Christmas 2022
The Christmas season marks the end of an exciting year for LEONHARD KURZ. Together with our customers, employees, and partners, we have achieved a lot. The cold season helps us to slow down, let our thoughts wander, and reflect on everything that moved us in 2022.
Creation Process: Our 2022 Festive Greetings for You
Colorful Christmas wishes from KURZ
Looking back, we always discover small and big moments that remain in our memories, make us feel satisfied, or contemplate things that happened during the past twelve months. Recalling the year ensures that we can focus on what lies ahead. But before that happens, let's take this opportunity to express our gratitude:
Thank you for an exciting year full of innovations, drive, and successes that we celebrated with you.
We would like to invite you to take a look behind the scenes at LEONHARD KURZ and give you an exclusive insight into creating this year's Christmas card, which you are currently holding in your hands. We put a lot of heart and soul as well as a love for detail into the production and hope that we can continue to do just that for you in the future.
Step by Step from the Idea to the Greeting Card
Step 1: The Idea
The Fürth-based artist Barbara Engelhard has set herself the goal of using everyday materials, a wide color palette, and abstract shapes to create images that give room for individual interpretation. The geometry on one side is reminiscent of an abstracted Christmas tree, which in part reflects the traditional colors of Christmas. On the other side, the wishes for the festive season and the coming year - LOVE, PEACE, and HOPE - on the other hand shine on a white background, perfectly complementing the colorful reverse side. The letters of each word appear in the color of their meaning and transform by superimposition to the image layer.
Step 2: The Transformation
Transforming the artist's manual work consisting of a multitude of differently colored stripes into a high-quality print product was an exciting task. The goal was to be able to preserve as many details of the analog working method as possible in print. In order to do so, the artwork was first converted into a digitally constructed graphic - so that the metallized patterns and structures could later be reproduced with maximum precision using the desired finishing techniques.
Step 3: The Stamp
The stamp required for the intricate and delicate structure embossing of the card was produced using artful detail work. It ensures the precise deformation of the paper and thus brings the structures and reliefs of the surfaces to life. The three-dimensional impression is created by an interplay of light and shadow, which is only possible thanks to the craftsmanship of our subsidiary Hinderer + Mühlich.
Step 4: Printing and Finishing
The colored stripes of the greeting card were produced in offset printing and in parts combined with metallic decorations through cold transfer printing with KPS slim 2.0 (patent pending). The attention to detail is also apparent on closer inspection: For example, a single sequence of stripes was embossed in gold with LIGHT LINE® Twinkle 385, giving it a delicate glitter structure. The haptic effects of the striped side only followed in the final work step - created over the entire printed sheet with a single textured embossing. For the text elements LOVE, PEACE, and HOPE, hot stamping with LUMAFIN® Clear 799 was used, which has a particularly harmonious effect on the uncoated reverse side of the Algro Design Nature paper.
