Free offers…
A dog is for life, not just for Christmas
This famous slogan was created by Clarissa Baldwin, Chief Executive of The Dogs trust, in 1978 but is still as relevant today.
This little order contains 8 beautiful images taken by a local photographer of her littler of Golden Lab puppies, how could anyone resist buying one for charity?
We created the artwork and printed them onto a super silky 350 gram card to create a nice quality Christmas Card.
A business card is like a ticket for the lottery
My printing press operator said today “a business card is like a ticket for the lottery…. for a prize that you don’t know about” and i thought how true!
How many cards do you give out not knowing what might come of them? I attend many networking events and being a printer, have no limit to the number of cards I can produce, so I go through thousands per year.
It only takes 1 well designed and professionally printed business card to reach your ideal client, how much business will that business card bring you, £5,000, £50,000, £500,000?
We design and print over 200,000 business cards per month – just goes to show how much business my customers are doing and with prices from just £49 you can’t afford not to!
Tomlinscote School Young Chamber Of Commerce
An exciting new opportunity has recently arrived for students from Tomlinscote School to influence the future of the school, through the Young Chamber Of Commerce.
The idea behind the Young Chamber is to encourage young entrepreneurship by linking education with the local business community. It is a junior version of the Chamber of Commerce, a membership organisation that represents businesses within the national community.
Tomlinscote is currently the first and only Young Chamber in the whole of Surrey, which presents a thrilling chance for publicity for the events it is planning. Carol Jury, Projects Manager at the Surrey Chamber of Commerce, is helping the students to set up the new Chamber by putting them in contact with her business network.
I met 2 of the students at a networking event and am very pleased to be working with such a forward think operation, a great development idea to get the youngsters thinking like business owners.
We are working together to produce a cook book, the proofs are on the presses today!
Golfing Mad, 540,000 holes to be precise!
Today we have gone golfing mad. The presses are busy with 30,000 golf club score cards for a local club.
Three different 18 hole loops x 10,000 of each, that’s a lot of golf – 540,000 holes to be precise, that would cost me a lot in lost balls as I always get through a couple per round!
Large Format printed images used in an RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden
A first in garden design awaits the expected 150,000+ visitors to this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show (24th – 28th May) with the integration of stunning, large format printed images to create a unique urban garden at the show. The images, the work of contemporary landscape photographer, David Anthony Hall are incorporated into the external landscape – Thompsons Plein Air Gallery Garden (Stand PW42 Pavilion Way) – being created by Thompson’s Galleries to showcase Hall’s work and to demonstrate the harmonious link between art and the creative outdoor space.
Measuring up to 3m x 1.5m, the panoramic images have been produced on a Canon imagePROGRAF iPF9100 large format printer by Canon UK’s distributor, Surrey based Velmex Distribution. Printed on 260gsm photo gloss paper and then face mounted on to Perspex (i.e. sandwiched between a piece of Perspex and Dibond or an aluminium backing sheet) and wall hung for the display at Chelsea, the images, according to gallery owner, Sue Thompson, ‘show how art can be an integral part of the structure of a garden.’
A Canon user from image capture to printed output, Hall shoots his images on a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III and uses a panoramic technique to capture a multitude of shots that go into the one final image, which he later weaves together in his digital darkroom. The sheer scale of his work makes it ideal for wide format printing and, for Hall, the high end Canon imagePROGRAF devices are the printers that showcase his images to best effect. Hall comments: “By integrating my images into the concept garden, I’m hoping to challenge convention and stimulate a debate around the placement of art outdoors. I also want to show how it can brighten up difficult outdoor spaces, including courtyard gardens, by adding depth, colour and a focal point to these areas.
At the end of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, David Anthony Hall will donate all the proceeds from the sale of Bluebells Woods, a focal work in the garden, to the Children’s Acute Transport Service (CATS), a London based ambulance service for critically ill children.
Printing Office
Beatrice Warde was a believer in the power of the printed word to defend freedom, Warde wrote and designed the famous Monotype broadsheet This is a printing office (1932), using Eric Gill’s Perpetua typeface. Rejected the avant-garde in typography as introspective, believing that classical typography proved a ‘clearly polished window’ through which ideas could be communicated. The Crystal Goblet: Sixteen Essays on Typography (1955) is an anthology of her writings.
This is a Printing Office.
Crossroads of civilization.
Refuge of all the arts against the ravages of time.
Armoury of fearless truth against whispering rumour.
Incessant trumpet of trade.
From this place words may fly abroad, not to perish on waves of sound, not to vary by the writer’s hand but fixed in time, having been verified by proof.
Friend, you stand on sacred ground.
This is a Printing Office.
by Beatrice Warde
Digital or litho printing – how do I choose?
Over the last 15 years, digital printing technology has come along in leaps and bounds, and quality wise there is now not a great deal to separate the two processes.
From a printer’s point of view, digital printing is by far the easiest option, as anyone who is comfortable with working with a computer and laser printer can be trained to operate a digital printing machine, whereas a skilled litho press operator takes many years to learn his trade and is worth their weight in gold!
