Paper: Opposites Attract As Specialty Substrates and Opaques Prosper in Survey
Our 40th Annual Paper Survey, published last month, revealed the bipolar nature of paper
and substrate selection in these demanding days.
On one hand, creatives are specifying more specialty papers, materials and processes to achieve special effects through unique colors, surfaces, textures, enhancements, weights and dimensions. Hence, there is now an extraordinary interest in synthetics, translucents, holographics, metallics, foils, innovative boards and creative sheet materials for print, package and point-of-purchase design applications.
On the other hand, creatives are specifying more opaques, which is consistent with a broad trend toward whiter, brighter, lighter and more affordable papers, boards and substrates. Thus, the survey found that the opaque category is ascendant and among the top four paper types specified, exceeded only by coated fine papers, uncoated premium text and covers and letterheads.
Instead of a belabored analysis of why these seeming opposites are attracting so much attention, we thought it would be more fun to do a roundup of some news and new offerings in this lively market - be they white or black, opaque or translucent, light or heavy, smooth or crystalline, rigid or supple.
- The Editors
fibermark's touché lunches with barbara bush
FiberMark offers innovative alternatives to white paper for designers seeking materials that
will give their design projects strong visual and tactile impact. One example is Touché, a
sensual stock with a silky soft matte finish. Houston designer Jenny Wakefield chose the grade in
cool grey to use this spring for a "Lunch with Barbara Bush" invitation and event program.
The invitation was die-cut to look like a purse, with Mrs. Bush's cameo registered embossed and
printed with chocolate ink.
"My main attraction was the feel of the stock," Wakefield said. She is now using Touche in sage for a second invitation project. Another example is Norval, a pressboard product that is a lightweight embossed cover grade with 13 vivid colors. The paper caught the eye of David Schimmel of And Partners in New York for use in presentation folders.
"What attracted me to the paper was that it wasn't used widely in the graphic design world." Schimmel said. "People tend to default to white. To me, the texture of material is as important as design." Yet a third example is SuedeTex, a supple stock with the look and feel of suede in five leather-like colors, which designer Jennifer Winkler of IMI Resort Marketing in South Carolina opted to use for a promotional resort brochure cover. "I chose it because it had a different tactile feel," Winkler said. "I wanted something more pliable, and we were able to really pop out the embossing." In all, FiberMark offers a dozen cover stocks in its designer series.
Contact: www.design.fibermark.com
chanel uses evanescent line for luxurious look
Chanel has been recognized as a prestigious luxury brand for fashion, fragrances and beauty. The
release of Chanel's latest brochure, Chance, features Thibierge & Comar's new translucent paper,
Evanescent. The piece shows how one design firm, La Toute Petite Agence in Paris, was able to create
a custom paper color with a unique effect using Evanescent. To describe the new light, energetic
fragrance, photo images of vibrant faces and fresh pink tones were interlaced throughout the brochure.
Chance Pink, a signature color used throughout the brochure, was custom created on Evanescent Pearly to
create a mysterious iridescent color. "Pearly is to paper," says paper designer Emeric
Thibierge, "as Titanium White is to paint. If a designer wants to create a unique, shimmery color,
simply print the ink color on Pearly." Samples of the brochure are available to designers.
Contact: 800.474.4629 or www.thibierge-comar.com
weyerhaeuser brochure drives designers to offbeat attractions
Lynx Opaque's Roadside Attractions, from Weyerhaeuser, takes readers on a tour of quirky art and
offbeat architecture from roadsides across North America. The whimsical brochure says that it takes
more than ordinary to get noticed, and that "you sometimes need to step away from the obvious,
call on your imagination and apply your sense of drama and artistic flair."
Lynx Opaque is positioned as an affordable paper that offers just the right blend of shade, opacity and brightness to dazzle the printed page. The promotion uses these roadside artists and their unique work to demonstrate how the paper's smooth, consistent surface, subtle blue-white shade and stunning 92 brightness assure rich color and delicate detail, run after run. The brochure is in printed four-color process with various match colors, plus variable line screens exceeding 200/line, and samples Lynx Opaque's smooth finish in 70 and 80 lb. text and 80 lb. cover, as well as 70 lb. Recycled Lynx Opaque. Lynx Opaque, and the Recycled Lynx Opaque version with 30% postconsumer fiber, are stocked and available across North America in various text and cover weights, smooth and vellum finishes and a wide range of sizes.
The brochure and a Lynx Opaque swatchbook are available from local Weyerhaeuser paper distributors.
