Giclee Prints onto A4 paper

Title: Black suit, black hat, black cat love

Title: Love the rain drops

There are a group of illustrations that I have been working on over the last month or so. The idea is to explore a number of different creative materials to see if a style still comes through. In the past I have attempted to avoid having a recognisable style in the art I produce. For the first time I am purposefully exploring a natural style with no particular forced intent. It’s an interesting process and a good battle is going on. Hopefully something inspiring comes of it.

Are you selling or informing

You might have heard people say, 'your website can sell for you while you sleep'. I have said and have heard this many times but it's important to consider this statement for a moment.
It doesn't mean that all web sites are trying to sell something. And if they are, it doesn't mean that they are actually doing it well.
The key to the statement is quite blunt and simple. In all of your information and imagery about your business - Don't forget to sell.
People who visit product and service web sites want your sales pitch more than they want your bio. And when they are sold on your offering, they want to know what the next steps are. There are many sites that should be selling but forget about selling. They flood the viewer with information.
Obviously we all need information to be able to make a decision. I'm indicating here that on a web site, we should aim to get to the sales pitch sooner than later. We should ask questions that make the reader think rather than just read.

Colour and texture and illustration

A couple of pieces of art that are part of a larger range. Mara and I are currently creating giclee prints on archival paper. They look fantastic framed. We will be featuring more on the http://www.printspace.com.au web site. Printspace is the interior wall art service and art supply side of Girling Design.

A beautiful smile and a lot of chooks

A card we recently created raised over $20,000 in charity in the form of chooks.
The card facilitated the gift of chickens for each xmas card purchased. The card helps provide ongoing food for families in need.
I’ve asked for photographs of the families receiving their chooks for the next card we do so people can see the good they had done last year.
How cool. This little one made a lot of people smile - especially this beautiful child. It was not a stock library photo.

A business philosophy can motivate

When combined with complimentary colours, great images and stimulating sounds and textures, words can communicate complex ideas faster and with deeper meaning.

When it comes to business ideas, we believe that the most compelling script should be the philosophy of your business. Whether it is written down or communicated in conversation, your business philosophy can have a major influence over your decision making.

It's the words you use, the position you take, the way you greet people, your core talents, your goals, the people around you, the things that inspire you and your staff. Its the way you get up after a fall and the way your business carries itself.

Let’s draw inspiration from you positive business perceptions so that like minded people will be attracted to your unique message.

Printing costs - Above and below the line promotions

The following are a list of a few elements that can affect printing costs.
This is a sample case relating to a 4 colour A4 brochure printed two sides, then folded roll fold to DL.

Paper stock: This can make or break a job in terms of quality of the finished product, drying times, feel, appeal folding ability as well as how the ink sits on the stock.
You can always get a cheaper printing price but at some point you will get what you pay for. You can always get a cheaper car. So lets look at printing in the same ay we would research looking to buy a big ticket item.

Do you want your job to have high impact or is it a throw away piece of information you want to communicate? In other words - Is it a ‘run-about to get you from A to B’ or a ‘beautiful image enhancing luxury item’? These are often referred to in the advertising industry as “Above-the-line or below-the-line promotions.

Obviously paper is not the sole deciding factor. Graphics play a massive role, but don’t discount paper as it can play a key role in the perception of quality. As most people select commodity stocks, it’s not expensive to add the perception of sophistication by choosing a high quality paper stock.

Do we print digital or offset?
There is often a golden price point where digital printing is no longer an option. When you need about one hundred to two hundred units, I’d go with digital printing. But it can depend on unique circumstances.

Quantities: The more that are printed, the lower the per unit cost. Much of the costs are in the set up of a printing job. Choose a quantity of units that will cover you for the time until you want to update the layout or text of the brochure. Ask yourself, how many brochures will we likely use per year and when will we likely want to make changes to the content? Things that can affect this are, trends and styles. As you know, fashion colours come in and out of fashion. Trendy words that we use now might not be trendy in a few years time. Remember how everyone was doing ‘Turn Key’ business solutions a few years back. And the word ‘Infrastructure” was also being mentioned in every meeting. I think people just wanted to know if they could actually say it without spitting.

Size of printing machinery: Some printers have different ranges of printing presses from 2 colour through to 10 colour and more. Also, some printers can only physically print one side of a brochure at a time vs others who can print both brochures at the same time on the same piece of paper. This can reduce the amount of times the brochure goes through the printing press by half which cuts the cost down. I select from my printers knowing what machinery they have.

Colours: Here is another factor that can either detract or enhance the job as a quality job versus a commodity job. I think printing even one and two colours can look wonderful and exciting. And those amounts of colours are much cheaper to print than full colour or more.

Finish: A standard sealer varnish can aid in drying times as well as protect the ink on the paper. This is often done in-house while the ink is wet. The cost is marginal but it protects the ink can add a perception of quality. Also most printing companies have the ability to fold and crease (score) in-house. This avoids third party costs.

Specialty finishes
These are usually done to enhance or protect the paper or the ink. They play a big role in the over all look and feel of a printed job. For instance, a spot UV (varnish) is different to a sealer varnish. A spot UV is done when the ink on the paper is dry. Gloss looks wonderful over matt lamination and often we can create patterns and shapes and over print over photographs or text. As it is completely transparent, the affect can shine when the page catches the light.
There are several other types of finishes that can be achieved that don’t always involve ink. We will discuss these in another post.

What are you good at?

You may have already discovered this but t is often a good idea to revisit this question from time to time.
What are you good at?