Information Pack Printing - simple and very effective

I like producing products that are simple, clever and work really well.

We often get asked for a smart, cost-effective solution to folders and information packs. Well this little item is just the ticket. Prints up on a cost-effective sheet size, simple die-cut and then supply flat.

 The velcro fastener is an optional extra but quite often we supply with a tuck-in tab that is produced at the die-cutting stage

The benefit of such a design is that there is no gluing - this removes a lot of the labour -  by storing flat and only being made-up when required, they always look fresh and sharp.

Digital Printing for a Coffee Table Book style brochure

If your company has a portfolio of great products then why not create a 'Coffee Table Book' by combining them all into a portfolio brochure.

Creating the document using the right technology can give a very high quality product for a lot less than you would imagine.

 "Pictures paint a thousand words"..... the truth is,  an attractive document is difficult to resist.

What better than have potential clients perusing through your beautiful portfolio, admiring your wonderful products.

One other point; quality items tend not to get thrown away, so the other benefit to this type of product is it's longevity.

3 things to consider for binding a printed brochure or catalogue

There are many options on binding a brochure or catalogue and very often it can be the last thing to give much consideration to: Always ask yourself 3 questions:

1. What binding will work best?
2. Will it look good?
3. How much will cost?

Lets look at 2 examples selling the same type of product - property

The first one is wiro bound.

As you can see, the product lays flat beautifully, allowing the reader to comfortably work their way through the brochure without having to fight with the spine or lose their page.
In addition, although subjective, wiro can look smart, contemporary and exclusive.
Last but not least, wiro can be expensive on longer run lengths so with quantities of 5,000 and above the budget will hurt.

With this example, the perfect bound spine looks very neat, text and imagery can be visible and it is a cost effective method of binding. There is a minimum thickness required for this type of binding to work effectively though.
The main issue is that the contents is always wanting to "close" making a less enjoyable experience for the reader.

Like most things in life, compromises have to be made - just prioritise!

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.

Effective use of metallic inks for brochure printing

Metallics inks such as gold and silver can enhance the impact of your brochure but you must follow the tips below:

1). Always print onto coated stock. To achieve the desired iridescent effect the metallic ink must sit smoothly onto the paper surface. Uncoated papers and boards will kill the effective and the ink will look very flat.

2). Never cover the metallic inks with a Matt lamination. Printed brochures and catalogues usually have a lamination to the cover. Howver if you have metallic ink on your cover, a matt lamination will kill the iridescent effect. You will find, metallic silver will look grey, and gold will appear to be a standard brown.

3). Use Spot UV: if you do have to have a matt lamination to your brochure or catalogue and you want your metallics to stand out and not look flat then apply a spot UV to the metallic area - you will find that the metallic iridescent effect will return. Gloss lamination enhances the metallic effect so if you need to laminate and spot UV is not in your budget then go this option.

4). Increase metallic coverage area: the larger the printed metallic area, the better the metallic effect. So for example, if the inside of your product catalogue is plain then this is an opportunity to cover with a metallic.

5). There are other metallics other than gold and silver: ther are some great metallic ink colours on the market - choosing one of these can make your marketing brochure stand out out from the rest.

Effective Point Of Sale Ideas

Are you looking for an effective point of sale idea that you can accurately measure which is also both interesting and  interactive to the consumer? We recently printed this campaign together for our client which resulted in a 40% increase in wine sales.

Read on for how this point of sale idea brought such impressive results.

The object of the campaign was to increase the sales of a certain wine to consumers in pubs and wine bars. The campaign that was sold into pub chains and restaurants included bunting, printed polo shirts balloons and point of sale cards that were placed on the tables.

The campaign centerd around trying a chilled red wine in the summer as an alternative to white wine. To make the campaign interactive, customers who bought the chilled wine could hold their glass of wine against the card to :

1). Check that their wine was being served at the correct temperature
2). By placing the chilled glass against the thermally reactive area a 'Text to win' code appeared where the customer could win a holiday. This video shows the process in action.

By capturing this data the effectiveness of the campaign could be measured.

Corporate Invitation Printing Ideas & Tips - London

In a world of emails and texts, receiving a beautifully printed corporate invitation can make a huge impact and be the difference between success and failure of an event.

Here are 3 Tips and ideas worth considering when producing and designing a Corporate Invitation

Tip 1. Whatever you design or wish to have designed make sure there is an envelope to fit. There is a way round this, but if you have a tight budget use a quality standard envelope

Tip 2. If you only need a few invitations then it makes sense to print these digitally. A good digital press will bring outstanding results, but if your design requires Pantone specials or metallics then you are forced to print litho - this is more expensive and takes longer to produce.

Tip 3. Choose the correct material. If you are going to write on the inviations then coated boards can be a problem. We have produced matt laminated invitations and then used CD pens to write on them - so there is often a work round.

