For many, being creative is an important way to counteract the stress of their working life. The technique that people choose to achieve this varies according to their needs. Here’s a selection of the various creative products on display at Insights-X in October 2022.
Now that handlettering has been inspiring many creative people with ever new ideas for a few years, calligraphy – the classic "art of beautiful penmanship", i.e. writing by hand – is now making a comeback. European calligraphy originated as a response to printed texts, which were not considered attractive. Today, when most texts are typed out on keyboards, many are deliberately choosing to write by hand again. Anyone wishing to wield a pen and write beautiful messages is well served with the calligraphy set from Online Schreibgeräte. Besides the Air Best Writer fountain pen, it also contains shimmering Golden Yellow ink in a little glass bottle. The box it comes in, which looks like a book, also has three different grips with iridium calligraphy nibs that are 0.8 mm, 1.4 mm, 1.8 mm wide and a converter.
Dried flowers are reappearing on the scene again. On the one hand, flowers are hung up to dry and then decoratively arranged in vases or stands. On the other, flowers and leaves are dried and pressed so that they can, for example, be placed between glass plates or used to embellish greeting cards. The flower press from Pebaro comes in handy for this. Two birch plywood plates measuring 300 x 300 x 9 mm are pressed firmly together by means of plastic wing nuts. Between them are 4 cardboard inserts measuring 245 x 245 mm in size, between which the plant parts are placed. The press can also be printed with any desired motif on request.
With the "Good Night" set from Pasuto, you can model, paint and then hang up glow-in-the-dark stars, clouds, crescent moons and more in your children’s bedroom. Using the 500 g of black self-hardening modelling paste, motifs can be formed by hand or by placing one of the four cardboard stencils onto the rolled out paste and cutting round the edges of the shapes. Neon glow-in-the-dark paint comes in a 100 ml bottle with a thin spout so that you can spread the colour in grooves. There is also a 250 ml bottle with a simple lid for pouring the product into the pot provided and then painting with the coarse or fine brush, which are also included in the set. You can find a quick guide here.
After its introduction of the "Colop e-mark", the latest development of the Austrian company Colop is the "e-mark go" – a small mobile and easy-to-use printer that uses inkjet technology. The special feature here is that no printing medium is inserted into the gadget. Instead, the device is placed on the item to be printed on and then moved over it. This makes it convenient to use and creates new application possibilities. Multicolour prints are possible on almost any absorbent surface, e.g. paper, cardboard, cork, wood, stone and leather. The mini printer, which fits into any handbag, is controlled by a newly developed app that is particularly user-friendly and intuitive to use. It can be used to design individual motifs and texts in many different fonts.
Painting with the feel of a real brush but on a digital tablet is now possible thanks to the "Smart Brush" from Morris. This digital brush can be used on all touch devices that can be operated with the fingers without having to download a special app for it. The pen has no battery and doesn’t need to be charged, but works with capacitive sensing technology. This means that it is not the pressure that is decisive, but the touch that changes the electrostatic field between the electrodes, which determines the exact position on the screen. The brush tip of the "Smart Brush" can be used to paint images, while the other end contains a virtual eraser. You can find more information here.
Writing beautifully, modelling, painting on paper or a tablet, printing out motifs you’ve designed yourself... There are many different ways to be creative, and the line between analogue and digital is becoming increasingly blurred.
About the author
Gabriela Kaiser has been the owner of a trend agency since 2002, after working 6 years as designer for knitwear. She visits trade fairs as a trend scout and gives lectures there. She advises companies from industry and trade on upcoming trends and writes regularly for various trade magazines.
