Whenever someone laments that there’s nothing new to get excited about in printing these days, I simply hand them a tissue ... with the PaperSpecs Magazine name and cover background on it. And then a tiny gift bag emblazoned with the cover of our premiere issue. That turns those frowns upside down in a hurry!
These items, together with a much larger bag, were all huge hits at our recent PaperSpecs Magazine launch party and are the brainchild of DigiWrap, a start-up that’s come up with a whole new way to get the most out of digital printing. That’s right — they’ve actually developed a proprietary process for digitally printing whatever you want on super-thin tissue paper! In the case of PaperSpecs Magazine, they used a pre-dyed gray paper for the mini-bags and a pre-dyed black one for the large variety. The result, as you can see, is remarkable.
First developed by DigiWrap co-founders Charlie Williams and Brad Boskovic at the latter’s print shop, this short-run tissue paper customization technology got a shot in the arm when it was pitched on Season 8 of “Shark Tank” last December.
To watch Sabine Lenz discuss Digiwrap Tissue and Bags click here or on the video below:
While both custom-printed tissue paper and bags are eye-catching, it is the pairing of these that truly make for an unforgettable experience. From the look and feel of the complete package to the crinkling sound of the tissue paper between your fingers, nearly every sense is engaged.
The chief appeal of all this, of course, is customization. In the case of the large bag, DigiWrap printed on a 70 lb. silver metallized sheet that was a very close approximation of the Mohawk Chromolux Digital we used for the cover of our premiere issue. For the mini-bags, they went with a smooth GPA 100-lb. text matte substrate. Basically any HP Indigo-certified paper can be printed on and then converted into bags ready to be stuffed with your custom-printed tissue sheets.
At the launch party, and the HOW conference the following day, everyone I bumped into immediately zeroed-in on these bags with one thought in mind — this is the perfect giveaway for events without having to invest in huge print runs.
For my part, I had the perfect conversation starter for our new magazine that’s dedicated to — appropriately enough — the power and poignancy of print design!
Sabine Lenz is the founder of PaperSpecs.com, the first online paper database and community specifically designed for paper specifiers.
Growing up in Germany, Sabine started her design career in Frankfurt, before moving to Australia and then the United States. She has worked on design projects ranging from corporate identities to major road shows and product launches. From start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, her list of clients included Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Deutsche Bank, IBM and KPMG.
Seeing designers struggle worldwide to stay current with new papers and paper trends inspired Sabine to create PaperSpecs, an independent and comprehensive Web-based paper database and weekly e-newsletter. She is also a speaker on paper issues and the paper industry. Some refer to her lovingly as the "paper queen" who combines her passion for this wonderful substrate called paper with a hands-on approach to sharing her knowledge.