One of these solutions was to work with Mohawk to develop a comprehensive flood emergency response plan, a necessity when Mohawk’s Waterford mill’s back door opens into the Hudson River. When hurricane Irene threatened, the plan worked flawlessly to protect expensive equipment including 140 electric motors that where moved out of the rising river’s reach.

Mohawk’s plan has since come to be seen as a model for other companies in the forest products industry. FM Global recognizes the importance of these ounces (maybe pounds) of prevention and they featured Mohawk as a case study in their 2011 annual report.

Going into DRUPA this year, Mohawk is transforming itself from supplier to partner. This booth was designed to foster those partnerships — be a place to have more in-depth conversations, hold meetings.

The open area of the booth offers enough seating for large meetings. There is a smaller, more private are on the opposite side of the booth to hold smaller meetings. And, the bar at the other end, is for happy hour that is held every day from 5:00 – 6:00 pm.

Factor Design was designing the booth at the same time as Mohawk’s new branding was being developed by Pentagram, so the team needed to create the booth, then later apply the branding. Factor’s design is more than an exhibit space in which to simply hand out collateral, they created a Mohawk environment, a place to meet, learn, talk, and develop relationships.

Photos of booth by Henning Rogge.

Read more about the Feltron Biennial Report in this interview with Nicholas Felton on Felt & Wire.

Photo courtesy of Glenn Schuster.

Entries will be judged in June 2012 on the basis of higher thinking in graphic design, excellence in print production, and appropriate paper choice. Our Mohawk Show 12 judges are Stanley Hainsworth (Chair), Susana Rodrigues De Tembleque, Michael Jager, and Jorge Alderete.

The Mohawk Show 12 will honor winning work with the following prizes:

$5,000: Best-of-Show Winners
Four best-of-show winners will be selected from all entries, regardless of format or print category. Each of these pieces will be awarded $5,000.

$2,500: Special Categories
One winning piece will be selected from each of the Special Categories. $2,500 will be paid to the winning design team in each of these categories:

Sustainable Design:
Pieces in this category will be judged on their contribution to sustainability, either through content, or by techniques, processes and materials designed to reduce the environmental, social or economic costs of print communication.

Strathmore Showcase:
Celebrating the art of writing, this category is limited to corporate identities, social stationery and invitations printed on Strathmore Pure Cotton, Strathmore Writing, Strathmore Script, Strathmore Elements, Strathmore Grandee or Strathmore Pastelle.

Print Innovation:
This category is for exceptional work printed on any of Mohawk’s digital papers on any digital color production press, including but not limited to the HP Indigo, Xerox iGen3 and Kodak NexPress.

On-Demand Books:
You can print your on-demand book entry at any digital printer including online photo book sites like Blurb, using their ProLine papers, and Pinhole Press. Only one physical sample is needed for judging in this category.

$500: Honorable Mention
Up to 15 Honorable Mentions will each be awarded $500.

Click here for more information on the Mohawk Show and to download an entry form for Mohawk Show 12. [KR]

Mohawk will be exhibiting at its booth located in Hall 07.1/A47. In addition, Mohawk papers can be found throughout the show as it plays a pivotal role in the introduction of products being exhibited by market leading partners:

CONVERTIBLE SOLUTIONS [Hall 04/D60-6]
Mohawk Panoramic papers will be used in Convertible Solutions’ photo book hand bindery demonstration in the HP Indigo photo specialty showcase.

HEWLETT PACKARD [Hall 04/D60-1 and Hall 04/D60-9]
Mohawk Superfine Eggshell takes a pivotal role in the introduction of the HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press which produces any commercial job — with Indigo quality, substrate versatility, and production flexibility. This robust press is an easy fit for offset print service providers, printing large volumes of high-value pages and a wide variety of applications.

HP will use Mohawk Studio Collection colored papers to demonstrate the wide variety of applications that its HP Indigo White Ink technology can be used for.

