The drupa report, the printed magazine of the leading international trade fair for the print and media industries held in Düsseldorf, Germany, has already received several awards over the past few years. Recently, the bilingual publication has been awarded two further honors. At this year’s BCP-Award, the most prestigious contest for Corporate Publishing in Europe, the drupa report No. 4 won the Silver Award in the category print and innovation. The report, published in March 2012, was also recognized for its outstanding design: The German Design Council has nominated the magazine for the German Design Award. A nomination is recognition in itself, because the German Design Council selects contestants in accordance with strict criteria thereby only allowing the best design products to compete for the title. In existence for 60 years, the German Design Award aims to discover, present and recognize unique design trends. The winners will be announced in spring 2014. 

Unwrapping the drupa report No.4 leads directly to the current theme of drupa: Packaging. (Un-)wrapping is also the theme for cover pages 1-4 and 5-8. When opening the cropped cover, readers are welcomed by the Düsseldorf Rhine Tower as an iridescent hot foil stamping while the DIN-long format gastronomy guide (drupà la carte) is in a clear plastic jacket in the back. Inside the magazine various paper types and weights are assigned to individual trade fair topics with print-finishing techniques (all Papierunion’s paper types are FSC-certified). For example, there are humorous illustrations on a transparent paper in an advertising campaign for dark beer. A relief embossed and UV-spot varnished dark lager glass practically “stands” in front of the reader on “beer paper” (paper made of spent grains) while a black cardboard coated with synthetic fiber refers to the packaging theme with its silver hot foil lamination. Paper, design and printing technologies all impressively demonstrate the special qualities of print.