Printers confirm this. Tim Honnor is managing director at Piccolo Press in Nairn, near Inverness, which specialises in high-quality letterpress and engraved stationery. "Designers are very keen on letterpress business cards – it’s a real growing trend," he says.
Honnor’s own business card is a hefty 700gsm mini-advertisement for the company’s services. "I was visiting some graphic designers last week and I gave them my card. They held it and said, ‘Wow, this is a real statement’. The sort of cards we do might well get you more trade, even though the unit cost is higher.
Return to quality
"The wheel has turned 360 degrees and we’re seeing a return to quality. Two or three years ago, we hardly did any personal stationery, but it’s coming back. I see a move to people desiring the tangible," adds Honnor. "People don’t seem to mind paying for something they really like. If you’re hosting an event and there’s a nice thick card on the mantelpiece, people are more likely to go than if it’s a cheap, nasty flyer."
This desire to differentiate is echoed by Alan Padbury, managing director at Cardiff’s Westdale Press. Westdale operates in a world of far higher volumes than Piccolo’s bespoke stationery market, yet Padbury says he too is "amazed" at how services such as foiling, embossing and debossing have become so in-demand.
"It’s all about the visual combined with the tactile. We’re doing so much work like this now – everyone wants to do something that’s a bit different," he says.
Padbury cites a recent example involving a luxe magazine that used an uncoated stock with the addition of clear foiling for a special cover effect, with alternating gloss and uncoated text sections within.
"It was quite challenging to produce, as you can imagine. People are looking for things that are niche."
Another differentiating haptical aspect of print is the ability to die cut or shape cut. Earlier this year, Unilever ran a promotion for Persil Small & Mighty, which involved a simple one-piece mailer with tear-off voucher. The mailer was elevated above the ordinary by a die-cut opening flap that mirrored the shape of a washing machine door. It was produced by Leeds-based printing company Lettershop.
Specialist firm Papershapers, based in north London, knows how powerful treatments like this can be. Managing director Colin Metson cites an array of examples, including door-drop promotions that are shape cut to incorporate a hanging hook that can be hung on a door handle.
"The recipient’s curiosity is aroused with this unusually tactile interaction," he explains. "Traditionally, a shape cut design for a promotional piece has been considered a fanciful optional extra. Today, as promotional print is being used for more powerful communication, shape cutting has become a desirable cost-effective method of sending a tangible message,"
Stitched booklets with internal shapes – throughout all or part of the book – are also proving a popular way for Papershapers’ clients to create interest. With Christmas almost here, Metson and his team have been busy on the laser cutting front, creating intricate 3D and pop-up card designs.
And it’s not all about paper, of course. Print Leeds is known for its lenticular printing know-how, but also prints onto other synthetic or specialist substrates, such as the ‘rubbery’ Curious Touch range from Robert Horne. Managing director Rod Fisher reports that even with something as visual as a lenticular piece, people can’t help but touch.
"People will pick a lenticular up and play with it; they look at it and turn it on its side," he says.
To conclude, let’s return to Steve Jobs. It’s surely telling that the only thing in Isaacson’s biography Jobs interfered with was the cover design (monochrome, matt laminate finish). He knew the importance of achieving the right image, layout, and ‘feel’. All hail haptics.