ON DEMAND MACHINERY [Hall 15/A11-2]
The Mohawk Panoramic line extension coincides with the introduction of ODM’s Sidewinder, the first and only completely automated finishing solution for lay-flat photo books using the Panoramic format. ODM will be using Mohawk proPhoto Panoramic’s new Gloss Pearl and Lustre Pearl finishes to demonstrate the Sidewinder.

XEROX [Hall 08B/A62-1]
Xerox will hand out printed samples, on Mohawk Superfine Eggshell, run on the new iGen™150. This new press arms printers with one of the most productive digital cut-sheet color press. The iGen150 is built on Xerox’s proven, award-winning iGen platform. With increased print speed of up to 25 percent, the 150-page-per-minute press delivers 3,000 26-inch oversized sheets per hour – a productivity boost that lets printers get more jobs through their shop.

“Creative Chain is an exciting new opportunity for creatives to not only talk about who inspires them, but also talk about the work they respect or admire. We chose Minneapolis-based Dude and Chick — featured previously on Felt & Wire — to start the chain because we love their brash sense of humor combined with beautiful, hardworking materials and graphics,” says Emily Potts, who is managing this initiative for Felt & Wire, and is also the Senior Acquisitions Editor at Rockport Publishing.

Potts says the Felt & Wire team is now working on ‘Week 3′ of the chain. “I can’t tell you who has picked whom, but I can tell you that the chain started in Minneapolis, MN, and  has spread to Berlin and beyond.”

Felt & Wire, the rich, online magazine covered by the Wall Street Journal, launched three years ago to create a community of “makers” — people who make things, and make things happen — whether its a poster to raise funds for a charity, or the design of a card that makes someone feel special. The eponymous storefront, Felt & Wire Shop, is where makers can set up their own branded shops to sell the goods they design, make or produce.

With the launch of “Creative Chain”, Mohawk hopes to continue to connect with the creative community in new and engaging ways. “Felt & Wire’s editorial team asked me to help keep the content fresh and refreshing,” says Potts.”I can’t wait to hear the feedback from the community.”

According to Pentagram, the new identity focuses on bright, bold color and forms based on the logo. The M, with or without the name Mohawk, appears in different colors and configurations that can be extended in countless ways depending on the application and intended audience, emphasizing the company’s desire to connect with its customers. “We wanted to show a company that has been around as long as Mohawk has is still capable of changing the way it looks the next time you see it, and the time after that and the time after that,” says Bierut. “Color is a great way to do that.”

Rad more about the new branding, the new MohawkConnects.com, and The New Mohawk product selector.

Photo courtesy of Pentagram.

Mohawk has taken another bold step in the paper world by simplifying its portfolio of premium paper lines from 22 to six, reducing the number of SKUs in half and challenging the way paper is specified, with the release of a deceptively simple tool for paper specification. The New Mohawk product selector presents all Mohawk papers in one place and is the first in a wave of tools that Mohawk hopes will be paradigm-shifting.

Designed and engineered by Michael McGinn Design Office using the brand designed by Pentagram, the selector opens to three accordion fold charts, each containing several dozen oversize paper chips. Together, they organize Mohawk papers into three broad categories based on performance, character and value.

THE MOHAWK COLLECTION features a diverse range of Mohawk’s performance papers for modern print projects. The grades include Superfine, Loop, Options, and Via.

THE STRATHMORE COLLECTION includes papers that have set a standard for innovation since 1895, including a diverse assortment of colors and finishes that honor tradition and embrace technology. The lines include Pure Cotton, Writing, and Premium.

MOHAWK ESSENTIALS are the workhorse, everyday papers needed to get the job done. The lines are Carnival, BriteHue, Skytone, 50/10, Opaque, Color Copy, Everyday Digital and Specialty Digital.

A booklet, “The New Mohawk,” also included, provides a simple guide to all items in the newly organized lines. “The difference between Mohawk’s new sampling and everything that went before it is about 25 inches of shelf space and a tool that is more useful in today’s design world,” said designer Michael McGinn.

