Why the best printed calendars are already starting work on next year
Every year, German ink manufacturer Jänecke + Schneemann publishes an annual wall calendar for their numerous clients.
Always featuring an array of brilliantly colourful animals, the calendars are put together as a great way to showcase the high performance of the brand’s inks and varnishes.
Meanwhile, every calendar page is enhanced by the distinctive finishing techniques of GRÄFE Druckveredelung, a printer famous for the quality of their decorative effects. While the 2025 calendar, which uses Sappi’s Algro Design paperboard, has been on walls for a few months, work has already begun on next year’s project.
Jänecke + Schneemann have been producing the calendars for the past eight years, sending them out to 1,500 of their customers. The animal theme, under the title Farbe, natürlich gut (“Colour, naturally good”), is returned to each year – partly because the animals are exotic, relatable and appealing, but also because they highlight Jänecke + Schneemann’s excellent inks perfectly. The brand’s High Body series renders the flamingos, frogs, polar bears and other creatures in crisp detail at the same time as providing a real intensity of rich colour.
At the printing stage, GRÄFE add a haptic quality to each picture by applying a whole range of finishes. Textured and relief lacquers, hot stamping with KURZ’s Lumafin embellishment, cold transfer foils and blind embossing are some of the decorative effects used to enhance the visuals and help bring the animals to vivid life.
For the 2025 calendar, GRÄFE chose Sappi’s Algro Design Nature in 270g/m2 as the perfect paperboard – relying on its superb whiteness and ability to deliver excellent results, thanks to an exceptionally silky and even surface.
GRÄFE are already hard at work on next year’s edition, with the final project heading to print by early autumn. Which means there’s still plenty of time to draw inspiration from GRÄFE's skilled work and Jänecke + Schneemann's vivid colors and to produce your own wall calendar for 2026.
