March 21st, 2014
Posted in Large-Format Printing | Comments Off on Large Format Printing: Battling Showrooming and Surprising Passersby
The online experience has its place. I surf the Internet daily, learning things and buying things. But I don’t believe it is the only venue for learning and commerce.
Beyond the blogs I’ve written about the value of custom printing for promotional pieces and publications, I’d like to address the value of print in marketing in-store commerce: still a viable option to online buying. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Large-Format Printing | Comments Off on Large Format Printing: Battling Showrooming and Surprising Passersby
March 19th, 2014
Posted in Large-Format Printing | Comments Off on Large Format Printing: Versioned Standees and “A/B Tests”
I never thought it would happen, but it did. I just saw a “versioned” movie standee. Actually, I only figured this out by chance tonight, as my fiancee and I installed a second copy of the Rio 2 standee at a second movie theater. I went to look for two animal “lugs” (a panther and what looked like an anteater, Charlie). I couldn’t find them, and I assumed the distributor had inadvertently left them out of the box (which has happened in the past). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Large-Format Printing | Comments Off on Large Format Printing: Versioned Standees and “A/B Tests”
March 17th, 2014
Posted in Large-Format Printing | Comments Off on Large Format Printing: Options for Backwall Exhibits
I can’t help but think of movie “standees” when I see a “backwall” display at a tradeshow. These large format print products are most often composed of a stretch fabric that has been printed using dye sublimation technology and then stretched over a collapsible aluminum frame. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Large-Format Printing | Comments Off on Large Format Printing: Options for Backwall Exhibits
March 15th, 2014
Posted in Fabric Printing | Comments Off on Custom Printing: Fabric Printing for Small Design Shops
In an earlier blog I mentioned that among other things my fiancee and I install displays for a major cosmetics conglomerate. What that has done for my print brokering work is open my eyes to the plethora of signage options (print and digital) as well as the variety of packaging and product design options that are out there. It also has been an education in itself in cross-media marketing, given the selection of wall and floor displays, large format print banners, walls of digital signage, and screen printed cosmetic bottles. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Fabric Printing | Comments Off on Custom Printing: Fabric Printing for Small Design Shops
March 12th, 2014
Posted in Offset Printing | Comments Off on Custom Printing: 11 Suggestions for a Press Inspection
It has been years since I’ve been on a commercial printing press inspection. Between the computerized consoles that constantly monitor conditions within the press and adjust for any ink density variance or problems with register, to the on-screen proofs that allow multiple people at a client’s office to check proofs online, it is rarely necessary to check a job on press. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Offset Printing | Comments Off on Custom Printing: 11 Suggestions for a Press Inspection
March 9th, 2014
Posted in Book Printing | Comments Off on Book Printing: Students Still Prefer Print Textbooks
As a commercial printing broker, and a student of offset and digital printing, I was pleased to read “Students Prefer Print,” (The Hays Daily News, 2/17/14) and “Students Prefer Print for Serious Academic Reading” (The Chronicle of Higher Education, Wired Campus, 7/17/13, by Sara Grossman). I had heard a lot of “buzz” over the past several years about how colleges were going to replace printed textbooks with digital textbooks on e-readers, and I was surprised to read that this wasn’t happening as planned. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Printing | Comments Off on Book Printing: Students Still Prefer Print Textbooks
March 7th, 2014
Posted in Brochure Printing | Comments Off on Brochure Printing: Case Study on Paper Options
Commercial printing reps can provide a veritable fountain of knowledge and information. However, when you start asking the same questions of different vendors, you’ll soon see that different printers offer different skill sets and often approach jobs very differently. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Brochure Printing | Comments Off on Brochure Printing: Case Study on Paper Options
March 5th, 2014
Posted in Book Printing | Comments Off on Custom Printing: 3 Options for Booklet Cover Paper
I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about a print brokering client who wanted 1,000 sets of book covers to GBC bind or plastic coil bind herself. The covers are for a convention handbook. They are diecut, and my client’s logo will be embossed into the printing stock. Interestingly enough, there will be no offset printing involved, unlike most of my other jobs. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Printing | Comments Off on Custom Printing: 3 Options for Booklet Cover Paper
March 4th, 2014
Posted in 3D Printing | Comments Off on Custom Printing: Stratasys Prints 3D in Vivid Color
Stratasys has just redefined 3D custom printing with the introduction of the only 3D equipment that prints in vivid color using multiple materials.
To grasp what this means, let’s pause for a moment and jump back in history to the 1980s, back to the genesis of desktop publishing. After coding type for years on dedicated typesetting machines, I remember how exciting it was to look at a large monitor and see magazine pages laid out in columns in PageMaker. Back then, the monitors displayed only black and white images—literally. There were no levels of gray and no color. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in 3D Printing | Comments Off on Custom Printing: Stratasys Prints 3D in Vivid Color
February 27th, 2014
Posted in Pocket Folder Printing, Standees | Comments Off on Commercial Printing: Keeping Diecutting Costs Down
My fiancee and I just installed a standee for 300: Rise of an Empire. It was large, complex, and surprisingly reminiscent of another large format print standee we had recently installed for The Hobbit. Not that the graphics were in any way similar. Rather, it was the structure of the standee that gave me a deja vu. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Pocket Folder Printing, Standees | Comments Off on Commercial Printing: Keeping Diecutting Costs Down