Just like any other industry, stationery and pen brands do their best to announce new products every year. But before the general audience gets to see the novelties, they are introduced to the vendors and stores during so called 'stationery shows'. Basically a huge pen show, but closed for the general public, without direct sales (meaning you can't buy new products directly at the show), and with more than just pens (stationery in the widest sense of the word).
I was lucky to be invited -along with a couple other bloggers- to a blogger meeting at the
Nuremberg Insights X stationery show last weekend. It's only the second edition of this particular show, but it already features around 260 brands spread over multiple halls with a combined size of three football fields! Needless to say it was quite an overwhelming experience, but a great one! I met a bunch of interesting brands, both known and unknown (to me), and the people behind those brands of course.
Before the picture overload, I just want to thank the organisation team behind the
Insights X expo. I'd also like to thank all the brands that I had the pleasure of talking to, it's impossible to list them all here, but i'd encourage you to
visit the exhibitor list on the Insights X website, and check them out for yourself. Last but not least, it was the perfect opportunity to meet some other (pen) bloggers:
GourmetPens,
SBREBrown,
AllThingsStationery and
Bleistift!
As I said earlier, it's stationery in the widest sense imaginable, from kids' backpacks to greeting cards and everything in between. The show was split up into six categories: luxury writing, desk acccessories, paper, bags, artist supplies and stationery. Of course I personally spent most time browsing the various pen brand exhibitors, more than enough to explore there. We also visited a couple non-pen brands too of course.
Along with the visit, we were also overloaded with a bunch of goodies and samples of new products. Part of those products were relevant to this blog, and thus will be reviewed at some point. But of course there were also some less interesting products (I'm talking about kids' crafts products, coloring pencils, small toys,...). We didn't really know what to do with these, and it would've been a waste to throw it away, so we decided to donate to the children's department of the mental hospital where my mother works.
But enough talking, I'll leave the rest of this post speak for itself with the pictures I took during the show. It's impossible to pack everything in one post, but here's a selection of what I found most interesting...
KAWECO
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| Not pictured here are the two novelty colors of the ACsport pens: Orange and green! They did look fantastic in real life though, I assume you'll see them pop up online and in stores in the near future... |
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| 'Make your own Kaweco Sport pen', at the Kaweco stand of course! |
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| The Faber-Castell Booth, filled to the brim with new exciting product, I'm especially interested in the new affordable luxury pens, all with the same high-quality steel nibs we're used to from them! |
UNI-BALL
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| Uni-Ball and their ever so popular jetstream pens, available in a bunch of styles and prices. |
STABILO
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| By far the most colorful and playful booth at the show, courtesy of Stabilo |
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| Some interesting new products from Stabilo: Pastell highlighters, woodcased pencils with a slip-on touchscreen pencil cap, and a new learning fountain pen for kids with an adjustable nib. |
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| Also from Stabilo, these colorful neon jumbo triangular woodcased pencils! |
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| Some lesser-known brands were present as well, such as Cleo Skribent with their beautiful luxury fountain pens in exotic materials like ebonite and wood. |
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| Some really impressive luxury Online pens, with a more premium design and finish than the school pens they are most known for. |
STAEDTLER
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| The usual Staedtler Premium product line. Nothing new so far, but I was informed about an upcoming lower-priced premium pen coming in 2017! |
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| ...the droolworthy, but also really expensive princeps collection from Staedtler |
LABAN
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| Laban pens were a first for me, hadn't seen their pens in person before and was thoroughly impressed with the wide variety of styles and materials they produce! The vintage ebonite pens lower left were my personal favourite. |
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| Brands like these made up about 60 percent of the show, zipit was one of the most interesting ones, with their pencil cases made from one long zipper. |
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| KUM with their Masterpiece sharpeners, about as fancy as a handheld sharpener will get... |
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| A wall of Leuchtturm notebooks. |
ZEBRA
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| The Zebra stand brought a mechanical pencil with unbreakable leads! You could actualy rip the paper and the lead wouldn't budge, very impressive. |
HINDUSTAN PENCIL CO.
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| The Hindustan pencil company (known for their Natarah pencils) introduced their new subbrand: Sivo. This new brand provides high-quality pencils and school supplies for children. |
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| A novelty for me personally: Scrikss pens from Turkey. They brought some pretty classy designs with them, something worth keeping an eye out for... |
PLATINUM
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| From the other side of the world: Platinum. We were honoured to be able to sit along the table with the Vice President of the brand: Mr. Takeuchi. The new Nova Orange Platinum Plaisir was present at their booth, but we were more distracted by that handsome Izumo Urokomon in the lower right corner! |
(This post does not contain affilate links.)
It was great meeting you there!
ReplyDeleteLikewise Matthias! It was great to finally meet in real life!
DeleteNice nice! It was a good day.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It was indeed a splendid day!
DeleteWhat a beautiful selection of photos. Really shows off the show well.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteExcited by the writer's ability to write in this magnificent way.
ReplyDeletecleaning cloth