Contact: www.lynxopaque.com
grays harbor offers a free taste
Grays Harbor Paper's seagull mascot is "high on creativity," and the paper-loving bird
has been soaring with enthusiasm for the creative ideas being printed on the company's new high
brightness Quinault Opaques. As Odis Avritt, vice president of sales and marketing, says, "To bring
out the creativity in designers, there's just nothing like the pure white, the look and feel of
opaques." In fact, the paper mill is offering designers a free gift box of Quinault Pride foods
in return for sending in a sample of a job printed on Quinault 95.
According to Avritt, the company is prepared to give away any number of these gift boxes. Each box includes cans of smoked Quinault blueback (sockeye) salmon, minced razor clams and smoked salmon, a gift theme that makes perfect sense, given the paper company's location on the Pacific Coast of Washington, and the fact that it named its new opaques after the Native Americans who share the coast with them. The new Quinault Opaque in 95 brightness is available in Vellum, Smooth and Luster finishes, plus a special Digital finish, in a range of weights.
Contact: Quinault Awards, Grays Harbor Paper, 801 23rd Street, Hoquiam, Washington 98550
new imagery graces curious collection swatches
The Curious Paper Collection is now simply the Curious Collection, an Arjo Wiggins brand whose
concept is "innovation and the unending search for printable surfaces that are unusual,
unorthodox and unexpected." In keeping with the legacy, new imagery is featured on swatches
that were released within the past few weeks.
Among the new additions since the last swatches were issued: Curious Touch, available in velvety Soft, which feels like the skin of Camembert cheese, and Wet, which has a supple, dampish, fabric-like feel; four new "fruity" one-sided iridescent colors within the Curious Translucents range; the addition of White/Gold to the Curious Metallics/Iridescents; and a thermochromic sheet whose flecks disappear when the temperature rises above 74° F, and reappear once the sheet cools.
Contact: 800.779.0872 or www.curiouspapers.com
crown roll leaf: adding value and visual impact for packaging, pop and print
Founded in 1971, Crown Roll Leaf is an American success story, growing dramatically into the leading
manufacturer of designer-friendly foil colors and special effects through innovation, service and
quality. The company now manufactures more than 2,000 products in a newly expanded 150,000 square
foot facility in Paterson NJ - the largest foil manufacturing facility in the United States, and
one that meets and exceeds Federal EPA standards and New Jersey's strict standards, as well.
Among the highlights of the company's fully integrated site: a constant inventory of over 100 million feet of hot stamping foil product rolls, which can be delivered anywhere in the world in two to three days through Crown's Fast Foil Service; state-of-the-art head coating machines; wide embossing capabilities, of up to 50"; multi-station gravure printing and six color plus special effects gravure printing presses; inhouse High Refractive Index manufacturing process; the industry's largest vacuum metallizers and web slitters; the first vertically integrated hologram facility; a technically skilled inhouse design group; an on-premise Research & Development Lab; and experienced inhouse sales and customer service teams.
One measure of the company's success is that orders exceed 500 million feet of foil products annually and sales take place to more than 50 countries. But an even more important measure for creative professionals is the expansive variety of foil colors and special effects looks that add value to the packaging, promotion, publishing and product design markets. The range and impact of these colors and effects are captured in the recently published Hot Stamping Foil Guide, 2nd Edition.
The hardcover Foil Guide provides everyone involved in visual communications - creative directors, graphic designers, packaging professionals, brand managers and marketing professionals - with a comprehensive 75 pages of foils and foil information. This new edition contains literally thousands of foils with matching tear-out swatches for product specification. Sections include Metallics (gold, silver and colors); Pigments (gloss and matte); Tints and Pearls; Multicolored Special Effects; Holographic and Pixel Graphic Effects; Retail Vision Holographic Foils; and C-Thru Foils. The Guide also provides technical and production advice. For example, for each specific foil it identifies various substrates that are compatible. In order to ensure optimum specification and manufacturing efficiency, each section lists suggested die temperature ranges for stamping fine line or broad coverage. And with increased customer interest in holographic effects, a new section is devoted entirely to Crown's custom and stock holograms. In this section are additional product lines that are related to holograms and holographic products - such as the C-Thru products and Retail-Vision holograms noted above - which can be integrated into package designs for a competitive advantage in the retail environment. All in all, it is an ideal reference tool for designers and manufacturers.
