Manchester Stationery Show-Visit and review
So i'm going to be brutally honest with you all here, I lied, I wasn't a prospective owner of a new business looking to start my own stationery firm, I am a blogger. OK, so it's a little white lie, blogger wasn't an option on the application form and I feel vilified that I'm completing this review of their event afterwards so it was worth them letting me in!
One of the first stands we visited was Edding who are makers or artist pens amongst many other things, they were kind enough to give me a free tin of very colourful pens.
The lovely lady who ran the calligraphy class was also responsible for the Manuscript stand who sold all sorts of calligraphy pens and paper. I'm not a massive fan of fountain pens but I did enjoy the class.
Leuchtturm are a big deal in the world of notepads, there stall was awash with colour and variety, a real feast for the eyes! There weren't very forthcoming in giving away notepads but I did score a few free pen loops. Interestingly I did discover that they are also the owners of the SemiKolon brand of which I have several of their items on my desk.
A lovely little notepad courtesy of Go stationery, the the fanciest thing I have ever seen but still nice to receive for free.
The organisers of the event were very keen to promote their innovation as pictured here. Lots of manufacturers shared new and upcoming products, to me it didn't seem that impressive but it was a noble effort.
Magnetips were a new brand to me and quite remarkable, small black highlighter pens with magnetic ends. These can be joined together to make shapes and patterns, not much use to me but very smart to look at.
Part of the goody bag included a free calendar, not my cup of tea but it is currently on my office wall at home.
I do like a roll of Glue Dots, they were giving away loads of rolls of this so I happily obliged and took my fair share. I recommended getting a few of these in your collection, they have peelable and permanent stickers in all shapes and sizes and are quite reasonably priced.
Until recently I wasn't really aware of the Castelli brand, I think I've missed out big time! These notepads are very sumptuous and have a real feel of quality, I will be doing a separate review of these at a later date so keep and eye our for this.
Some more pictures of the Castelli catalogue.
Polaroid have recently launched this funky 3D pen which is great at creating small models and patterns in a plastic form. I can't say i can see much use for these myself but I can see kids loving them, as soon as my son is old enough I can gladly see one of these in his Christmas stocking
Geek planners also made an appearance with a small stall, I hadn't seen any of the journals before but I was aware of the company. They have some very interesting notebooks and social media planners, a bit to cutesy for my tastes but they were still extremely well made and ideal for the younger markets.
Some of my scrawls from the calligraphy demonstration
The ever supportive Mrs Dawes who joined me in the calligraphy session, we wrote tiny letters to our son Dexter, we may even let him read them one day!
Overall we had a great day in what were very smart surroundings, albeit in the arse end of nowhere. It's unlikely I will be asked back to one of these events so I'm glad I have been, especially for all the lovely freebies! If you are a genuine trader or would be purchaser of commercial stationery products I would thoroughly recommend you taking part in the next event, they have annual events in Manchester and a larger event in London.
Comments
Post a Comment