The National Stationery Show 2013

Last week, I jetted off to NYC to attend the National Stationery Show for a few days. You might remember my experience from last year, and while that was a blast, this year was even better (though my gals Lesa and Laura were really missed)!

Row 1: a heart made of our polaroids in the Minted booth, entering Paper Party 2013, Kimberly and I brunching in SOHO Row 2: NY art print that I got to take home, Minted T Shirt (designed by Jill Means), Mintie and NSS standout, Meg Gleason of Moglea Row 3: NSS loot, Hope, Jen and Natasha manning the Minted booth, my Twine wedding invitation samples spotted in the booth.

I get asked a lot why I attend. Do I exhibit? Will I in the future? The short answer is no and probably not. I go to meet with Minted and network with fellow designers. It's a pleasurable business trip, if you will. Wholesale isn't part of my current business plan, but growing my work with Minted is, so spending days talking with their CEO, community managers, and merchandising group was invaluable and of course talking paper with all my design friends is icing on the cake. I might have even snuck in a few hours at the show, but I laugh that it certainly wasn't as much of a focus this year.

That's the short summary. Let's get to the details... those not interested in specifics, you are welcome to go on your merry way. I am about to give a play-by-play. You've been warned.

The only way to explain this trip is that it is a complete whirlwind. It flew by. I arrived on Sunday, getting in mid afternoon at exactly the same time (without planning) as my official NSS roomie, Kimberly FitzSimons. We shared a cab to the hotel, freshened up and headed to The Jane for an unofficial Minted happy hour organized by Jackie of Sincerely Jackie. It was the perfect way to start out our trip. New faces, familiar faces. It was so fun. Facebook groups have allowed us to communicate consistently, so it was really like seeing old friends instead of meeting in person for the first time. I can't say enough how nice these women are.

Back:(L-R) Hailey Myziuk of Snow & Ivy,  Anita Brown of That Girl Press, Kristen Smith, Kimberly FitzSimons, Carolyn MacClaren, Melanie Severin, Lori Wemple, Chelsey Brennan of Chelsey Emery Middle:(L-R) Carrie O'Neal, Pasty Henspetter, Jill Means, Me, Amy Ehman of Design Lotus, Nam Bourassa of Gakemi Art & Design, Kristie Kern, Dawn Jasper Front:(L-R) Jen Wick of J.Wick Design, Hannah Graff of HannahCloud Design, Jackie Mangiolino of Sincerely Jackie

Me and my roomie, Kimberly

We ended the night with dinner for 20 at Dos Caminos.  I ate dinner at 10pm almost every night. New York is really the city that never sleeps!

The next day, after some meetings with Minted, we hit the show. We browsed the design booths admiring all the beautiful work. It is truly inspiring, but kind of overwhelming. There is so much! Last year, I tried to see every. single. booth. and ended up exhausted. So this year, we took it easy and headed back to the hotel for a bit to do a little work and rest our feet for the big Minted party that night.

(L to R) Kimberly, Me, Jen Wick, Kristen Smith, and Carrie O'Neal

The Minted party was at KTCHN and it was a great venue. Minted really threw a wonderful event and at the end, I even scored an art print in a drawing! I never win anything - but I guess I can't say that anymore! I chose Emily Potts' Type Study New York (seen in instagram photos above). It was my little souvenir of the week and I can't wait to hang it in my office.

Me and Jill Means at the Minted Party

(L to R) Susan Asbill, Jackie and Me

On Tuesday, we had pretty free morning, so instead of going straight to the show, Kimberly and I slept in and then headed to Soho. We ate a great brunch and shopped a little before heading to the show for the afternoon.

Once at the show, we hit up a lot of the supply side, which includes suppliers for pretty much all things stationery: printers, packaging, binders, paper. Lots of samples to take home - even trying to keep my stash small, I still struggled fitting it all into my suitcase.

Tuesday night was our last event, the Paper Party, hosted by Oh So Beautiful Paper. It was a big event with a ton of amazing sponsors (Minted included).