Crown Roll Leaf offers a unique mix for the creative and production community: products and ideas that provide visual impact for almost any graphic design application, combined with the size, capabilities expertise and commitment to deliver as promised.
Contact: 91 Illinois Avenue, Paterson NJ 07503, or Stewart Glazer, VP, Sales & Marketing at 800.631.3831 or www.crownrollleaf.com
special edition of monopoly pays tribute to america
PROMA Technologies teamed up with Hasbro Games and Seneca Printing to create packaging for The
America Special Edition Monopoly Game. The Hasbro design team, headed by Joe Dzialo, developed four
color graphics of stars, and worked with PROMA Technologies to create a custom hologram to reinforce
the overall patriotic theme. The star spangled box, complete with fireworks bursting in air, conveys
American patriotism while incorporating motion, brightness and color. Seneca Printing and Label used
a Heidleberg Speedmaster to put PROMA Technologies' HoloPRISM holographic paper through a first pass
of opaque white, followed by the four-color process. A gloss coat was applied at the end. The printed
sheets were then sent to Hasbro for conversion.
Contact: 800.343.6978 or www.promatechnologies.com
cti paper usa introduces virtual paper
CTI Paper USA, recognized for their commitment to offering unique specialty papers, has added Virtual
to The Fine Paper Collection. Virtual is a translucent vegetable parchment paper - a process born of
an age-old paper making tradition. With unique colors, surface structures and fiber formations, this
striking grade is providing designers with an uncommon and alluring pallet suitable for all graphic
applications. It is available in eight weights, six smooth colors, six textured colors, four textured
whites and two traditional parchment surfaces. "By adding Virtual to The Fine Paper Collection, we
are offering our customers the 'total translucent solution,'" says company president Brian Cowie.
"From Virtual to Glama Natural, we now offer the most comprehensive choice of translucent papers,
in terms of color, texture and price point." Manufactured by Ahlstrom's St. Severin Paper Mill in
France, each sheet of Virtual is created by swiftly passing base stock through acid baths, fusing its
fibers together and creating translucency. To make it completely acid-free, the paper is then washed
through multiple water baths.
Contact: www.thepapermill.com
waterproof media kits make a splash
Attendees of the American Water Works Association's educational conferences over the past several
months have noticed something different at the organization's information booth: two large fish
tanks. But those aren't fish floating around in the tanks. They're the Association's 2003 media
planning kits. And when a journalist or prospective advertiser asks for one, a staff member simply
"fishes" a planner out of a tank, gives it a quick swipe with a dry cloth, and hands it
over. The secret behind the unique promotion is YUPO synthetic paper, which, in addition to its
other unique qualities, is 100% waterproof.
The idea for printing the media planner on waterproof paper belongs to Susan Ficca, the Association's senior graphic designer. But first she had to sell the idea. Prior to a meeting with her marketing director, Ficca slipped a YUPO pocket calendar into a large glass of water. "When the marketing director asked me about the production schedule for our media planner, I took the calendar out of the glass, handed it to him and suggested he check the dates we were discussing," Ficca explains. "Of course, he got a kick out of that and was immediately convinced of the concept."
Established in 1881, the nonprofit scientific and educational organization is dedicated to improving the quality and supply of drinking water. With over 56,000 members, it publishes several publications in support of its mission, as well as an online newsletter. "When we were planning our 2003 media kit, I was looking for something truly different," Ficca says. "I wanted something totally innovative; something no one had ever seen before. Our objective was to establish a psychological link between these media kits and the silky, tranquil quality of water."
After consultation with her paper supplier, Ficca chose YUPO 74 lb. cover stock for the pocket folder and 68 lb. text for the six bound inserts which provide detailed information on the various Association resources. "To me, the surface feels like water because it's so smooth," she says. Print quality was also an important consideration. There is a degree of whiteness you just don't get with ordinary papers," Ficca says. "And that quality translates well when you want to convey a sense of purity." Other features that appealed to Ficca: tear-resistance helps keep the planner's color coded tab system crisp and clean; durability allowed her to specify a lighter weight and, thus, to lower postage rates; and the paper's 100% recyclability.
The illustration, which appears on the folder and on the insert covers, combines images of water and sky delineated by the horizon. Horizontal stripes of varying widths across the top of the illustration reinforces the message of tranquility. According to Ficca, the illustration transcends cultural bridges as well. A delegation from China attending a recent conference was drawn to the media planner because of its imagery, she says, even though no one in the group could read English. "There's something very balanced about the design. It puts people at ease when they look to the horizon, and that was the concept behind the design."
