Features

Welcome to our annual Design Issue! Long-time readers know this is my favorite issue to edit since with this, I get to dissect not just current visual trends, but why we may be seeing them at this moment in time.

My hope is that our retail readers can review them with an eye toward figuring out which ones resonate at the register most. So please don’t skip our annual A to Z of Design. In a similar vein, the demographics and desires of card buyers have definitely shifted, so in Fresh Picks, I broke down the greeting card market by generation. It was an interesting process, and I’d love to hear if our readers agree with my take.

And, in order to design your own ideal future, our State of Paper coverage examines where makers and retailers see themselves not just now, but in five years, too. The results may well surprise you!

Finally, I’d like to quickly flash back the summer market at AmericasMart Atlanta, where it was my honor to sit down with four fabulous paper retailers. Shown below from left to right are myself, Kate Strzok of Broadway Paper, Milwaukee; Ashley Woodman of simply put. Paper and Gift, Atlanta (two locations); and Dan Collier of Daniel*Richards, Atlanta and Dallas, as well as the stores Archer Paper (five locations) and The Merchant Atlanta (three locations). Together, they represented a wide breadth of locations, aesthetics and clienteles.