Paperworld not only presents the latest products and trends, it is also a platform for young talents. Every year, greetings cards created by young designers are exhibited and honoured at the international trade fair for the paper, office supplies and stationery sector. The design competition is organised by Messe Frankfurt and the German Association of Greetings Card Manufacturers and Publishers (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Hersteller und Verleger von Glückwunschkarten – A.V.G.) and has been one of the most successful initiatives for interesting young talents in the greetings-card market for many years.

The winners of the 12th design competition were presented with their awards on Tuesday, 3 February 2015. First place went to Jacqueline Gipp for her card ‘Tea or Coffee’, which gathered 229 votes. Second place went to Verena Stumm for her removals card, ‘I’ll help (you pack)’. In addition to receiving 190 votes, she was also the Facebook favourite with 224 ‘Likes’. Third place with 178 votes went to Sarah Uessem with her card, ‘Feels like flying’.

Back in April, last year, eye-catching posters and information cards were used to call on young talents from the fields of art and commercial, graphic and communication design to set new standards for greetings cards. “The focus of the judging criteria this year was on handicraft skills, idea originality and presentation quality”, says Matthias Hanfstingl, A.V.G. who is responsible for the design competition. In honour of the new cooperation partner, ‘Initiative Schreiben e. V.’, an association for the promotion of handwriting as a cultural asset, particular emphasis was given to handwriting and typography.

More than 466 young talents responded to this invitation with over 600 fresh designs. The entries came not only from the German-speaking countries but also from the Netherlands, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Italy, as well as Sri Lanka, Israel and Japan. “The trend is unmistakably away from simple printed cards, as shown by the elaborate hand-crafted works of art. There were also three-dimensional cards, which had to be slid together or folded out to make the message appear”, said a delighted Matthias Hanfstingl.

In November 2014, a jury of experts from the media, design and retail trade chose the finalists from the flood of entries. The ten best ideas were mounted by Messe Frankfurt and put on show to visitors at Café Card on the four days of the fair. During this time, 1,388 visitors (150 more than last year) cast votes for their favourite.  The ten finalists were invited to visit Paperworld and thus had the opportunity to get to know the entire writing utensil and stationery market at first hand and make professional contacts. The next Paperworld will be held from 30 January to 2 February 2016.