Christmas 2024
For us at LEONHARD KURZ the last few months of the year are a time to look back at what we have achieved, but also to look forward. In 2024, we have experienced exciting projects, innovations, and the pursuit of sustainable solutions. Our Christmas card this year reflects these ideas and invites you to use the festive season to pause and recharge your batteries.
But just as much as we appreciate the past year, we are anticipating the year which lies ahead of us. The year 2025 promises new opportunities, challenges and exciting projects that we are already looking forward to.
We would like to thank you for your trust and cooperation this year and long for celebrating new successes together in the coming year.
Creation Process: Season's Greetings 2024
The Christmas card from KURZ is more than just a seasonal greeting - it embodies the fusion of art, craftsmanship and innovative technology. Each year, KURZ relies on creative collaborations with renowned artists to design a special card that is both aesthetically sophisticated and technically impressive. This unique combination reflects the values of KURZ and gives each card a personal and appreciative touch.
Join us on a short journey of discovery behind the scenes at LEONHARD KURZ, and take a look at the creation of this year’s festive card. We have worked on every detail with great passion and care - and hope to continue to delight you with our creative ideas in the future.
The Idea
In the Beginning Was an Idea
The design of the KURZ annual change card is more than just a design - it combines art and innovation in a special way. Traditionally, LEONHARD KURZ works together with artists who have a regional connection. This year, Ortwin Michl, the creator of the current card, is contributing his many years of artistic exploration of the theme of 'clouds'.
While he previously explored this motif in his paintings on flat surfaces, he took a completely different approach for our Christmas card: He transformed the two-dimensional into a three-dimensional work of art by using the technique of folding and creasing.
His aim was to combine art and technology in a unique way, creating a symbiosis between the artistic vision and the KURZ transfer finishings. The result is a work of art that reveals new impressions from every angle - similar to the ever-changing shape of passing clouds.
Painting: Ortwin Michl
The Realization
How Was the Artistic Idea Implemented?
Ortwin Michl designed a strictly geometrically folded paper object that already contained striking, manually created structures on the surface, overlaid with a cloud-like form. The interplay of these two elements – strict geometric lines and an organic, perforated form - represents the relationship between nature and technology. The perforations and additional applications of paint create an ever-changing image from different angles, similar to the movement of clouds in the sky.
The rawness of the indentations, the blue surfaces, and the strict geometry inspired us in the choice of material, the finishing, and the embossing - to go beyond the normal limits of the load-bearing capacity of cardboard and to break and partially tear the material in order to come close to the manual, artisanal creative process on an industrial scale.
The Die
What Were the Requirements for the Die?
The starting point was Michl’s concept, which already contained striking manual structures created with a hammer and nail on silver-coated cardboard. This raw, handcrafted element served as inspiration for the embossing of the card. The aim was to push the material to its limits, creating deliberate breakthroughs and cracks. This spontaneous, unpredictable structure gives the card its unique feel and emphasizes the artisanal side of the creative process. Our subsidiary Hinderer + Mühlich, which offers a wide range of dies, embossing wheels, and embossing accessories, is responsible for this.
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Printing and Finishing
How Was the Card Printed? Which Finishes Were Used?
The silver surfaces that were planned in the design were transformed into a metallic structure that is broken up by cloud patterns. In contrast to the geometric embossing, a frequency-modulated random pattern was incorporated, which is based on the clouds. The finishing of the blue, solid-colored Gmund Colors natural cardboard (300g/m² GMUND Colors Matt Shade 55) was implemented with DT-H Cold Silver using a DIGITAL METAL® application. The flat embossing was realized with LUXOR® 420 and blind embossed in the final step.
The mixture of organic and structured elements gives the card its special aesthetic and perfectly emphasizes both KURZ’s artistic and technical standards.
