Making the Grade
By Sabine Lenz
About Sabine
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.
The Big Lie About Paper Grades
Earlier this week, I came across a paper merchant’s Website (I will not mention any names here, and I’m sure they’re not the only ones.) and was dumbfounded. They proudly show their visitors the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) brightness chart, claiming that brightness equals paper grade.
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Stationery with Style (Video)
Michelle Yang, Ben Graham and Steve Watson from Seattle-based design firm Turnstyle, created an identity and corresponding stationery system that is not only graphically memorable, but also sports a tactile memorability—all while oozing sophistication.
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Keeping Score: Business Cards vs. Smartphones
When do you give out most of your business cards? Yep, when you see people. And as a lot of business is done face to face, there's nothing like a really nice business card to break the ice when you first sit down to meet a client or network with a peer at a tradeshow.
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Enchanted Wedding Invitation (Video)
This week, Sabine Lenz, from PaperSpecs, highlights a wedding invitation line from RoxyLou Design + Press in North Attleboro, MA. A flowing engraved script; a tender pink, gold and yellow palette; romantic curling tendrils and tiny butterflies make up this beautiful invitation.
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Business Cards Made From Wood - So Yesterday, Or Is It?
Over the last few years, we’ve seen our share of wood veneer business cards, but the veneer and printing industries have evolved. But let’s back up for a second and look at the amazing way these substrates are created. And believe me, this is worth a sales call to a potential customer all by itself.
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