I went to a paper company exhibition yesterday with my Design for Photography class. I was ill-prepared for what awaited us in the Hilton ballroom. Upon entering, I found that the bars were well-stocked, the food was plentiful, and the business were old, balding, and suited.
Our group of Columbia College students stood out like a sore thumb. But then, I also noticed the kids from the Art Institute as well. So we were not alone.
This particular event was organized by Marwen, a non-for-profit here in chicago that, purportedly, works to provide arts education to Chicago’s underserved youth in grades 6 through 12.
The paper company that sponsored this event was Unisource, a huge paper , printing, and logistics company. Their site doesn’t work properly in many browsers. The dropdown menus at the top fail to load in the right positions, making it impossible to actually click any of the links.
The most dissappointing item of the evening was that all the paper companies were essentially using the same paper for their promotional material. I think that the lack of individuality across the companies and their material was depressing. The samples of their stock papers with the books was excellent and the graphic design was a marvel to behold. It was just disappointing that all the covers were the similar.
Several of the students got carded (with just cause) and we got out, walked back to Columbia College, and had a slightly drunken conversation about the convention and the graphic design we saw.
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