As 2022 draws to a close, we are delighted to have had such a memorable 30th Anniversary Year!
And as we look to a brand new year at Paperblanks, we’ve rounded up a few top moments from our #Paperblanks30 content.
If you’ve been following along with us this year, you know we’ve celebrated with everything from throwback content and staff favourites, to artists we’ve featured on our covers over the last three decades to your favourite designs of all time!
Check out this roundup of our exclusive 30th anniversary content below.
Staff Favourites
What is your favourite Paperblanks cover art or product of all time, and why?
Adina: Over my 20 years at Paperblanks I have become attached to diverse designs, and looking back at my choices I see that they reflected the various stages in my life. Intricate Inlays, Mirror Vine was my very first favorite journal, a passion that I developed while I was preparing the design for print. I will always treasure it as my training cover with its blue stones that look amazing up close. Later, we released what I still consider iconic to this day, the Lindau series, which immediately mesmerized me with its richness and symbolism. William Morris Windrush is another title that I consider stunning – the harmony of the design enhanced by the Paperblanks treatments gave us a visually seductive and universally appealing journal.
Carles: Lindau – it was my very first journal I used when I started working for Paperblanks.
Celebrating Charlie Chaplin – it reminds me of my dad showing me some of Chaplin’s films.
Inferno – I just love the cover and since I saw it, I wanted to know more about Dante.
The Chanin Spiral – I just like it and the feeling of having it in your hands will impress anyone!
Robyn: I really loved our Alistair Bell Collection. It was the first series featuring Canadian art and I loved the details of Bell’s etchings and woodcuts. I thought our Graphics Department did an amazing job bringing those textures to the covers of the books.
Leandro: In this case my choice kind of goes with the flow: Poetry in Bloom, one of our all-time bestsellers. The green background really allows all the flowers and colors to pop up. Not mentioning the different textures for each piece of the design. Simply amazing! But my favourite product is the challenging, 1000-piece puzzle. I already put together the Madame Butterfly and now I have the Van Gogh’s Irises on the queue. Such an accomplished feeling when you’re done!
Our Top 30 Tips on Journalling
We rounded up our top 30 tips for getting the most out of your journalling experience. So whether you are new to the Paperblanks community or a longtime journaller, these pieces of advice will help you take your journal to the next level!
- Create an art journal. Filling a notebook with doodles to process daily musings is a great way to express your creativity and work through emotions. You can even start by creating collages with images cut out of a magazine and gluing them on the pages of your journal and take it from there. The sky is the limit!
- Combine journalling with your other passions, such as gardening. Whether it’s documenting garden activities and results, drawing flower bed plans or recording observations, keeping a plant journal to write down even the subtle changes is a great way to preserve the journey as you look back on the evolution of your garden.
- Record your favourite meals and recipes. A recipe journal can help you jot down new ideas for meals, archive recently tried recipes, track the growth of your sourdough starter or document variations to that perfect blueberry galette. And if you are lucky enough to get that coveted recipe from Grandma, a journal is the perfect place to transcribe the family’s culinary jewels for safekeeping.
30 Artists on Our Covers
We took a deep dive through our archives to share our evolution over the past three decades. Over the years we’ve featured cover art from all eras and cultures, from medieval manuscripts to digital collages.
We loved taking a look at the 30 artists who have been featured on our covers, from our earliest releases in 1992 to this year’s 2022 collection.
Your 30 Favourite Designs of All Time
We asked our Instagram followers what their favourite Paperblanks cover design of all time is. And wow, we were blown away by the responses! From some of our earliest designs (Book of Kells) to a title we’ve only released that month (Van Gogh’s Irises), we felt that nearly every one of our 30 years was remembered. So thank you for that trip down memory lane!
When it came to the most popular choices, though, more recent titles received the most love. We are so glad our current selection is resonating with you, and we can’t wait to share what we are working on next. How many do you have in your collection?
That’s a wrap on our 30th Anniversary Blog Content! We’ve loved celebrating this milestone and sharing our stories with you. Thank you for being apart of the celebration with us. Here is to the next 30 years!
