Relaxing with a photo book or unwrapping a carefully packaged online purchase is something many of us have been enjoying during the pandemic at the end of a long day in front of the computer at home. Contact restrictions and working from home have shifted work life and home life largely into the digital space. However, digital information services have been challenging print products for the top mass medium of choice well before the Covid-19 pandemic. Digital media deliver exactly the kind of information we need, or simply want, in everyday life at the touch of a button – fast and easy, anytime, anywhere. This makes anything that is tangible and real all the more precious during this time of digitally maximised efficiency, when physical contact and sensory experiences of any kind are rare. The more time people spend in the digital realm, the more they crave something real, a sense of slowing down, a sense of touch.

High-touch – a megatrend and its impact on the paper industry

This sense of craving is perhaps best explained using the principle of high-tech/high-touch. Rapid technological progress (high-tech) stands in contrast to a need for sensory impressions, human interaction and a personal touch (high-touch). This conflict was outlined in 1982 by futurologist John Naisbitt in his best selling book ‘Megatrends – Ten new directions transforming our lives’, which is when digitisation as we know it today was just getting started. John Naisbitt is the one who first coined the phrase ‘megatrend’. Unlike trends in fashion, products and industries, which are limited in terms of time as well as content, a megatrend is a profound change that is woven into the fabric of society and business over a period of years, or even decades.

Megatrends also have an impact on how we consume products and media. Like the smell of a new book or a premium package with relief embossing, print products with their sensory aspect can provide the perfect high-touch antithesis in the jungle of high-tech communication channels. They address the primal human need for touch, which is anything but trivial against contact restrictions and hygiene regulations due to the pandemic. Touch gives people a sense of direction in an increasingly complex world, grounding them in the here and now like no other sensory impression. Furthermore, flipping through books and magazines, or unwrapping a package, takes place offline, in an oasis far from digital information overload. As a result, engaging with print products is becoming an increasingly emotional experience, a luxury people consciously take time out for.

Premium design paper for creatives

Mondi Uncoated Fine Paper (UFP), a part of the international Mondi Group, has made luxury its mission. Its range of uncoated fine papers is aimed at designers, luxury packaging producers and finishers. This target audience knows all about the emotional impact of high-quality print products, thus setting high standards for the visual and haptic properties of paper.

At the heart of the Mondi range is PERGRAPHICA^®, a premium brand of design paper made in Austria, featuring excellent printability and very good tolerance for finishing processes. The theme ‘Creatives Inspire Creatives’ already gives a clue about the target audience for these uncoated fine papers. Mondi last addressed the need for coloured papers in dark, intensive shades in September 2020 and expanded the Pergraphica range with 31 new colours, ten of which are ‘deep and dark colours’. The combination of deep colours and striking haptics is designed to trigger one thing above all: emotions.

Bridging analogue and digital through art

With that in mind, the Pergraphica ‘Catching Feels’ campaign, also launched in September 2020 by Mondi and Adobe Stock, seems all the more appropriate. The campaign title is absolutely to be taken literally. The aim of this digital/analogue partnership was to capture emotions based on the high-touch principle and bring them to life for multiple senses. The challenge was to show sophisticated digital artwork to best advantage by transferring it to an analogue medium and making it tangible.

The result of this cross-media collaboration is a high-quality lookbook for print and design creatives, in which a select group of artists from the Adobe Stock Premium Collection depict six moods or emotions. Serenity, Passion, Curiosity, Individuality, Honesty and Freedom were captured on Pergraphica papers using complex patterns. The selection of emotions reflects the Zeitgeist, as the images mirror the kinds of cravings we are unable to satisfy during the pandemic. And so the breathtaking landscape and nature photography by Charley Savely depicting ‘Serenity’ takes the observer to places that cannot easily be accessed with current travel restrictions in place, and the photographs from the ‘Individuality’ chapter capture the authenticity of human interaction.

The creators pulled out all the stops in terms of the printing process in order to let the observer experience varied impressions with all their senses. The depicted moods are brought to life with two surfaces, six paper substances, ten shades and 16 paper qualities. In addition to two digital printing processes, traditional offset as well as LE-UV offset printing were deployed to produce the lookbook. Mondi created colour profiles specifically for this printing project, ensuring that the images reach their full potential on the paper. One of the unique features of ‘Catching Feels’ is the way in which different images, moods and paper qualities come together to create a single, harmonious sensory experience.

High-tech and high-touch in perfect harmony

To make such an ambitious project during these times of remote working happen requires seamless digital workflows and the appropriate collaborative tools delivered by Adobe Creative Cloud. The Adobe product range put the finishing touches on the images, enabling post-editing and processing for the best possible print result. “Adobe Photoshop, Indesign and After Effects – there’s no Adobe application we didn't use“, recalls Joey Gordon, Senior Designer at London-based creative agency True, which coordinated the project. Six videos, in which the artists offer insights into their creative process, also form part of the project. “We used Premiere Pro for post-editing the videos to help us create a uniform colour image.” The organisation and implementation of the ‘Catching Feels’ project demonstrates, how the intelligent application of high-tech can help create authentic high-touch experiences.

The mymondi.net portal completes and digitally enhances the multi-channel campaign. This high-tech enhancement of the high-touch experience ‘Catching Feels’ not only offers paper lovers detailed information about the Mondi product range, including the possibility to order swatches, as well as an interactive paper and dealer search function; it also provides inspirational user stories and podcasts all around print and paper.

From either/or to a complete work of art

The ‘Catching Feels’ campaign is a good example for how the much-hyped conflict between digital and print can be transformed into synergies. The digital world provides the right tools and the creative basis for a high-quality presentation mechanism of analogue products, as well as the enrichment of background information and insights. This creates a complete work of art that is more than the sum of its parts. Using these synergies bridges the gap between high-tech and high-touch.