of an expanded Best New Products Awards competition, a new show daily and 300 new exhibitors. In addition, a record-breaking number of new products were submitted to the show's New Product Showcase. As a result, it would be fair to say that for four days this May the NSS put the "new" in New York.
Held from May 18th to 21st at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the show featured 1,300 plus exhibitors who, in turn, played host to more than 15,000 attendees. Collectively the show's exhibitors filled 228,000 square feet of space and offered a wealth of product including greeting cards and social stationery, custom invitations, specialty party décor and paper tableware, journals, calendars, bridal accessories, paper crafting and scrapbooking supplies, frames and desk accessories. Design directions observed on the show floor ranged from Baroque opulence to contemporary minimalism. But, like all the shows we've attended this season, the NSS was tinged with green.
In recognition of the growing eco movement, the show's organizer, George Little Management, introduced the Think Green! Best New Product Awards competition. The award was offered in six categories: desk accessories, lifestyle/specialty gift, luxury, paper craft/scrapbooking, party and social stationery. Recipients of the inaugural Think Green! awards included: Washington, DCbased Peridot Paper, which won for its ecofriendly gift wrapping kit; Bitesize Cards'™ Cupcake Delight card, a handmade greeting card that uses Starbucks coffee sleeves and other discarded corrugated cardboard in its design; and Eccolo Ltd./Made in Italy, which won in the Luxury category for its Terra journal, a journal made from recycled leather and paper from a certified well-managed, regrowth forest.
The green scene continued on the show floor. Oakland, California-based Fwrap introduced a collection of fabric gift wraps some of which are made of Ecospun fibers derived from certified recycled PET plastic bottles. Bumble Ink, which offers a line of cards featuring original carton character personalities and witty punch lines, announced its transition to the exclusive use of soy ink and 100 percent recycled material. Tree-Free Greetings' collection included products made from Sweetpaper™, a material made from sugar cane waste. And Ecosaurus presented giftwrap printed with soy inks on New Leaf Paper™ Reincarnation, which is 100 percent recycled, 50 percent post-consumer waste, processed chlorine-free and Green-e Certified.
This concern for the planet was complemented by product ranges that expressed a real concern for the planet's inhabitants. Brooklyn, New York's Regarding Life offered a line of cards "created to succinctly and accurately address all of life's challenges." These are cards for every day rather than an occasion. The front of a sample card reads, "Reflection." Its inside message is: "If you could see yourself through my eyes you'd be impressed beyond belief." Similarly, Conscious Life Concepts out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, presented a line of inspirational gifts -- magnets, bookmarks, meditation CDs and calendars. These products are all "dedicated to the advancement of conscious living through the realization of one's deepest truth that fosters creativity and awakening of the genius within." And, Haikus for Healing is a new photographic specialty line of cards that uses verse in haiku form to offer sympathy and support for people facing life's difficult challenges including cancer and other catastrophes. Sample message: "Do you think it's fair? Let's question the universe, Then get on with things."
And then there were those companies that took the whole notion of a greeting card occasion and spun it on its modern head. For example, Fondoodles introduced two new lines of cards, both of which celebrate occasions not traditionally recognized by the greeting card industry. The Modern Moments Collection speaks to highlights of the young, urban, professional lifestyle with cards for negative dating experiences, breakups and bad days at work. The Most Moments Collection takes a new look at conventional occasions such as new home and baby. And its MENvelope™, a set of cards that covers a year of events and obligations (moving, Mother's Day, birthdays and more), frees the young, single, urban male from the tyranny of repeated card shopping.
Any Horrible Occasion also offers a slightly different take on what comprises a greeting card occasion. Based in Jordan, Utah, this company's cards pair "classic art with biting humor." The range includes cards that "celebrate" divorce, PMS, relationship problems, generally sucky life, illness, law suits, taxes, aging and weight gain. One card in the line show's Jan Peeter's well-known painting, "Ships in Distress on a Coast," with the outside message, "People always say, Well at least things can't get any worse." The inside message: "They lie."
The next edition of the National Stationery Show will be held May 17-20, 2009 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. For more information on the show and/or information on the companies mentioned in this article visit www.nationalstationeryshow.com.
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