Jewellery Printing - creative product information cards

This is a really novel and dinky little printed product. This clever design allows the jewellery company, based in Kent,  to change the message or their products as they produce new ranges.

As you can see there is a generic printed outer wallet that is die-cut and matt laminated. This outer wallet can then be used across all the different product ranges.

The little product cards can easily and economically produced. Obviously if it's an exclusive range and the thus a short print then these cards can be printed digital - conversely longer runs would be produced litho. The only concern would be to make sure that both the digital and litho presses are calibrated to keep consistent colours across the brand.

The other thing I like about these cards is that having the product cards inside a wallet makes the whole product special - almost becomes like a mini brochure. It means the the recipient will be more inclined to keep the printed item and hence all the benefits related to that.

Printed Promotional Boxes - 3 Money Saving Tips

Clever promotion this!

  A complete campaign to promote healthy eating in schools backed by California Raisins. Printed boxes are notoriously difficult to get printed economically - but there are so many methods of manufacture in the market place that it's possible to get a relatively short run personalized printed boxes within a sensible budget.

3 Tips for making the budget go further: 

1. Make sure you use the right board. This can have a huge effect on costs. Sometimes a standard coated board will do perfectly well other times require Food safe board to prevent chemical movement into the food.
2. Reduce the number of glue points - a well designed box that can be supplied flat with a minimum number of gluings has a huge financial advantage. Clever packaging designers have the ability to create ingenious mechanisms that not only look cool but save money aswell.
3. Print process - lots of  the shorter run packaging we do is printed digitally. There are limitations on size and the board available which is why we recommend consulting with your printer early on in the process.

With any printed promotional items, the key is to get more 'bang for your buck'. Finding new ways of producing great marketing collateral on a limited budget can lead to fantastic product innovation.

Printing Corporate Invitations

It's important that any invitation you send out has maximum impact. The email invite for important or competitive events has long since died - the high impact physical invitation is back.

The invitation has to look important and if appropriate exciting aswell. That way the invitation will have the chance of being opened and then read by the recipient.

If you are going to the trouble of sending a physical invitation DON'T print off something that has been knocked up by someone in the office and then printed it on the office desk top printer  - the rule here is not to look in-house cheap!

If economy is a factor for printing your invitations then there are cost-effective ways of producing outstanding invitations for surprisingly small amounts. Sheet size and materials and how you want your invite finished will be determining factors of the price - if you have a good design in mind then it's probably best to discuss your ideas so that they can be adapted to meet your budget.

If you need inspiration or indeed help, then there are companies that specialise in original concepts and ideas for invitation. Tailoring the design so that it is appropriate for the recipient can substantially improve your response.

Perfect Binding and PUR Binding for brochures and catalogues

It is important when you have your brochures and catalogues printed that you choose the correct type of binding for the job. The following are factors to consider:

How many pages will the finished product have. The number of pages along with the weight of paper will determine the size of the spine. For most brochures and catalogues under 40 pages then stitching the document will be the ideal solution. Stitching with 2 wires is neat, durable and allows the document to lay flat on the table or desk.

Saddle-stitched programme for pantomime

If the catalogue is more substantial and you require a spine then there are a two options: Perfect binding or PUR binding. The main difference is the adhesive used in the binding process.  Perfect binding uses ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) adhesives whereas PUR uses polyurethane reactive (PUR) adhesives. PUR adhesive offers better adhesion over EVA and also the ability for the bound book to lay flat without compromising the binding strength. PUR binding is more expensive and also requires longer to 'cure' therefore taking longer to finish.

PUR Binding for Wine List

Wiro binding is ideal when you require a the brochure to lay completely flat on the desk - you lose a spine but wiro is fantastic for presentations where you need everyone to 'stay on the page'.

Wiro binding for Suzuki Document

Property Brochure Printing - enhancing value

High value properties and developments require quality marketing collateral to create prestige and add value. Cheaper properties never make it to'paper' these days which immediately suggests a clear separation between cheap and expensive properties. So by definition if you produce a brochure for your property you automatically enhance its perceived value.

With digital printing, high quality short run jobs become economically viable, with print runs as low as 30 copies.

The brochure below, La Durantie is printed on an uncoated stock to create a rustic yet upmarket look and feel. This is a development in the French countryside so the stock chosen is an important aspect of the finished product.