Dave Van de Water, Director of Product and Market Development, led the Mohawk initiative to streamline its product offering and create the new sampling tools. “The result of the collaboration is ingenious. Through extensive study, we now better understand the varied ways a new generation of designers and printers are approaching the specification of papers, and it’s vastly different than even five years ago.”

McGinn added, “The learnings on the project were more about the market we are speaking to — the users of the new materials — than about design or production concerns. In other words, really understanding the significance of the change in the marketplace over the past ten years and then designing for that change and the future is what this is about.”

STREAMLINE EXPLAINED
Mohawk’s new product offering is described in the video “Streamline Overview.” A Product Map explains the new structure, and the Streamline Paper Finder is a web-based tool to find any paper.

This announcement coincides with multiple initiatives Mohawk has just launched, including a new web site, a new brand, and a new promotion program. The New Mohawk product selector is available on MohawkConnects.com.

From a few sheets of paper to an entire truckload, the site makes it easy for anyone to search, specify, and order any product from Mohawk. “The site represents the culmination of a multiple-year effort to examine the way we do business at every customer touchpoint,” said Mohawk Chairman & CEO Thomas D. O’Connor.  In the animated video, “What will you make today?” featured on the homepage of the new web site, O’Connor says, “A traditional paper company is faced with extinction if they don’t change … we realize the world has changed, and we are changing rapidly with it.”

MohawkConnects.com merges Mohawk’s corporate site (mohawkpaper.com) with its former selling site (mohawkpaperstore.com). The consolidation of these web sites required the creation of an entirely new technology platform and operations initiative called the Unified Service Delivery Platform.

IMPROVED FUNCTIONALITY, RESOURCES
MohawkConnects.com features simpler navigation, robust search, new tools and resources:

•For instance, customers can begin a general search from the homepage for all “red” papers and then quickly narrow their search to a specific item, such as an A-6 envelope.

•Or, using Mohawk’s new Color Selector, customers can search by color, and then drag and drop swatches to create a custom color palette.

•Mohawk’s new Digital Selectors enable search by paper type or by equipment type.
•Paper samples are handily available by the sheet, ream, or carton.

•The simplification of Mohawk’s product line, Project Streamline, is supported by a web-based application that facilitates the search for any item.

•New “share” features, conveniently available throughout MohawkConnects.com, make it easy for visitors to share assets, story links, and content on any device at any time.

“Our new ecosystem includes hundreds of tools and resources as well as a rich tutorial library,” said Laura Shore, Senior Vice President, Communications and Innovation Strategies. “The site realizes our brand vision for connectivity, collaboration, and simplification.

A NEW MODEL FOR COLLABORATION WITH PARTNERS HYDRANT AND AVATAR NEW YORK
Mohawk runs a complex business supply chain with many different types of customers, ranging from design professionals to paper merchants to printers to some of the world’s largest corporations. “While the Internet has long been a key channel for Mohawk’s evolving business, we are clearly pushing the boundaries of the way we do business in the digital space as we get closer to our customers,” said O’Connor.

Mohawk’s cross-disciplinary web team collaborated with two partners over the course of one year to conceive, design, and engineer MohawkConnects.com. “Hydrant played a crucial role in bringing our team together to help envision how we might transform the way we interact with our customers. Their strategy work was the catalyst for a revolution in the way we do business and the kind of experience we provide to our customers,” said Hilary Davis, Mohawk’s interactive marketing manager.

Davis added that Mohawk’s long-term partnership with web programming firm, Avatar New York has been a key factor in determining the success of Mohawk’s business initiatives. “Avatar New York’s unique and in-depth understanding of our business and technology needs provides a stable hub that pulls together everything we do online.”

This announcement coincides with multiple initiatives Mohawk has just launched, including a new web site, a new brand, and a new promotion program. The New Mohawk product selector is available on MohawkConnects.com.

