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