Opps...!

 

The above is a great picture that you may have seen doing the rounds at the moment, and is an unfortunate example of using the correct (or incorrect) font for your material.

 

Clearly it should say flickering lights, but whoops, the L and I are a bit close together creating a rather different word than the one they were originally intending.

 

One could argue that as this particular image has gone viral over the last few days, the company has received massive exposure and considerably more than even a decent advertising budget could ever hope to achieve.

 

But it comes down to the fact that that a different font would have been more appropriate.

 

As would an accurate proof reader!

Shrink and Enlarge......bah!

I was visiting the web site of a "competitor" earlier this morning.

I say competitor, they're not really. They're not even in the same city, however they are in the same industry offering a number of similar services, so it's fair to qualify them as a competitor.

 

I am sure that I am not the only one that does similar things, more out of nosiness rather than anything else, but we can sometimes become cocooned in our own little environment so it's good to keep an eye on what's going on out there in the big bad world.

 

Now this was a professionally built web site, which clearly had resulted in a bit of investment from the company involved.

But you know what, it didn't work.

 

I viewed it on my iPhone (other smartphones are available) however the web site wasn't optimised for viewing on the smaller screen. As a result, I had to either shrink or enlarge every single page. Even going back to a page that had been previously viewed, it defaulted back to the "full screen" setting.

 

I found the experience extremely frustrating and I guess that if I was a customer looking to purchase, I would be heading somewhere else pretty quickly.

Wouldn't you?

When a USB memory stick just won't do...

The 44 page instruction manual! No-one said it would be easy.

A completed model along with the sticker set and assembly instruction booklet.

Studio shot used for the outer packaging.

The printed boxes during assembly.

Completed and all ready to go!

 

 

It's not everyday we get to plan and build 200 drillships, however a recently completed project saw us do just that! We were in conversation with our client who wanted something different to hand out to delegates at a recent engineering conference. They felt the usual t-shirts, USB memory sticks and jackets, whilst useful, were not really what they were after, as they wanted something that reflected the engineering nature of the event.

 

The conversation turned to Lego and so started the process of producing their flagship vessel "Stena DrillMAX" made entirely from the famous coloured bricks. We enlisted the services of a professional builder, who working from photographs and other reference material, created the prototype. Initially it was hoped it would incorporate around 400 parts, however the extensive detailing involved with the model soon saw the brick count increase to over 800. We must say however that he did a fantastic job in creating the correct overall look of the vessel.

 

In the meantime, our own design team worked on producing the 44 page assembly manual, together with the self adhesive sticker sets and the outer packaging, all of which were bespoke and unique to this model. Trying to work at the smaller scale and yet keep everything looking proportionally correct took a bit of time and effort from our design team. However the end result was most satisfactory once applied to the finished kits.

 

Over 160,000 small coloured bricks duly arrived from our supplier, and thankfully were already sorted into their kits. All that was left for us to do was assemble the box and insert the assembly instructions, sticker sets and the model itself.

 

Following delivery, the feedback that we've received from our client has been extremely positive. The first batch of kits were recently handed out and were very well received. An inter-office competition quickly developed to see who could build their's the quickest, with the fastest time currently sitting at 3 hours and 28 minutes.

 

Completed model, built by Gareth Falls.

Completed model, built by Geir Johnny Eide.

 

For information on our extensive range of corporate gifts, see www.printagraph.co.uk or telephone +44 (0)1224 893900

A truly interesting project...

 

 

A few weeks back, I mentioned a really interesting project that we were working on, which involved developing a unique corporate gift for a client to present to its VIP guests at a recent event.

 

Once we had created the initial idea, we worked closely with a specialist acrylic company to produce something really special.

 

Hand made from pewter and crystal clear acrylic, it underwent a couple of specification changes throughout its development, which can be seen in this video, however all concerned were truly were delighted with the end result.

 

They are now sitting on desks and display cabinets througout the world.

 

And it all started as a little sketch...

 

Of course, we also offer a huge range of personalised corporate gifts which are available to view on our promotional products web site.

 

 

Professional Illustrator...

 

Received some really nice feedback this morning from a supplier. We've been working on a new publication and his illustrations have been instrumental in its development.

 

It has recently been sent to print and is due shortly. However he was kind enough to offer the following feedback:

 

" I must say I thouroughly enjoyed working on this job, you're a great project manager. Cheers, Graham"

 

We're all really looking forward to having the book ready to deliver to our client later this week.

 

To contact Graham and for details on his talents, you can click here>

The Crown Jewels...

It's been an interesting couple of days hasn't it!

 

It seems all the talk is either about Prince Harry and his crown jewels or the decision by Aberdeen City Councillors not to proceed with the Union Terrace Gardens (UTG) project.

 

It really has split opinion throughout the city and opened up an amazing opportunity for  open debate. There didn't really seem to be any in-between: you were either for it (as most people seemed to be) or against it, however despite the public referendum showing the majority of Aberdonians wanted it to proceed, there really wasn't much in it at all. Likewise, with the council vote, it went 20:22 against, with one person abstaining (a disgraceful decision on such an important debate).

 

But should we be upset that they voted the way they did, or should we applaud them for actually voting and putting it out of its misery once and for all?

 

What is now clear however, is the £50m donation from Sir Ian Wood has now been withdrawn. And whatever way you look at it, that is particularly disappointing.

 

But who can blame him? Really, he's trying to give something back to the city that has rewarded him so well, and he's had it spat back at his face. I even read someone referring to him as a bully and a "oil pri*k". Hmm, seems a tad harsh but I guess that everyone is entitled to their opinion.