Early digital machines were no substitute for litho printing, as the quality wasn’t anywhere close to traditional litho printing available in today’s market and was used for throwaway jobs like leaflets, dance tickets and luggage tags etc. These days, by using HP Indigo and Xerox iGen machines although the print quality is not quite on a par with litho, the results are perfectly acceptable for many people and for many purposes. Digital machines can now handle thicker materials, textures materials, self adhesive and even recycled and FSC certified materials, whereas previously only very thin paper & boards were printable.
Print colours are still a big issue. The industry-standard colour matching Pantone system is still not achievable with a digital press. I don’t care what the manufactures claim, just ask your supplier to print a sheet out in orange (Pantone 021) and see how it compares with a litho printed piece, it will look very different! So if your corporate colours are important, litho printing still can’t be beaten!
The first question you should ask yourself before deciding on either of the two methods is how important to you is consistent colour across your corporate brand?
Achieving colour consistency across all your business stationery and promotional items is a technical business. Just think of the differences in materials used across items such as business cards, letterheads, glossy leaflets, plastics, vinyl and corporate clothing and you’ll understand the headaches involved in getting colour to look consistent on all the different materials.
What Characterises a Good Screen Font?
The features that define a good screen font include:
- low contrast and simple strokes with a consistent weight and thickness
- generous x-height
- generous width and letter spacing
- generous punch width (space within letters)
With those points in mind, you should be in a position to begin looking beyond the common Web fonts. So, what are the design principles you should bear in mind when thinking about typeface choice?
Read the full article here: http://designfestival.com/what-characterizes-a-good-screen%c2%a0font/
How brands should be attracting fans and followers
In the scheme of things, social media marketing is still incredibly new, and what I find fascinating is the new trend of strategies that companies employ to create a following in social media. New tricks get old very, very fast as consumers wise up, or simply get bored.
What’s becoming evident is that gaining a Like, follow or check-in is becoming almost a game in itself, as companies try newer ways to get the all important trade from their consumers. I believe this is largely a result of the fact that as people become more comfortable with following brands online, we realise that we can only realistically follow so many, before they take up a large portion of our newsfeeds. So your Likes or follows become even more valuable both to you and the brand. The solution that many companies are looking at now, is what you can offer users that makes the action of Liking, a game or challenge in itself, beyond the content you actually offer them in the long run that would draw them to you.
Rewarding Likes
Porsche were there early with their stunt to reward Facebook Likes by pledging to engrave its fans’ name on a custom car. All you had to do to get your name on the car was Like the page. Then Heineken followed by celebrating 1 million Likes with 1 million hugs. Heinz has explored this most recently, when it decided to release a brand new flavour of Ketchup, only available through its Facebook page, which you had to Like first in order to purchase.
From a user point of view, this adds completely to the experience of following a brand. You’re not just following to get updates, you get your name on a car, a hug, and the chance to buy a bottle of ketchup. What’s interesting among these campaigns is that it’s not about rewarding fans through anything monetary, it’s about adding to the social experience. They can get something that no-one else can, and this is how hard brands now need to work, to get that all important Like.
Read the whole story here: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/03/11/how-brands-should-be-attracting-fans-and-followers/
5 Questions Every Logo Designer Should Ask
Before a designer goes on to create a logo there are two basic questions that need to be answered:
- Who is the client?
- Who is the audience?
The logo will grow from the answers to these questions. The graphic designer is the problem solver, but rather than imposing an idea on to the problem, the problem itself should dictate the solution.
Who is the client? This question addresses the company’s goals, values, current and future business. Where does the company want to be in five years or ten years time? Finding out what the client is offering and promising to their audience is very important.
Who is the audience? Is it females who love Pilates? Is it teenage boys who enjoy running? Is it children (or their parents) who like building blocks?
Ask questions
To find out the answer to these big questions, the designer needs to ask more questions.
About The Company
- What is the client’s business? What is their purpose?
- What is the marketing objective and why do they want a new logo?
- What are the current goals?
- What are the long term goals? What is the plan for 5 years, 10 years, 20 years time?
- Who are the client’s main competitors?
- What is the culture of the client? Are there certain behaviors that make it different to its competitors?
- Leaving economics behind, what is the client’s mission?
About The Audience
- Who is the client’s current audience? Where? When? Why?
- Is the client attempting to gain a new audience?
- How does the audience currently view the client?
- How does the client want the audience to see the new brand?
- What response should the target audience have to it?
Answering these questions helps to get down to the nitty gritty of what the company and their audience is about. Once you figure this out, only then is it time to start talking about colors, type, and symbolism.
Tip: a great way to present and receive answers to these questions is to formulate them into a client worksheet for the client to fill out either alone or with you. Keep an eye out for a coming article that will explore client worksheets.
What other questions would you add to this list that would help you find out more about the company and its audience? Please add your own questions.
For the full story take a look here: http://designfestival.com/5-questions-every-logo-designer-should-ask/
