Here are three great examples of commercial printing at it’s finest.

While black and white is a cheap option, it usually pays to go color. Choose a reputable printing company that also offers design and layout services. It can be tempting to design your own flyers, but the result is not always professional.

You’ll want to use high resolution graphics (avoid clip art!), corporate colors, clear, easy to understand language, and text in one or two fonts only, preferably. Avoid trying to cram too much information into your direct mail collateral, and ensure that font size is at least 11 point throughout to cater for people with vision difficulties.

Be sure to review and sign off on a printed proof before your direct mail goes to print, as colors often look different on screen.

West Coast printers like Greener Printer based in Berkeley sources from New Leaf Paper which uses recycled and sustainably-produced papers.

For larger posters and custom printing for trade shows or conferences, Stella Color in Seattle uses environmentally-friendly and biodegradable ECO materials for banners, gaiterboard, and more. The materials present mild but noticeable change to the colors, but outweighed by the benefits of materials that reduce your carbon footprint.

Many printers also use soy ink, made from that multi-purpose legume the soybean. Soy ink was originally popularized as a way of decreasing American dependence on OPEC-controlled oil in the 1970s. Today, it’s a non-toxic alternative to petroleum-based inks. And today, more than 90% of daily newspapers in the U.S. are printed with color soy ink for the simple reason that it performs as well or better than conventional ink. Cost may be a limiting factor, as black soy ink is about 25% more expensive than petroleum-based black ink but less ink is needed for the same amount of printing, yielding a net savings.

Putting out a print project quickly can sometimes be a necessity, but if you don’t follow certain steps correctly you could end up with less-than ideal results.

Here are two crucial tips to remember when you are sending out a design to a commercial printer to be finalized and printed out.

1)  Although it seems like the likely solution, don’t submit the print design files as PDFs. This is because Adobe will set the control defaults for web presentation and not for printing to paper. Instead use a program like Photoshop, Quark, CorelDraw, etc. to ensure proper print controls. When in doubt ask your commercial printer what they recommend you do.

2) Don’t take the design close the edge of the paper. When the content runs close to the edge of the paper, there is a chance that the ink won’t cover the full sheet of paper and parts of the page will be poorly printed or misprinted. The area that is not printed on or the edges, is called the “bleed”. Bleeding is the process by which the ink is deliberately run of the edge of a sheet of paper to ensure full coverage of the content. After the printing process the bleed is trimmed off. This means that you need to print with paper that is larger than your content.

But finding that perfect concept can be incredibly challenging. Luckily, when you aim for small concepts, you don’t have to be a creative genius. Think about something catchy, simple and easy to process.

Some people make the mistake of taking on huge, thematic concepts for their large format printing displays, and they end up being flops. The truth is, you’re fighting for your target audiences attention. They aren’t waiting around to see what you’re going to next, and they surely don’t have time it sit and analyze what you’re tyring to say with your campaign–you have to put it right under their nose. Think of something small, witty, simple and easy to convey in a design.

Sometimes, when you think of a simple concept, you’re able to have a lot more creative freedom with the design, and could very well end up with something that consumers love and respond to.

The American Printing History Association is a membership based organization that supports the study of printing and printing related arts and crafts. The organization promoted printing history education by offering conferences, workshops, meetings and seminars led some of the most renowned printing scholars and names in the industry.For more information on joining the APHA, be sure to visit the website, www.printinghistory.org.

This allows you to spread the word on the streets, where the people are. They see a big ad for something that makes them stop, they’re probably going to remember what it was for a while, and hey, even if they can’t remember the product, they’ll see the ad again on the next block, because your campaign is so comprehensive you’ve covered nearly every block this poor sap is walking on, and this time they’ll make sure to note exactly what it is that you’re advertising.

So go on, get creative, and have fun with it! Because if you do, your ad will be that much more inspirational and memorable. And if you really need help, check back with me in two weeks, because I’m going to Florida on Monday.