April 2010

• Autumnal Reading
  - Editorial
• Kiwiana Inspirations
  - Kiwiana-themed gifts
• The Power of Promotion
  - Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk
• Smart toys
  - Active Play and Mobile Accessible Play Unites Families in 2010
• Oven-to-table
  - From the oven to the table – in style
• Stationery - the Full Effect
  - Everyday stationery essentials that are turning heads

Stationery
- the Full Effect

Everyday stationery essentials that are turning heads.

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street … fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” – Coco Chanel

Like the old saying, ‘as you make your bed, so you must lie in it,' there's a new stationery term that many of us are beginning to live by: ‘as you choose your stationery, so you must write in it.'

Just like we witness the seasonal changes with new shoe, bag and accessory ranges, and to which we treat ourselves during a Friday lunch break, so too are we following stationery trends in order to stay up with the play.

“Consumers are very fussy about what they want, especially so when it comes to journals,” says Richard McGilvray, general sales manager of For Art Sake in Australia. “Fashion trends play a huge part in this, along with product features such as lined pages, magnetic closures, acid-free paper, bindings that lie flat for ease of use, etc.”

Regional manger of For Art Sake in New Zealand, Simon Curtin, believes consumers are seeking out a point of difference when stationery shopping – more so than ever before. “Our new Design Wallas fabric journals from India are proving very popular. With fabric journals, the design possibilities are endless, and we can react to fashion trends very quickly,” he says. “They are also an ideal and easy product to create fashion stories around. We currently source our journals from the USA, UK and India, which allows us to capture the global market trends.”

Staying abreast of international trends is high on the to-do list for many stationery wholesalers, and following popular clothing houses is a must, says Ian Briasco, marketing and sales manager of K Kurtovich Products. “We closely follow the colour trends of fashion labels like Country Road and Glassons,” he says. “Stationery is dictated by fashion. However, we'll always incorporate the safe, staple black colour into our stationery lines too – that's a must-have. We'll never produce burgundy or beige stationery though – you stock those two colours at your peril!”

Even traditional Kiwi landscape stationery won't win buyers in its ‘au naturel' state nowadays, says Kevin Kurtovich, managing director and owner of K Kurtovich Products. “Just plain scenic imagery is not enough,” he says. “It needs to be made
fashionable – it needs an edge.”

Whilst K Kurtovich Products stationery appeals to the wider tourist market, the company doesn't make and design its stationery purely with overseas visitors in mind. “We have a crossover, with New Zealanders buying our Kiwi-themed stationery products too, so we constantly have to keep an eye on what Kiwis want for themselves – heraldry motifs is a trend I'm currently looking into,” says Briasco. “And right now we're producing a very ‘designed' look – grids, borders, savvy layouts.” Whilst polypropylene has widely replaced PVC in the manufacturing of journals and diaries in the last decade, the use of recycled leather is another trend K Kurtovich Products is putting in motion. “It's all about finding new ways to appeal to the customer and doing your part on the environmental side of things too,” says Kurtovich. “Five years ago we had over a tonne of material waste each week; now we wouldn't even have a binful at the end of the month.”

Overseas specialist stationery companies, such as the UK's WH Smith, largely influence material and design trends globally, says Briasco. WH Smith's range of 2010 stationery includes their popular black moleskine notebook – whose soft but sturdy cover adapts to the movements of the body – plus a Globe Trotter chunky notebook in mock suede, and their Paperblanks series of notebooks which encapsulates the Renaissance era.

As for size, larger-sized journals and diaries are not what we (the consumers) are demanding, say For Art Sake and K Kurtovich Products. “We don't see a shift in size this year – or next, as our biggest sellers mostly come in an A5 size (160mm x 210mm),” says Gilvray.

Kevin Kurtovich agrees. “A5 is the definitive size the majority of customers will opt for when buying a diary, with its weekly double-page spread,” he says. “And we've also noticed that more and more people are demanding diaries with at least 10 extra pages at the back for note taking, because they want something that's more than just a diary, but not quite a journal.”

International calendar extras are also making their way Down Under. Familyfunctional calendars that incorporate more than Easter and Christmas dates
are making it big. “WH Smith has really encouraged the trend to upgrade the standard family calendar,” says K Kurtovich Products' Briasco. “So this is something we have introduced to our calendars this year. We've been very particular about adding in school term dates, holidays, etc.”

As for up-and-coming calendar cover pictures, Kevin Kurtovich says their customers can expect less of beach and sea imagery – “traditionally we've always had a lot of these sort of scenes” – and more mountain and lake views.

UK stationers are also leading the way in card trends too, says Simon Curtin of For Art Sake. “The UK market is the largest market and has the highest consumption per capita in the world. More than anything, the consumer in the UK demands high quality and design, and these factors play at the top of their minds in their purchase decisions over everything else,” he says. “There is a wide variety of trends coming through, ranging from cute ‘old world' illustrations, strong bold colouring and stripes, and ultra-elegant female designing.”

As well as the bold and the beautiful, retailers and stationers are placing more and more importance on stocking and manufacturing cards that are male-friendly, says Barking Mad director and artist, Chrispin Korshen. “Barking Mad always does a lot of love-themed card designs – and we're always open to design suggestions,” she says. “I think the trick when designing (and stocking) romantically suggestive cards is to choose designs that aren't too soppy and obvious – you've got to minimise the embarrassing factor for males buying cards.”

Whilst Korshen keeps an eye on overseas card trends, many don't fit in with her own freestyle thoughts – but that's the way she likes it. “I don't follow any particular themes. As ideas come to me, I test and try them – I relish in feedback from customers too,” she explains. “Generally I think there's more emphasis on spending a little bit extra and buying a nice card nowadays – in many cases instead of a present. People want to spend their money in the right places, and buying a card that appeals to all the senses makes more sense than reaching for an average box of chocolates.”