Minnesota Printing and Direct Mail Experts
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Highlight Printing, Minneapolis, MN: Print Budget: How To Save Money On Your Printing, Tip #2
Highlight Printing, a local printer near downtown Mpls, MN (with convenient parking!) has tips on how to spend less on printing:
Tip #2: Use a “Shell and Imprint” Program, also known as a “Stationery Fulfillment Program”.
“Shell and Imprint Program” definition: A system of pre-printing the static information on an inventoried item (business cards, for example) that will, on-demand, be imprinted with the variable (or personalized) information.
How it works:
- Step 1: Produce the shells: Usually it is the “shell” (the logo, tagline, and other static info) that is the most intricate and colorful design-wise. Because of the set-up involved in printing, it saves money to order larger quantities at one time rather than little bits several times. The more intricate the “shell” design (foil, embossing, multiple colors, etc.), the more this holds true. Shells can be amazingly inexpensive (depending on the design, of course).
- Step 2: Imprint the shell with the personalized info: usually it is the imprint that is the simple, often 1 color, part of the piece. Imprinting, particularly digital imprinting, is very inexpensive. (We can also make it super-easy, too! With an on-line ordering system that offers an immediate PDF proof, lay-out guidelines, ordering guidelines and ordering privelage rules built right in, the process couldn’t be any easier.)
Who it works for:
- Companies with multiple locations
- Distant sales offices
- Companies with kiosks or micro-offices
- Advertising initiatives with different offers, information, or expiration dates
- Any company that has even just a few employees that have business cards
What it works on:
- All Business Stationery (business cards, letterhead, envelopes, note-cards, note-pads)
- Brochures (personalize the info, the location or the offer)
- Coupons (perhaps an A/B split to test which offer gets the most hits)
- Training materials (can make more of an impact if they are personalized in some way)
- Certificates and Awards (with variable data with the winner’s name)
- Forms (again…multiple locations??)
Additional Benefit:
- It gives the manager of the program more control over the look, design and quality.
- We don’t charge for managing the inventory of the shells!
We have saved our clients untold amounts of money by implementing this process: from 5 person offices to huge corporations with many national and international location. We have experience with everything from translation to international shipping.
If you are interested in discussing how we may be able to save you money in this way (or any other suggestions we may have – we offer a FREE PRINT-SPEND ANALYSIS program), please contact us @ 612.522.7600 or through our website @ www.highlightprinting.com. Also, we welcome your comments to this blog.
The author, Lisa Bickford, president of Highlight Printing, is a veteran of the printing industry. Since 1984 she has worked her way up through many areas of the industry before acquiring Highlight Printing in 1996 with her husband Don, who has also been in printing since the early 80’s. The things she continues to find most satisfying are the wonderful business relationships that have developed with clients, vendors, & co-workers, and the energy that is created from challenge resolution. You can email her directly at lisab@highlightprinting.com
This Printing Blog was launched in November, 2008, as a vehicle to share ideas, information, and innovationsTo see other topics within this blog, click HERE.
Highlight Printing, Minneapolis, MN: Cost-Saving Quick Tips on Professional Business Stationery
Highlight Printing, a local printer near downtown Mpls, MN (with convenient parking!) gives advice on how to design your stationery/identity/branding package to save money:
Budget, budget, budget…for most of us it is a primary concern these days. As a business owner myself, budget is ALWAYS of concern. Our theory is that if you get to start from scratch, why not design smart…why not try to incorporate effectiveness AND economy from the very start?
Business stationery definition: Mostly this refers to letterhead, envelopes, and business cards. But stationery can also include proposal sheets, pocket folders, notecards, etc. Here are some things I think about when I help folks walk through the process of designing and printing their stationery:
- Branding/Design: Your logo, font, colors, and tagline can either say nothing about your company (well, it actually always says something) or you can use it to describe who you are. Take our company for instance, I am of the belief that every bit of communication we have with our clients ”brands” us, whether we want it to or not. The same goes for you. It costs no more money to print a well-designed letterhead that defines you than it does to print a generic one. If we have the opportunity to consult with you (no charge, by the way), we will talk in depth about your audience and the perception you are trying to create.
- Paper: Paper can also communicate a lot: a cotton-feeling “toothy” sheet says school…lawyer…bank…well established and mature. While a super-smooth sheet can feel cutting edge, new, or techy. Often times a non-textured white sheet such as these is the only logical choice, but other times a texture (linen, etc.) and/or a color can make a huge impact in the design. How about a light tan, paper-bag looking paper for a recycling company? Or a marble looking sheet for an interior design company? We have 1000’s of choices at various price points (we promise to show the least expensive first!), and many of them contain recycled fiber.
- Colors of Ink: Most stationery is designed to be 2 color and the reason is simple – it is less expensive than 4 color process. I lean towards (but am not married to…after all it’s up to you!) 1 and 2 color for that reason as well. A well designed identity and stationery package does not have to be expensive to produce. A great example of an effective and inexpensive identity design is that of Room and Board furniture stores. While they are not a client of mine (perhaps I should call on them after I write this blog!), I have long admired their branding for its genius. Their website doesn’t show it exactly the same way as their sign and (I would guess) their stationery does, but you can still see the simplicity of it @ http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/.
- Method of Production: Most of the time we recommend offset printing, but we have digital printing available for lower quantity needs..perhaps when you are dipping your toe into the waters of a new identity. We can suggest tons of ways to save you money! Lots of locations?: On-line ordering and soft-proofing, with an inventoried shell and imprint program and direct shipping. A start-up with one location?: Perhaps digital printing is the way to go…and we will carefully review quanitites to get the most bag for the buck. In between?: Perhaps a combination of both. Each situation is different and we will help you walk through the process to make sure you get exactly what will work best for you.
