COMMERCIAL PRINTING BLOG A Blog About Commercial Printing

February 12th, 2010

Technology’s Impact on the Price of Printing

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.

January 18th, 2010

Our Four Favorite Billboards

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.

January 12th, 2010

Holy Helvetica, Batman!

helvetica

It’s impossible to think of print design – or design in general – without thinking Helvetica, the dazzlingly simple sans-serif font that dominated 20th century typefaces and continues to maintain an impressive foothold.

You can see Helvetica in the signs for the New York City Subways, as well at the logos of dozens of companies, from Target to Toyota, American Airlines to American Apparel.

So, what’s the big deal about Helvetica? Designers praise its quiet neutrality – Helvetica lets products speak for itself, without endowing them with a prepackaged personality.

Additionally, Helvetica is one of those rare fonts that looks great both tiny and blown up, allowing companies to create uniform building fronts and business cards.

Some Helvetica designers consider Helvetica more of a discovery than a creation, as if it was there all along, waiting to light up billboards across the globe.

In any event, Helvetica was invented (or discovered) in 1957 in Münchenstein, Switzerland. The name Helvetica actually means Swiss.

Helvetica has inspired its own book, documentary, and even an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. I’d like to see Arial do that!

January 4th, 2010

PAPER VERSUS PRINT MARKETING

A lot of people look at the world we live in and they only see graphics, and pixels. It’s no one’s fault really because this is certainly the kind of world we all live in. It is, however, the fault of promoters and media that we only look at marketing opportunities online. There are so many opportunities out there for people to promote their business’, products or anything through the means of paper and print marketing.
Everyone in business today still needs and relies on paper and print marketing in one way or another. People like tangible things, they like to be able to grab and touch the things they are purchasing. It is very important to print business cards and to distribute them in any business today.
There are multiples of companies that provide direct mail marketing which is a great way to gain exposure for your company. This form of marketing has been used over the years, and continues to be used by some of the biggest companies in the world today. It’s not all emails, and newsletters. Marketing requires variety, and some of that will come in the form of something tangible – paper and print marketing for example.
Take full advantage of a direct mail marketing service. They will send out your promotional materials  to anyone you desire, or they think will desire your products. They do all of the work. They print off the materials for you, they address them, they find out desirable places to send them.
This kind of service can’t be done digitally. This is the kind of marketing that is done through print and paper. This is a very important form of marketing, and one that should not be overlooked.

digital-press-insidesA lot of people look at the world we live in and they only see graphics, and pixels. It’s no one’s fault really because this is certainly the kind of world we all live in. It is, however, the fault of promoters and media that we only look at marketing opportunities online. There are so many opportunities out there for people to promote their business’, products or anything through the means of paper and print marketing.

Everyone in business today still needs and relies on paper and print marketing in one way or another. People like tangible things, they like to be able to grab and touch the things they are purchasing. It is very important to print business cards and to distribute them in any business today.

There are multiples of companies that provide direct mail marketing which is a great way to gain exposure for your company. This form of marketing has been used over the years, and continues to be used by some of the biggest companies in the world today. It’s not all emails, and newsletters. Marketing requires variety, and some of that will come in the form of something tangible – paper and print marketing for example.

Take full advantage of a direct mail marketing service. They will send out your promotional materials  to anyone you desire, or they think will desire your products. They do all of the work. They print off the materials for you, they address them, they find out desirable places to send them.

This kind of service can’t be done digitally. This is the kind of marketing that is done through print and paper. This is a very important form of marketing, and one that should not be overlooked.

December 28th, 2009

What is Commercial Printing?

Think about all of the commercial printing materials you come across in a single day. The direct mailers, the billboards, company brochures, business cards and so forth, all of the paper sizes, paper thickness, the colors and the creative marketing materials. Now, think about how these items become reality? How they evolve from a idea, to an design to a final printout.

Commercial printing is the process of taking art work and transferring that work onto a piece of paper or card stock. Many companies use a form of offset printing to transfer four sets of color, being cyan, magenta, yellow and black or otherwise known as CMYK.

The process is somewhat simple and hasn’t really changes in over a 100 years. An aluminum plate is created from the art work, each representing one color out of the CMYK process. The plate is wrapped around a plate cylinder that allows ink to fill up the cut out shape of the aluminum plate. Ink is poured into the cutout and it is transferred to a rubber roller called the blanket cylinder. The blanket cylinder is what is used to allow the paper to roll within to retrieve the right level of ink. Finally, the impression cylinder is the roller that pushes paper along at 10,000 sheets per hour to absorb the right level of ink. There are four presses, each for the individual colors. The paper moves along each press, retrieving one color at a time and finally ends up in an area of inferred heat to dry the paper for printing on the back side.

Commercial printing includes the right level of water and ink. The aluminum plate allows the paper to absorb the right level of ink and the rollers presses the image onto the paper, one at a time.

Commercial printing has many advantages that create professional and outstanding final products for many people to enjoy. There are many companies practicing this form of professional printing. The key is to ask the right questions and understand the printing process as CMYK Offset printing techniques are the best method for printing amazing marketing materials.

Newer Entries »