Stationery Trends Magazine

Bread & Roses

What to seek -- and stock -- in 2009 By Sarah Schwartz, Editor Bread and Roses was a famous slogan attributed to a 1912 textile worker strike. The idea behind it was that people need to eat, but they also need something pretty in their lives. A similar approach is taken by today's “recessionista” consumers: The focus is on utility -- after all, it's easier to justify spending money on an item that serves a purpose -- but it's still hard to resist cutting-edge design. Bearing that modern maxim in mind, we've compiled a bevy of product that falls into both categories, showing three vendors' interpretations of each in order to hint at its dimensions and directions. Use this as a shopping guide, or to help you make sense of the complex cavalcade of merchandise on display at winter shows. Product Categories Boards (clip and…  » Read more

---

Digital Photocards: A Trend Whose Time Has Come

Technology drives this emerging category's staying power By Sarah Schwartz, EditorThe Digital Revolution has changed the world in countless ways. From the Internet to the iPhone, new technologies have transformed the way Americans perceive the world and live their lives. No area of modern life seems untouched — and this includes photocards, which, just like cameras, have gone digital. The category couldn't succeed without an ardent customer base. “People of all ages are becoming more technologically savvy, especially with their digital cameras and computers,” noted Whitney English Kolb, founder of Whitney English. “For the time being, digital technology is a huge asset for any stationery manufacturer.” But the cultural progression toward them also comes with their simple ordering process, pointed out Pam Schuler, owner and founder of Blue Daisy Paper. Customers often select a design from an album, submit their photograph, approve a full-color proof…  » Read more

---

2009 Winter Editor’s Letter

Paper as Fashion By Sarah Schwartz, Editor When I started covering stationery for a major gift trade magazine in 1997, it was hardly considered a plum beat amongst the other market editors. Compared to tabletop, decorative accessories and collectibles, the category encompassed at best items that could occasionally be “borrowed” from my stationery pages and run in their more glamorous sections, at worst “T-shirts and Teddy bears,” a phrase uttered by our marketing director on more than one occasion with dripping disdain. But what a difference a few years makes! 2009 finds tabletop manufacturers scaling back their releases and consumers shying away from anything without an element of utility (collecting dust doesn't count). And though our industry is affected like all of retail by this suffocating recession, stationery continues to thrive and surprise in many ways. Suddenly the category is hip, as the young generation…  » Read more

---

Introducing the Editorial Advisory Board

Six who toil in the paper trenches to advise and offer insights By Sarah Schwartz, Editor Like many of the publications in the Great American Publishing family, Stationery Trends has opted to institute an Editorial Advisory Board — six wise and charitable souls who will allow this editor to pick their brains from time to time. Additionally, they will keep our staff clued in to shifts and changing attitudes in this ever-evolving and increasingly tricky marketplace. Five are retailers and one, the proprietor of what many consider the Atlanta stationery showroom. You can be sure that all, however, have great insights to share, as evidenced by their diverse bios: Chandra Greer graduated from high school a National Merit Scholar finalist, going on to earn a business degree at The University of Illinois. After a three-year stint with a major oil corporation, she earned an M.B.A.…  » Read more

---

Putting It All on Paper

An exclusive look into how an iconic apparel brand created 'couture' and 'ready-to-wear' stationery collections By Sarah Schwartz, Editor It's a fashion trivia tidbit that the Lilly Pulitzer brand was born of happenstance. The company's namesake — then married to Peter Pulitzer, grandson of publishing legend Joseph Pulitzer — ran a juice stand off Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Fla., in the late 1950s, as an offshoot of some citrus groves the two owned. She asked her dressmaker to make her some dresses that camouflaged the juice stains. The result — a sleeveless shift made of bright, colorfully printed cotton — would become a staple of the line incorporated not too long after the frocks began outselling her juice. And once the American public saw Jackie Kennedy (a school friend of Lilly's) wearing one, everyone else wanted one, too. The brand became a sensation, and…  » Read more

---