The paper guitar, printed and refined by IST Metz, was awarded the Special Mention at the German Design Award 2019 in the category ‘Integrated Campaigns and Advertising’ The nominations were judged by an international jury of the German Design Council. The guitar was specially UV-printed and refined by IST Metz. The German Design Award is a restricted competition and therefore not an open one.
The paper guitar was distributed as a print gimmick by IST Metz during an in-house exhibition. In keeping with the event motto ‘UV rocks!’, the cardboard guitar was printed and finished live on IST Metz’s own sheet-fed offset printing machine. It consists of two parts, the neck and the body, which are folded into a three-dimensional body. For the curing of the inks, energy-efficient UV systems from IST Metz were used as intermediate dryers and as final dryers.
In addition, the paper guitar impresses with an integrated product concept: any standard smartphone can be inserted into the folded head of the guitar. An app developed especially for the occasion contains a game in which – similar to guitar playing – the right strings have to be hit with the fingers. So the paper guitar can be played digitally with the app or as a loudspeaker when set up on edge. On the front of the body, a pattern has been lasered out so that it functions as a sound body.
By winning the German Design Award, the paper guitar joins the ranks of IST Metz’s award-winning print products. The print products are developed and presented by the UV specialist at its in-house UV Days exhibition, which takes place every two years. IST Metz will be hosting the next UV Days from 13 to 16 May 2019.
