Summer 2018 is turning out to be Neenah’s “summer of touch” with Sept. 12th’s unveiling of a newly refreshed Design Collection – a suite of high-end specialty papers with emphasis on tactile experiences – less than a month after the release of the fingertip-pleasing Neenah Cotton Papers. [Get Swatchbook] Not only does the newly reorganized suite feature brand new papers such as Leatherlike and Reef, but The Design Collection demonstrates a whole new way of organizing swatchbooks as a whole.
“With so many items now in The Design Collection, it became necessary to completely rethink the way the papers were presented to the market,” reveals Brand Manager Auburne Gahlman. Neenah brought in long-time collaborators Design Army to help designers more easily lay their hands on the perfect paper every time.
The result: a collection that encompasses 22 brands, 100+ colors and 15+ textures – inspired by Italy’s top fashion houses and America’s leading designers – all organized by the visual or tactile effect the designer is going for with their finished product.
“We broke the portfolio down then built it back up, exploring different ways to ‘create sensation’ with paper,” explains Pum Lefebure, Design Army’s co-founder & chief creative officer. “Curating the papers in this new way will make it easier for designers to start with the feeling they wish to elicit in each of their designs.”
The Design Collection is now organized this way:
The Design Collection: Pearlized
Here you find all your shimmery, iridescent papers, including translucent and velvety kinds. This includes Stardream 2.0, featuring five sparkling new colors
-Eris
-Pluto
-Neptune
-Saturn
-Venus
The Design Collection: Soft Touch
Ideal for high-end collateral and packaging – those instances when you want to create an instant rapport the moment a potential client handles your work – these papers “feel like something you already know, something that’s instantly familiar to you like a rose petal, a leather jacket or a smooth plastic,” says Neenah’s Auburne.
Papers such as the new Leatherlike, which is exactly that. Available in a natural-looking White, chocolaty Brown and a deep Black, these papers “are just like their namesake, soft, rich, velvety,” says Auburne. “Think leather handbag or custom Italian shoes.”
The Design Collection: Tactile
This is where the paper meets the hand and really gets that haptic experience working. Take the new Reef papers, which feel like “the touch of fine sand.” You can find them in beachy White and midnight sky Black.
As Design Army’s Pum Lefebure puts it, “When you design something that’s three-dimensional, you’re designing it to be touched. As with fashion or interior design, where the material is often the first source of inspiration, the papers in The Design Collection are meant to create sensation, to infuse feeling into the printed piece.”
We at PaperSpecs can’t wait to see – and to feel – what you design with these intriguing new papers!
