Features

The winter 2024 edition of Atlanta Market found temperatures plummeting outside, but the design sizzled inside, just like always! ANDMORE reported that buyers descended on the can’t-miss market from both 50 states AND 50 countries.

This editor continues to attempt to categorize her three days of massive visual overstimulation, but these spellbinding stationery and gift selections — as well as the rising trends they represent — already stand apart.

1. Bringing Marie Antoinette’s famed dictum to magnificent, nearly surreal proportions, these Cody Foster windows not only tempt the taste buds, they illustrate perfectly one of the biggest emerging icons of ’24: cake. Look for endless interpretations of these scrumptious, sugary concoctions on product categories across the board.

2. Feeling very of the Zoomer moment — and also perfectly applicable to anyone who’s ever “spiraled” the endless miles of halls and tunnels of Buildings 1, 2 and 3 — the bubble-lettered Salty range from Papersalt is a whole mood, as the kids say.

3. Meet Library Design Co., an ultra-polished, ultra-smart gem new to the Dan Richards crown. Unsurprisingly, this is *not* this maker’s first rodeo — Amy was the original creative director of Smitten on Paper.

4. Located in Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame, Hatch Show Print is a working letterpress shop since 1879, renowned for its legendary woodblock prints. Now, 145 years later, they have gone wholesale!

5. Rifle Paper Co. blended into its new Ivystone digs effortlessly and gorgeously, as expected. In a market full of flat notes — a most welcome mini-trend — these delicately latticed, die-cut and gold-foiled specimens, replete with sublime backsides, definitely stood out.

6. While also in a new location, Inklings Paperie continues to blend fun retro elements with interactivity, value and easy, self-contained packaging for a true 2024 quadruple threat.

7. I haven’t seen all-over letterpress patterns with no copy at market in at least a decade! These from Rust Belt Love are exquisitely executed as always, and promise to add a dynamic visual element to card walls.

8. Speaking of letterpress, it’s really interesting to see textures like gingham and fringe jump off home textiles onto stationery. These smart, meticulous coasters from Colorbox Design & Letterpress — found in the brand’s new home at Anne McGilvray — are too meticulous and smart to not garner a second glance.

9. When it comes to messaging, Sam of Near Modern Disaster is a modern master of blending clever verbiage with topical concepts. Her brevity and distinctive lettering are the icing on the proverbial sticker cake!