A friend and colleague within the commercial printing industry just forwarded me an article regarding a sizable donation towards preserving the history of printing. (more…)

Every week I shop at Harris Teeter, as well as a few other grocery stores. And over the last several years–being a student of commercial printing, marketing, and design–I have paid close attention to store branding. I’ve been very impressed with Harris Teeter’s presentation. There’s nothing like visiting local businesses on a regular basis to get a sense of just how store design and product design interact and work on the buyer’s conscious and subconscious awareness. When done well, this makes people want to shop more and buy more. I can appreciate the skills and knowledge required. (more…)

My fiancee brought home an intriguing circus print book from a thrift store yesterday. In addition to being all in French, which adds an air of romance to the already beautiful images of horses and costume-clad performers, the book includes the handwritten signatures of a number of the actors in black marker, on their individual pages. The 8” x 10” format, saddle-stitched book also has a striking front and back cover treatment: a gloss coating on the horse and circus name (on the front cover) and two silhouettes of acrobats on the back cover, also gloss coated. (more…)

I can’t remember the last time I canceled or postponed a commercial printing job mid-flight, or at least right before the job went to press. It’s demoralizing, but depending on why it’s done and how it’s done, this doesn’t have to be either the end of the project or the end of the relationship with the printer. (more…)

A friend of mine let me know this week that he had just bought the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated but that he had only bought it for the articles, not the pictures. He’s a former athletics coach. (more…)

Let’s say you’re an individual looking to buy custom printing for a small but complex job. What do you look for in a printer? (more…)

Sometimes things just seem to go South from the beginning.

A print brokering client of mine is producing a large textbook. But it really could be any project, from a magazine to a catalog to a brochure. Printers have a series of written or unwritten rules that allow for a seamless hand-off of accurate art files; smooth proofing; and a printing, finishing, and delivery process that drops the printed product at the client’s doorstep, warehouse, or fulfillment center on time. (more…)

A print brokering client of mine is producing a color swatch book for fashion purposes. I have written about her color book before, and after a year of preparation, we’re almost ready for file submission. (more…)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and based on my research, I think that’s because the brain can process images more quickly than text. Images, the brain processes all at once, while text enters awareness in a linear fashion. (more…)

A client relationship is a precious and fragile thing. It deserves care and nurtutring. Then again, so is a vendor relationship. (more…)