Hi! My name is Gwen and I’m a designer for Cardstore. Recently, several of us went to New York City for the National Stationery Show. It was such a rush to see all those designs and all that paper!
For those that don’t know what the NSS is, it’s a convention held once a year where hundreds of artists, designers and paper enthusiasts gather to show off their work, see trends and build relationships.
For a couple of us, this was the first time ever being in New York City, myself included! We all took advantage of any extra time to see the city. I was able to fly in a day earlier than the rest of the team to explore with a friend living in the city – there was a LOT of walking involved! I had a jam packed day starting with seeing a photo shoot in action, which was very cool! The rest of my day was filled with lunch in SOHO, riding the subway for the first time, taking a walk in Central Park, seeing the Prada exhibit at the MET, walking through Rockefeller Center, getting shakes at Shake Shack (I’d recommend peanut butter!), a stroll through Union Square and ending the evening out in Manhattan.
The rest of the team arrived Sunday late afternoon. We enjoyed a rooftop dinner in the remaining evening sun followed by a walk to Times Square to see all the lights in action! We returned for the night to Ink48 hotel – I enjoyed the designer themes here. The floors dedicated to business conference rooms were named after fonts, the hotel restaurant’s name was PRINT., and I even found coasters in my room with design terms. What can I say? I’m a bit of a design nerd and loved this!
In the morning, coffee in hand, we headed to the Javits Convention Center to find a staircase lined with American Greetings J There was so much paper and fun designs to look at I think we all felt over stimulated – in a good way – by the end of the day! I was excited because this was a chance to not only see a lot of amazing work but also a chance to meet bloggers and designers in person that I have been following online. For Cardstore, it was a chance to strengthen relationships with existing artists on our site and build new relationships with people we would love to work with in the future!
We spent the day walking around the show, talking to artists, looking at designs and making new connections. We took note of trends: letterpress is still BIG in the paper world, neon paper and inks were prevalent, hand lettering and strong typography, clever editorial with simple design and metallic foil (gold was big!), and we were happy to see a trend we love – transparent overlaying colors!
That evening, we held a little get together with some of the Cardstore artists that were in town for the show. It was great to meet several in person! Being able to hear their personal stories and what inspires them to create was pretty amazing. They all have such unique stories and it’s very cool to hear how they got where they are now!
We spent our last remaining morning reference shopping in SOHO. I was checking out hand lettered signs in store front windows, patterns and textures in clothing and house wares, and enjoying the warm sun as I sipped on my iced coffee J
The trip was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to start using new art we purchased and contacting artists to work with on future cards!
