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.

Well, okay, maybe not. But it is a fascinating and well-made movie about something no commercial printer can do without: typography. To use the words of the artists who made the film, Helvetica “looks at the proliferation of one typeface as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.”

Here’s the trailer to whet your appetite:

(This post was brought to you by the letter H, as developed by designers Max Miedinger and Edüard Hoffmann in 1957 for the Haas Type Foundry in Münchenstein, Switzerland.)

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.

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.

The commercial printing industry has always relied on technology to get the job done, and now thanks to the evolution of the technology, many print houses can offer services at lower prices. New internet communication technologies and the creation of digital plates makes specialized printing that wasn’t even offered a decade ago affordable for many more business owners, big or small.

Digital plates are really the main catalyst in this price decrease. Instead of having to create a set of four physical plates for CMYK projects, the image is sent digitally to the printing machine. Doing this saves money and time by allowing the image to be changed multiple times, without having to create a new set of plates.

Another key component in more affordable commercial printing is the use of internet communications in the creative and sales processes. Today many clients can upload their image or design, right onto the print house’s website making it much easier for both parties involved. Because the internet is available, the number of 24/7 orders have skyrocketed for many print houses, bringing them in bigger profits and allowing many to offer their services at more affordable prices.

Whether walking, driving, or riding a bike, people tend to be in motion when they see Billboards, which means these marketing tools have to get the message across quick. It’s lucky for us most advertises thrive under pressure, using this short time frame as motivation to create some of the punchiest ads out there.

Let’s have a look at four of our favorites:

BMW: Santa Monica to A4

This is like when your friend sets you up for the perfect zinger, and you take it. Except in the case of BMW, it’s not so much a friend as an arch rival. After Audi installed the rather obnoxious “Your move, BMW” ad, the latter car company embraced the chess motif—and physical location—to create the perfect comeback: “Checkmate.”

Mini Storage Shop of Horrors

Manhattan Mini Storage always has clever billboard and subway ads, and this is no exception. Even though hardly anyone reading the ad owns—or would admit to owning, anyway—a creepy doll collection, you know this ad made them think of their ceramic unicorn figurines, authentic Star Wars dioramas, or what have you… all great candidates for storage.

The Competitors are Dropping Like Flies

Some of the most memorable ad campaigns have involved in your face marketing, like this two-piece billboard by Cingular, which takes dropped calls to a literal and creative level. Also, the abrupt lost feeling  you get when you see the gaping hole beneath “dropped”—before you realize it’s part of the ad—is pretty much how it feels to get disconnected.

Yo Momma’s So Fat…

Like the Cingular ad, this spot for Silberman’s Fitness Center takes full advantage of its medium to make those thirty minutes on the treadmill seem at least slightly more appealing. Or in any event, the cars that pass by probably won’t be pulling into McDonald’s.