Mohawk News : Mohawk turns to Carbone Smolan for new ‘Options’ colors and promotional material

COHOES, NY – To support a dramatic repositioning of its Options line of paper, Mohawk Paper Mills tapped Carbone Smolan Agency of New York City to design both its color palette and promotional material.

When asked to suggest a new palette of forward-looking colors that would appeal to graphic designers and work for a wide range of uses, CSA responded with six lush, yet muted colors. In a new turn for the industry, CSA’s color palette is a range of tinted whites and tinted blacks: Pearl Gray, Petal, Reed, Emerald, Midnight Blue, and Onyx. Rounding out the palette are White Sand and Desert Sand, two 100% recycled colors previously developed by Mohawk.

Complementing the new color palette are three new Options whites: True White 96, Winter White, and Pale Ivory. They are joined by the three original Options whites: Bright White, Warm White and White Fleck. All six whites were developed by Mohawk using its patented Inxwell“ technology, which is designed to provide better press performance, superior print quality, and opacity gains like no other text and cover.

"The printing surface of our Inxwell whites outperforms that of other premium uncoated papers," explains Laura Shore, Mohawk’s creative director. "With Options’ exceptional opacity and high ink holdout, designers are assured that four-color photos will print precisely, resulting in vivid images with clean highlights, great contrast and minimum show-through."

Together, Options whites and colors represent excellent choices for annual reports, corporate brochures, and other high quality printed pieces.

"We chose sophisticated colors which communicate that Options is ideal for fine design projects," says Ophelia Wong, CSA design director, who served as creative lead for the project. "We looked at all of the colors available, and no one had done anything like this before. As a designer, I’d always been looking for paper that offers colors that are neither too conservative nor too loud."

To showcase the new line, CSA designed a promotion that centers around the themes of music, completeness and beauty. The message is that with Options, as with music, designers can choose exactly what they need to create the desired mood. What’s more, Options performs equally well on traditional and digital presses – and to the beat of deadlines and budgets.

The musical theme is also carried throughout the swatchbook, where samples are laid out unconventionally, alternating light and dark, creating a rhythm much like the keyboard of a piano. Because they represent the perfect form, circles are interspersed in the promotion and swatchbook to illustrate beauty and completeness.

For Ms. Wong, proof of Options’ performance came during the printing of the promotional brochure and swatchbook. "The paper worked beautifully," she says. "The colors are easy to use, the whites are brighter, and it’s wonderful to have different tones of white for projects that require subtle distinctions."

"Mohawk Options, like good music takes many forms," says Shore. "The same is true with the new generation of Options, which offers whites and colors that perform across all printing platforms – without compromise."

Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc. is a leader in the manufacture of premium printing grade papers. From its flagship grade, Mohawk Superfine‰, through proprietary new Inxwell products, Navajo“ and Options“, Mohawk has engineered its papers to provide optimal performance for sheetfed, web and digital printing.

Laura Shore
Mohawk Paper Mills Inc.
465 Saratoga Street
Cohoes, New York 12047-4698