Back: (L to R) Eric Comstock of ERAY, Yolanda Chendak, Hope from Minted, Cambria Evans of J.Bartyn Design Front: (L to R) Jackie, Me, Kimberly, Jen

On our way to the Paper Party, we passed by a packed restaurant, called Anejo Tequileria, and decided to head back to it for a little late night dinner. It was a beautiful evening and we sat outside and enjoyed an amazing last meal in the city.... and here, I thought I would be suffering from Mexican food withdrawal!

And that's all! What a week. Already looking forward to next year!

The National Stationery Show

Last week, I was lucky enough to spend 4 days in New York City attending the National Stationery Show. For those of you that don't know, the National Stationery Show is a tradeshow for the wholesale stationery industry with exhibitors ranging from independent design studios and big stationery companies to printers and paper suppliers. To put it simply, it was paper heaven and if the idea of attending this show bores you to tears, below are some instagram photos that will give you a nice quick overview. Keep reading if you want the play-by-play...

The show was Sunday through Wednesday, but if you are interested in attending, you just need to figure out what events you want to attend and plan accordingly. Everyone seemed to be coming and going at different times throughout those days and you don't need to be there for the entire time (unless you are exhibiting of course!) You can probably walk the actual show in a day if you needed to, but we leisurely walked it in about a day and a half and I thought it was perfect. Between walking the show, seminars and meetings, I was still able to catch a broadway play and shop a bit. I've been to New York many times, but whether you have or haven't - you might as well take advantage of being in the city. But I digress.... back to the show.

A little by planning and a little by chance, Kimberly FitzSimons, Lesa Abney, Laura Hankins and I all stayed at the Hilton Times Square and decided to head to the show together. The first day, we spent a lot of time on the supply side of the show. There's a large portion of printers, paper suppliers, etc. that design studios like myself, could use to fulfill orders. I got a ton of information (and even more samples) from these type of vendors, many that I would never have learned about otherwise. Minted actually had booth this year and we made a beeline for it the moment we got there. It was so fun chatting face to face with the Minted team!

L to R: Me, Jen (Minted), Lesa, Laura, Kimberly, Alison (Minted) and Natasha (Minted)

The other section was all the design studios exhibiting their wholesale lines. They were AMAZING. From the greeting cards, to the invitations, to the booths, you could tell how much thought and creativity was put into every aspect. I was so glad to experience it, because after being there, I know that wholesale is not for me right now (I didn't think it was, but it helped confirm my initial thoughts about it). If you think you might be interested in wholesale, I definitely recommend attending before you jump in. There's something about being there that you just can't get from photos.

When we weren't walking the show, we filled our evenings getting to know the other Minted designers that made the trip. We knew there would be small group on Sunday, so Kimberly organized a casual happy hour at our hotel bar. We probably had about 20 people there, but we didn't whip out the camera until the end, but thanks to those who came. I loved meeting you!

L to R: Front - Laura, Lesa, Jackie from Believe Notes, Alston from B.Wise Papers. Back - Meg from Moglea, Kristie Kern, Kimberly, and me

Minted hosted a party for us on Monday evening and if you can believe it, this photo below isn't everyone! It was a big turnout. Between emails, forums, blogs and Facebook, I feel like I know these ladies and it was so fun to meet them in person, hear their voices and learn their personalities. It's hard to know much from a tiny, 2 inch photo! (Turns out, people thought I would be much taller! To say that I am 5'2" might be a bit of a stretch, so Rachel must be one talented photographer to make me look otherwise!)

Meeting everyone was definitely the highlight of my trip! I would not be doing what I am today without this company and design community, so getting to spend time building friendships with the people behind the tiny photos and emails was priceless and I am so grateful for the chance to attend. I hope that I can make it again next year.

Note: All the non-Instagram photos are from the wonderful photo-taker in our group, Kimberly. She also has a fun recap of the show on her blog. Thanks Kimberly!

Minted Design Challenge: Children's Stationery

Voting is now open for the Children's stationery challenge over at Minted. I got in a few submissions, and would appreciate it if you have a chance to vote. Ahoy!, Doodle, and Read Between the Lines.