As for those fish tanks, one refinement has been added. Starting with its 2003 Annual Conference and Exposition earlier this summer, something new joined the submerged media planners: several dozen colorful, client-friendly fish.
Contact: www.yupo.com
dibond sets stage for sales meeting
Dibond Material was recently selected for displays and signage shaped around central waterfall features
designed by Roccaforte, a company active in business theatre and meeting planning. The waterfall features
were part of a sales meeting for Roccaforte's client, Ondeo Nalco, which provides water purification
solutions for industrial clients. As the staging backdrop, two panels of Dibond Material with waterfall
feature were placed on either side of a large panel with the theme "The Future Flows Through
You." This message was fashioned of letters routed out of the large panel of DiBond Material - which
consists of two sheets of .012" aluminum bonded to a thermoplastic core - and then backlit. Though
available in several colors, the material used for this event was painted, and the color was varied by
using lighting focused on it. Two podiums were designed for either side of the stage and placed in front
of the large 5-screen backdrop. Each podium also incorporated a waterfall surrounded by Dibond Material
fabricated to give three-dimensional depth and the illusion of mass, without the problem of weight. The
material was simply scored and folded. Large projection screens on either side of the stage were also
framed in the material, and wayfinding elements throughout the large hotel used Dibond Material painted
gloss black as a dimensional frame for a waterfall insert in each sign. Roccaforte is based in Carmel IN.
Contact: www.alcancompositesusa.com
white gatorfoam enhanced with brighter facers
White Gatorfoam graphic arts boards have been enhanced with dramatically brighter facers for both screen
printing and digital printing operations. Recommended applications include point-of-purchase displays,
signs and exhibit pieces. "In external tests conducted in both screen printing and digital
printing operations, inks adhered even better and appeared even brighter on bright white Gatorfoam over
the previous facer," says Mike McKitrick, product manager, Uniwood/Fome-Cor Graphic Arts Boards. The
bright white facers are featured on all white Gatorfoam products, including 48" x 96" and
60" x 120" Gatorfoam sheets with white facers/white foam or white facers/ black foam in all
the standard thicknesses, from 3/16" up to 2". The Uniwood/Fome-Cor Division of Nevamar
produces Gatorfoam, which consists of polystyrene foam bonded between two layers of Luxcell, a sturdy
wood-fiber veneer laminate.
Contact: 800.438.1701 or www.gatorfoam.com
gruppo cordenons papers are in fashion
Gruppo Cordenons is a fifth generation, Italy-based paper manufacturer of high end text and cover products. With
headquarters in Milan, officials note that "we, of course take some of our cues from the fashion industry."
Not surprising for a company whose clients include Bulgari, Ferragamo, Ferrari and Mercedes. Gruppo Cordenons devotes
substantial resources to research and development of innovative papers, and recently introduced three new paper
grades into the creative community. One is Icedream, a coated paper that features a soft, sparkling, pearl-like
luster, thanks to the millions of tiny crystals set into the coating. Available in text and cover, the grade was
specifically introduced for graphic design applications. A second, Strike, seeks to combine the classical elegance
and handmade finish of a felt-marked paper with the sophisticated, glittering surface of a metalized and pearlescent
mica-coated sheet. It comes in six colors. And third is Plike - whose name is derived from "plastic-like"
- an avant-garde, acid free product with a plastic surface effect which simply cannot be achieved with uncoated
papers. Plike is a text and cover product available in four colors and various bases of weights. These three
papers join a Gruppo Cordenons family that already included Astrosilver, a special mica coated sheet; Bakri, a
wool and cotton blend; Malmero Perlé, a "mica-infused" uncoated sheet in multiple colors;
Stardream metallic, pearlescent and iridescent mica coated sheets available in 18 colors; and Venicelux, a
high gloss cast coated product in white and 10 colors.
Contact: www.gruppocordenons.com
southworth idea book reshapes paper offerings
Southworth Paper's Idea Book is a guide to using unique digital and copy papers for adding impact to
graphics-intensive documents. Free to creative professionals, the book provides ideas that run the gamut
from corporate reports to presentations to newsletters to invitations and announcements. The company's
products are organized into several categories, including The Structures Collection, which offers sheets
in unique shapes such as Wave, Arc and Round Corners, and The Colors + Textures Collection, offering papers
with unique tactile qualities like Weave, Linea, Metalo (featuring metallic glitter fused within the paper)
and Squares (a lattice pattern).
Contact: www.southworth.com