Impress Kits

[Alyson Kuhn] Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City Sunday afternoon, I was not in the park with George. I was at the Javits with Donna. On the opening day of the National Stationery Show, the exhibitors were all in their places, with bright hopeful faces, putting their best booth forward. Among the mostly-glossy line sheets and brochures, three tactile – and delightfully different – press kits caught my eye and engaged my hand.

Tim Knock does a great demo of his press kit for the Dynomighty Tyvek wallet, which has about as many compartments as a photojournalist’s vest tucked inside a Chinese puzzle box. Printed on the wallet is a lovely pattern of all the wallets in the line. Inside, clever enclosures provide practical details. The minimalist order form looks mighty like a coffeeshop bill. Two show promotions look like currency, one offering $25 off your first purchase and the other offering free shipping on orders over $500. Reading Terrence Kelleman’s tale {here, not in the press kit} of how the wallet came to market is almost as much fun as Act II, in which Tim puts his money where his “mighty” is, and shows me his own wallet. It holds many cards of plastic and pieces of paper and weighs next to nought, niente, nada thing.

Unweighted down by my Dynomighty press kit, I had barely taken twenty steps when I was transported to the Land of Linen {& Lovely Letterpress!}, at the booth shared by Angela Liguori of Carta and Shelley Barandes of Albertine Press. Angela’s press kit is also ultra-light but esthetically evocative. The glassine sleeve is numbered with a segment of vintage laundry tape. Inside, mini-line sheets with little photo-vignettes and color bars, on uncoated paper, do a grand job of extending the experience. A small square glassine holds snippets of Italian cotton ribbons. Every little piece is super-simply produced  - from Angela’s square business card on text-weight paper, to the even smaller square label bordered in red mini-dots, on the square glassine. Angela’s blog is a matching treat, truly the next best thing to being in her presence.  I am a longstanding fan of the numeral ribbon {See soaps du jour below.} On her blog, I was too-too amazed to see what some clever hands had done with their numeral tape. What a stitch.

The press kit from Tiselle is in a letterpress league of its own. If my name were Tiselle, I would use it as an evening bag, with only minor modifications for security. And if I were higher-tech, I would provide a little video, instead of the nice photos below, so you could enjoy every detail. It’s beautifully conceived, constructed, and completely more than I expected. Shall I share one two-part charming touch? The press kit has a striped ribbon with sticky Tiselle pale blue dot as a closure. Inside, one of the enclosures presents proprietress Tianyi Wang’s business card, held in perfect place by two “photo corners” made from the same striped ribbon.

You keep scrolling… and I’ll keep strolling the Javits. Tomorrow, I’ll showcase several exhibitors who put their voice, and their values, front and center. Thursday, I’ll report on what I think might be a trend, or at least a Big Theme. And now, may I be excused to go to a bakery?

Photography: Donna Mugavero