We would love the opportunity to show you what we have done with our own recent re-branding or to discuss your own stationery/identity/branding package. You can contact us @ 612.522.7600 or through our website @ www.highlightprinting.com. Also, we welcome your comments to this blog.
The author, Lisa Bickford, president of Highlight Printing, is a veteran of the printing industry. Since 1984 she has worked her way up through many areas of the industry before acquiring Highlight Printing in 1996 with her husband Don, who has also been in printing since the early 80’s. The things she continues to find most satisfying are the wonderful business relationships that have developed with clients, vendors, & co-workers, and the energy that is created from challenge resolution. You can email her directly at lisab@highlightprinting.com
This Printing Blog was launched in November, 2008, as a vehicle to share ideas, information, and innovationsTo see other topics within this blog, click HERE.
Highlight Printing, Minneapolis, MN: Market Research on 4-Color Digital Envelope Printing
Highlight Printing, a local printer near downtown Minneapolis, is asking for your input:
THE CHALLENGE: Periodically we get calls requesting four color evelopes printing at lower quantities. In our quest for constant improvement, we have not been entirely satisfied with the present solutions available. Most of the need that we see is for invitations – particularly business invitations – usually running at 1000 or less, and often even just 250. But we also see requests for #10’s, 6×9’s, 9×12’s, etc. Here are the “conventional” ways full color envelopes are generally produced:
- Offset printing 250 4-color envelopes is expensive and often the envelopes wrinkle or crease because of the air trapped inside (we’ve got solutions to combat this, but still…).
- Digital Printing on standard digital output devices, while cost effective, doesn’t run as efficiently as we’d like, and we often have lots of waste – again, because of wrinkling.
- Jet-press printing 4-color envelopes is a good solution, but the set-up at low quantities is a little expensive.
THE POSSIBLE SOLUTION: We have located a digital 4-color laser (no, not ink-jet) envelope printer. The research we have seen so far appears positive: reasonable price, good quality, efficient production.
THE QUESTION(s): Should we buy it? The requests we get for this need only pop up every month or 2. Do you need, or do you think there is a market for, 4-color low quantity envelopes? Is this a situation where we can “Build it and they will come”? Along with our other sort of niche products (in-house thermography, in-house commercial-level perfect binding, and a couple of marketing innovations: digital full color pocket folders and Capture cards), is there a market for this…maybe even wholesale to other print shops?
Please add your comments to this blog – we would love your opinion! Or, you can call us @ 612.522.7600, or contact us through our website @ www.highlightprinting.com
The author, Lisa Bickford, president of Highlight Printing, is a veteran of the printing industry. Since 1984 she has worked her way up through many areas of the industry before acquiring Highlight Printing in 1996 with her husband Don, who has also been in printing since the early 80’s. The things she continues to find most satisfying are the wonderful business relationships that have developed with clients, vendors, & co-workers, and the energy that is created from challenge resolution. You can email her directly at lisab@highlightprinting.com
This Printing Blog was launched in November, 2008, as a vehicle to share ideas, information, and innovationsTo see other topics within this blog, click HERE.
Highlight Printing, Minneapolis, MN: Business Stationery Production Methods
Business Stationery: Digital Printing or Offset Printing…or a combination?
In our experience, most identity packages are 2-3 spot colors and it used to be that every component (letterhead, envelopes, business cards, and labels) was printed via offset printing. Lately, we are seeing a shift in the acceptability of using offset printing for some items and digital printing on others. Digital printing and offset printing do not match perfectly…perhaps they never will. So the deciding factors come down to these 2 things:
*Is the difference either within tolarable ranges, or can the package be designed in such a way to have the differences be an asset?
And
*Budget
2 recent examples of using a combination of digital printing and offset printing:
1. Just yesterday I met with a designer that was assembling an identity package for a customer that has 2 people in their office. Originally, they were only requesting letterhead and business cards, so the designer was considering printing both digitally. (Note – digitally printed letterhead is a whole different subject that I will blog about later.) However, when the client requested various sizes of envelopes as well, it was determined that the letterhead should shift to being printed offset with the envelopes, but the business cards should still print digitally. Factors in the decision included design evaluation (it was determined the end product would be within acceptable ranges) and budget (budget was not tight, but it seemed wasteful to spend the dough where it didn’t need to be spent.)
2. The second example is Highlight’s own stationery package. Our recently re-designed business cards print 4 color digital on the back and 3 color offset on the front. Our letterhead and envelopes will continue to be printed offset. The reasons behind our decision? It will look best produced this way – the 4 color side “pops” a bit more digitally than offset, and it allows us to showcase some of our different capabilites.
These are just a couple examples…with each stationery package it is fun and productive to think these choices through. If you would like to see what we can do for you, we’d be happy to either show you what we have done, or put a sample together specifically for you. Please call us at 612.522.7600 or check out our website @ www.highlightprinting.com
The author, Lisa Bickford, president of Highlight Printing, is a veteran of the printing industry. Since 1984 she has worked her way up through many areas of the industry before acquiring Highlight Printing in 1996 with her husband Don, who has also been in printing since the early 80’s. The things she continues to find most satisfying are the wonderful business relationships that have developed with clients, vendors, & co-workers, and the energy that is created from challenge resolution.
This Printing Blog was launched in November, 2008, as a vehicle to share ideas, information, and innovations.
