“From the concept to the design and execution, the winner has to be the “CLASSIC Papers Tool Kit of Color and Texture,” said Patrick Coyne, editor of Communication Arts.

Coyne, who served as guest judge, selected Neenah Paper’s boxed set of resource materials as the winner of PaperSpecs Gallery’s Take Note Award for Quarter Two 2012.

“It’s not just a collection of nice graphics. It provides great information along with smart and useful tools,” adds Coyne.

Creating a Perfect 10 Tool Kit for Print Design
The inspiring tool kit consists of five elements: The CLASSIC Paper Color Mixer, The Perfect Ten Fan Swatch, The Sheet Cut Calculator, The Classic Portfolio Kit, and The Envelope Guide.

“I really wanted the tool kit to be something that showed designers how to use the colors, textures and weights of our papers not only within, but across the four CLASSIC brands,” explains Tom Wright, senior director of advertising and promotion for Neenah Paper.

Wright drew on the mood boards used by interior design and architectural professionals as his inspiration. Working with Design Army, they refined the look and feel of this concept into a beautiful package filled with relevant content.

“These boards elicit the feeling of a room or how a space may end up looking with its various textures and layers. That’s what I wanted this package to do for graphic designers.”

The toolkit takes Neenah’s “Perfect 10” marketing message, which refers to the 10 matching colors now offered across CLASSIC CREST, CLASSIC Linen, CLASSIC CREST, and CLASSIC COLUMNS Papers, to a common platform that is easy for designer and printers to use together or totally independent of each other.

“I created the PaperSpecs Gallery because I don’t think there’s anything that gets the creative juices flowing like seeing what other talented designers are doing,” says Sabine Lenz, founder of PaperSpecs.com. “Neenah came up with not only a truly relevant set of resources for designers, but did so in a way that is unique. From the color mixer tool to the mini portfolio of original work, this team (Neenah Paper, Design Army and Fey Printing) did a job deserving of the Take Note Award.”

To read the inside story on how the tool kit was created, please visit http://www.paperspecs.com/20172/classic-papers-tool-kit/.

To see a video about the Take Note Award Winner for Quarter Two 2012, please visit http://youtu.be/tPnWA5ALl1s.