Making the brochure interesting with pockets and location maps, pull-out plans all add to the interest and engagement of the reader.
 

Corporate Gift Box ideas

Are you looking for new ideas for a corporate gift? Would you like to send out a corporate invitation and want something that grabs the recipient?

Many people think that printed manufactured gift boxes are going to cost a fortune. However, with the right planning at the design stage you can create a fantastic gift box for a lot less than you think. Here are a couple of things to consider before you agree a design.

1). Size - obvious I know, but if you are only going to put a corporate invitation into it then work with the printer to achieve a size for optimum economy. The box below had a gift with an invitation sitting on top of it. Once the recipient had picked up the invite, a beautiful gift was revealed.


Corporate Gift Box with Invitation



2). Printing - this depends on the quantity, size and the finish you are after. We recently silver foiled a box onto a good quality paper that was less to manufacture than 4 colour printing plus an overall lamination.

3). Beware laminations with certain colours. Matt lamination onto a dark colour will mark readily and result in the gift box looking messy very quickly.

4). How are you giving or sending the box. I have seen beautiful box arriving very tatty due to the packaging they have been sent in. Plain outer boxes can inexpenisve and keep your gift box looking perfect.



Plain made to measure outer boxes



Corporate gift box costs can sometimes be counter-intuitive; that is to say they can look look very expensive and not cost an awful lot. Conversely, some gift boxes have cost a small fortune but without the desired result.   

Printed Information Packs That Work

There are 3 essential ingredients that a printed and manufactured information pack should have:

1) Practicality: The Information pack that you send out to your clients represents how you work as an organisation and you will be judged accordingly. On this basis lazy, corner-cutting packs should be avoided at all costs.If maufactured in the right way, a well put together, beautifully designed pack will cost you no more than some home-made looking tosh!



Vodafone Store Guidelines



2). Recycled/recyclable materials: The recipient of your pack will feel much happier if they can see that the materials making up the Information pack are recycled or recyclable - it can feel like a lot of 'stuff' - so try using recycled polyprop & PVC for ring binders and printed wallets, FSC papers and don't be shy in putting the corresponding logos on the documents.



 

Tabbed Dividers for easy referencing



3). Growing Content: the best packs are where regular updates can be sent out to create further engagment with the recipient. If your Info Packs have been well thought through then easy to recieve and insert updates will be an invaluable addition to your packs. Aswell as sending the updated content, other items like special offers etc can be sent with them.

 

NYM Bank Financial Updates

 What is the point or goal of your pack? I would always recommend having the mindset when devising your information pack that the recipient has no idea what they are receiving - make no asumptions about knowledge levels and you wont go too far wrong.

Effective Direct Mail Idea - Company in Kent

Direct mail can be a really effective way of engaging with clients or potential clients. The key is to grab the attention of the recipient and then as long as the message is strong and appropriate they should respond to your call to action.

The Apple iPad Mini printed direct mail is clever because it immediately taps into what we already know and to some extent, desire. So rather than just the same old 'win an ipad leaflet' this brochure immediately engages the recipient into the ipad experience. In fairness, my only experience of the dimensions of the iPad Mini is with the brochure.

Before you carried way - a word of caution. Make sure that the cost of printing your direct mail item cost effective before you commit. There are always several ways to approach these projects and this one was relatively short run so it was 'round cornered' economically. The process of printing stunning ideas like this need to be carefully thought out before proceeding - ie it needs to be printed cost-effectively in order to be viable.



Printed Brochure Design and cut to the sahpe of iPad Mini

 Lastly, the amount of direct mail has dropped off due to the cost of postage - however, plan you mailing carefully and the you could slash the cost of postage and also REMEMBER.....LESS COMPETITION = GREATER RESPONSE RATE!!

Case Bound Printing to enhance your message

If you have a corporate message that has to match the quality of the product or service you are offering then there is a neat, stylish solution.

Without busting the marketing print budget, short run case bound printing can give you plenty of bang for your buck. You maybe a graphic designer tasked with enhancing  your clients image then one option is to create a book to tell the story. In contrast to a brochure or a corporate gift, a case bound book is an item that the recipient is likely to keep.

By incorporating the company's message into a book, it creates a feeling of 'being published' and hence an item that has been reviewed and selected.

There are limitations and certain restrictions on sizes so before selling in your idea check out what can and can't be printed.