Mohawk, formerly Mohawk Fine Papers, has a new logo. The new M is the centerpiece of a dynamic branding system created for Mohawk by Pentagram, to signal the dramatic changes underway as this 81 year-old company reinvents itself to thrive in today’s digital world.

THE NEW MARK

Mohawk’s new mark is based on the letter M. On one level, it is a monogram for the name Mohawk. It is also constructed to evoke the papermaking process and the printing process, both of which involve the paper around cylinders. The logo also speaks to the basic idea of connection, which is what Mohawk paper is designed for “…whether it’s for a small book of photos featuring your niece and nephew or for a giant global corporation, it’s about communication,” said Michael Bierut, who lead the branding team at Pentagram, and whose firm has been Mohawk’s primary brand agency for over 20 years.

A MARK FOR A DIGITAL COMPANY IN A DIGITAL WORLD

The logo also speaks to the connections Mohawk is leveraging in the digital, design and photo spaces to develop new web-based offerings, as well the strategic partnerships Mohawk has recently forged with companies like Blurb.com and Moo.com. “The logo is toy-like, which encourages experimentation,” said Bierut.

When Mohawk was exclusively a papermaker, the logo was primarily visible on advertising, swatchbooks, brochures and ream wraps. Today, Mohawk does much more online and off. “There are situations where the logo functions as more of an ingredient, an ‘endorsing brand’ like in the case of Felt & Wire [http://www.feltandwire.com] and other digital media enterprises,” said Bierut. “For these online experiences, Mohawk should not be the headline, but something supporting a larger experience. We are in a world where a lot of things depend on apps, so having a logo that can be reduced to a button, and that works adjacent to a URL and so forth, is important.”

“Mohawk needed a symbol — a reducible thing that can work with the name ‘Mohawk’ but also stand alone. This time, the identity needs to function in many, many more ways than the first and second times we had approached this,” he said. Pentagram redesigned the Mohawk logo first in 1991 and again in 2002.

NEW MOHAWK COLORS: EXPRESSING CHANGE AND CHANGEABILITY

The M, with or without the name “Mohawk” appears in different colors and configurations depending upon whom Mohawk is talking with, where the conversation is taking place, and when, emphasizing Mohawk’s desire to connect with all of its customers, each in a more personal way. “We wanted to show that a company that has been around as long as Mohawk has — with stability and endurance — is still capable of changing the way it looks the next time you see it, and the time after that and the time after that. Color is a great tool to do that,” said Bierut. When asked if it was challenging to decide what colors would best express Mohawk, Bierut said, “I would say the hardest part was reducing all the different colors and combinations that looked fantastic to a practical number we could use for the launch.”

THE MOHAWK BRAND SYSTEM

The M is, by design, a building-block to a dynamic, colorful branding system that will become increasingly apparent to customers over time. Brand assets for the launch include more than a dozen color variations of the core logo. Multiple patterns, derived from the shape of the M, were created by the Pentagram team for the brand launch; more iterations are expected over time.

This fluid, evolutionary approach to branding meets another strategic need for Mohawk. “We have a history of working with many design studios,” said Mohawk’s Laura Shore, SVP, Communications and Innovation Strategy. “Pentagram has always done our branding but we like to bring in the best person or team for any given project whether it’s VSA Partners, AdamsMorioka, CarboneSmolan, Volume Inc, Tomorrow Partners, or a local partner like Aurora Design. So the system needed to inspire and engage other designers — and yet provide a sort of vision map at the same time. Pentagram understands that, embraces that, and they’ve created a toolkit that encourages experimentation.”

The changing nature of Mohawk’s brand architecture is now visible via the work of recent Mohawk design partners, such as San Francisco-based Hydrant, charged with creating the brand experience for MohawkConnects.com and Michael McGinn Design Office, the firm that designed and engineered Mohawk’s primary specification system and related tools. “Nothing excites me more than seeing the early brand strategy work conducted by Nucleus Branding begin to unfold in the market. And nothing could be more important at this point in Mohawk’s evolution as a company,” said Shore.