Great success – Hahnemühle's CAA digital Creative Days

For the first time, this virtual event was hosted together with the partners Schmincke and da Vinci as the Creativeworld in Frankfurt could not take place. The colourful and varied Hahnemühle program attracted many interested parties. The product and brand updates were recorded in the Enstyle Studios, professionally accompanied and streamed live in 4K quality on the Hahnemühle YouTube channel. All recordings were produced in English and uploaded directly, so international customers could also access all news promptly, regardless of time differences. Despite the weekend, many national and international customers did not miss the welcome note from the CEOs of da Vinci, Schmincke and Hahnemühle.

Moderator Dany Michalski hosted the live sessions
Throughout all live sessions like the keynote “Recap & Outlook 2020/2021” by Jan Wölfle, CEO of the Hahnemühle Group, as well as the global product launches for the Natural Line and FineNotes, the lively and eloquent presenter Dany Michalski hosted the program.

With the global launch of the Natural Line, Hahnemühle revealed the secret of its latest addition to the range of artist papers. Since 2008, with the introduction of the mixed media paper made from Bamboo, the company has been focusing more and more on fast-growing and sustainable raw materials. With the new Agave Watercolor and Hemp Sketch papers, Hahnemühle is consistently focusing on further resource-saving papers in keeping with the zeitgeist of environmental protection. The new Hahnemühle Natural Line product family includes all papers made from environmentally friendly fibers.

In addition, product manager Rana Ardal-Altun and marketing director Ann Kristin Nohlen announced a range extension to a very successful product launch last year. Toned watercolor books, which are very popular with urban sketchers, are now available in three new formats. The grey and beige toned papers with a classic watercolor structure are now available in A5, A4 and in the trendy square format 20 x 20 cm.

With the international launch of FineNotes by Hahnemühle, the brand is expanding its paper expertise into the field of writing culture. The collection for stylish writing includes noble, leather-bound notebooks with premium writing paper with watermarks as well as fine writing implements with fine engravings or fine embossing – for a tactile handwriting experience in our digital age! The global launch of the high-quality stationery products received excellent feedback.

There will be some innovations in the internationally established Hahnemühle calendar competition. The calendar will no longer be produced as an offset printing process, it will change to digital printing. This is an important step with regards to environmental protection. Due to the change in printing processes less waste will be generated, energy is saved and emissions will be reduced. Printing plates will no longer be required, the use of chemicals will be reduced and on-demand printing will minimise any excess.
For the first time the calendar will be printed on specially developed Hahnemühle FineArt paper. This makes the calendar even more valuable as a collector’s item. In addition to the technical news, the eagerly awaited topic of the 2022 competition ‘Joy & Happiness’ has been announced in the event “Calendar Painting Competition – What’s happening next?“.

Live hands-on sessions by Gris030 and clips by international artists such as rabi_rabi and Césc Farre, who showed the new papers in action, made end-user hearts beat faster. The program was rounded off with Q&A sessions with the Hahnemühle team in various languages ​​and personal Zoom meetings with dealers, influencers and press contacts.

Positive summary of the three-day event
‘The first virtual CAA digital Creative Days were very exciting for all of us in the run-up and during implementation. The feedback we received and the continuously increasing number of views of the content produced demonstrates to us that this was the right way to inform our customers on business updates during this challenging time.
Despite the pandemic and the lockdown in many countries, we could effectively communicate our new product launches globally. It goes without saying that a virtual trade fair can not replace personal contact with our business partners. Product launches are also much more difficult when the mere view of a product has to be convincing and the feel, especially with analog products like our papers, is missing. Nevertheless, virtual events are a good alternative, ”said Jan Wölfle, CEO of the Hahnemühle Group, in summary.