Quite often, less is more, I really like this one; not only is it simple but it has it's own sleeve & envelope and is more economic to produce than other designs.

High Quality Digital Printing in London and Kent

There are many companies offering digital printing but the quality variations are huge as are the prices. There are many different presses on the market and they are improving almost on a six monthly cycle.
At Avenue, we fit the press to the job, (as opposed to most printers where the job has to fit on their machinery) thereby ensuring the very best quality and value for each job.
In addition to this, there are digital manufacturers who are better priced for multipage short run  brochures than say flyers or printed stationery.
One of the other benefits to digital printing other than economic is the speed of turn round. Again we find that some of our manufacturers may take a little longer than average but produce a superior job. This is also true of finishing; I have witnessed beautiful print only to be let down down by appalling trimming and binding.
If you find the right digital printer to do your job you will get the perfect job for a lot less than you thought.

Creating Effective Direct Mail

According to a survey by Billets, between October 2009 and March 2010, 92% of direct mail was opened including 99% for personal banking and 96% from supermarkets. With email marketing reaching saturation point and becoming less effective, direct mail is having a renaissance. There are many elements to a successful direct mail campaign but the one I'm going to touch on is design.

Designing a direct mail piece that is attractive to the recipient, economic to print and then mail out can appear a daunting task. I believe creating intrigue is a key factor. Sending a letter in a bright green envelope would do the trick here - but to be more creative why not create a gift/package idea? Or something more elaborate that gives a 3D effect can be very effective and prevents the recipient from condemning the item to the bin.

There's never been a better time to use direct mail as the recipient believes that you have made a true investment in contacting them...in this economic climate that means a lot!

Catalogue printing builds customer loyalty

Catalogue printing can appear to be something of a luxury when it's so easy to pop your products up onto your website and wait for the orders to come in.

OK, you've got to make sure you can be found by the search engines or you may have emailed prospective clients a link to your website. This is standard practice but it also means that everyone else is doing the same as you and that when your prospect searches for a product you may not be in the Google top 5 and never get a look in.

A printed catalogue is an invaluable tool to send to customers and prospects. Only last week, Next reported 11.8% increase in their Directory business as opposed to 3.5% fall in profits in the rest of their business. Once someone has your catalogue they are no longer looking at the competition. This helps ensure you not only keep their bsuiness but also helps maintain your margins.

So next time you think "can I afford to produce a printed catalogue"  or invest in brochure printing , the question you maybe should be asking is, "Can I afford not to?"

Reduce your packaging costs

So you are thinking of adding a new product to your range and you want to test the market. You don't have a fancy budget or need thousands of pieces but you still need the finished packaging to look professional.

This was the task our client Buster Innovations  presented us with. In this scenario the large packaging manufacturers are not always the best option.  Hansell Design had worked closely with us with regards size, colours and finishes. By trimming a few millimeters here and there, with no effect on overall look or functionality, huge savings can be achieved. Getting your packaging to fit to a certain sheet size is the key. We then chose a board that felt substantial yet at the same time produced vibrant colours when printed. The client was keen on certain colours but when we ran through the cost implications we settled on bright colours that could be produced in 4 colour process, thus saving further money.

Once we had agreed these elements we were then able to buy all the component parts at vastly reduced costs. Although 4 different suppliers were required, the overall saving on the sample packs was 45%. Its worth noting that none of the elements or the manufacturing was done by a packaging manufacturer.

2 quick tips to save money on printed folders

Most companies are trying to save money in this economic climate but not all want to compromise on the quality of their printed marketing collateral. If you send information out and think you can't afford a beautifully printed folder to put your brochures, leaflets and price lists in then here's 2 easy ways to save money on your print.

1). Glued Pocket folder or self-locking folder?

With self-locking folders you simply make them up as and when you need them. They are die-cut,  creased and flat. Not only do they take up less storage but also it's 'you' making them up so you're not paying for the print finisher to apply a glue strip, make the folders up and then repack in boxes. In addition to this labour saving, your self-lock folders take up less room in storage. If you like a sample(s) of different types of folder mechanisms then contact us and we will send you some.

Capacity pocket folder or non-capacity folder: If your folder needs to hold more than 15 pages  and standard weight paper (anything up to 170gsm) then you do not need capacity. Anymore than that then the folder needs capacity which means putting in a double crease on the spine and pocket. So, typically if you're sending a lot of information out you will need anything from 3mm to 10mm capacity. You can still have a self-locking mechanism but they do take longer to make up.

2). Make the pocket smaller. For a  folder to take standard A4 items, a pocket of less than 100mm  means that your folder can be printed on a SRA2 sheet rather than B2 sheet. This can save a few hundred pounds in some cases.