 

So really, there have been no winners. UTG will continue to decay as it has been for many years, the heart of the city being stangled like a slow and pain full heart attack.

 

It's a sad day all round.

Is it really over...?

We were having a discussion in the office the other morning, in which we were trying to decide if the golfing season was over.

of course we all agreed, that it's getting towards the end of summer (hahaha) and the evenings are beginning to draw in faster.

And yet, this morning, in torrential rain, players continue to tee off throughout the country.

Is there really a 'season' any more?

Well if you are carrying on playing, no matter what the weather, you should probably check out our new golf only web site, offering some fantastic deals for golfers of all ages and abilities.

www.printagraphgolf.co.uk

Go TeamGB...

The achievements of TeamGB in London are fantastic. They have held us by the seat of our pants as they set World Record after Word Record on their way to Olympic Gold.

However one of the other fantastic achievements is the speed at which the Royal Mail have created and released their Gold Medal Winner stamps!

The print technology available today is fantastic and generates lots of opportunities for short run, fast turnaround print.

Our Xerox iGen4 is a perfect example of how state of the art technology can turn around important print orders extremely fast (perhaps not as fast as Sir Chris Hoy & Co but nevertheless...) making the seemingly impossible deadline seem possible after all.

For details of our digital facilities, give us a call on 01224 893900.

In the meantime...GO TeamGB!!

Some water, some cookies and a rat named Roland...

It's been an interesting week so far.

Most weeks are interesting, however this one is really going to town.

With the seemingly never ending rain taking a toll on our roof, it finally gave up the brave fight. And on Monday night the sales office floor took a liking to all the water. Fortunately damage was minimal and disruption to the delivery process was zero. Just don't mention the smell.

To cheer everyone up, we thought it would be great idea to overdose on mini-muffins from those Fabulous Bakin' Boys. So far, it's fair to say that's it's working!

However the highlight of the week (cue Harry Hill Style music) "It's the Printagraph Highlight of the Week" was the unexpected visit from a furry little rodent that wandered in through the back door and decided to make it's presence known! Affectionately nicknamed Roland (you could certainly never refer to us as un-original), our latest recruit obviously felt quite at home in the Office Products Office and appeared nonplussed at the numerous attempts to remove him.

Eventually he was captured and released unharmed back into the wild.

Might As Well Think Big...

"I like thinking big. If you're going to be thinking, you might as well think big"

A quote from Donald Trump which you can find on our business supplies page at www.printagraph.co.uk

And speaking about big, we have over 22,000 products available for next day delivery! How much bigger do you want?! By maintaining substantial stocks of day to day lines, we are able to negotiate the best possible terms with manufacturers, which in turn enables us to offer competitive pricing on the lines most regularly ordered by our customers. This way, our customers gain the greatest cost savings on the products used the most.

Read more>

A Little More About Colour...

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.

These are the primary colours for print.

Where we all grew up knowing Yellow and blue make green and Yellow and red make orange, the printing industry grew up knowing that varying the quantities of cyan, magenta, yellow and black creates an endless array of colours to print.

PMS stands for Pantone Matching System colours. There can be so much variation in colour using CMYK that Pantone set out to create a system that allowed for consistent colour. This way a designer can create a logo that will print consistently from job to job an printer to printer.

PMS colours can streamline the process of printing and cut down on cost. CMYK colour always requires four plates to be made for a print to be made, while a carefully crafted one or two colour logo using PMS colours only needs two to print.

Thanks to our friends at www.the-printer.net for use of their information.

How to make a good idea, a better one!

We're working on a project at the moment, and it's been fascinating to watch how its developed over the last few weeks. This particular client is always open to suggestions and willing to listen to proposals.

So when they approached us with a great idea, we helped make it an even better one. In fact the end product bears very little resemblance to the initial idea. However everyone is of the opinion that it will do the job much better too.

We'll hopefully manage to show some photos of how the project has developed in the near future, subject to client approval of course, however for the time being, everything has to remain under wraps.

Everyone has to start somewhere...

It's been said that most deals are agreed on the golf course. Well, given that I spent most of my time trying to retrieve mis-hit balls out of the rough, I'm not entirely sure how that happens!

It's always nice to spend time with clients out of the office in a more relaxed atmosphere. However as a beginner to the great game, I've had a fair bit of apprehension when playing with more experienced players. But without fail, each one has accepted me as a newby, understanding the "everyone has to start somewhere" mantra and been falling over themselves to offer me valuable advice as a result of their years of experience. Without it, I'd as well not bother.

A bit like us when it comes to design, print and marketing services :-)

To tell or not to tell...That is the question!

To tell or not to tell.

That's the question.

This morning, I got dressed and got ready for work.

I took my daughter to nursery and spoke casually with her carers about the improved weather and the busy car park amongst other things.

I drove to work.

Wished every a one good morning and settled about undertaking the tasks for the day.

I got up and down a few times to participate in conversation, make coffee, stretch the legs, and take time out away from the PC monitor.

And then at 11am. It happened.

A discovery that filled me with dread.

I discovered my trouser zip was still down.

Noooo. When did that happen? Had I forgotten to pull it up when I got dressed? Has it been down all morning? Maybe my daughter caught it as I dropped her at nursery.

Somebody must have noticed.

But nobody said anything.

Which begs the question...to tell or not to tell!

Litho -v- Digital

One of the questions that I'm often asked is "why choose litho over digital" and vice versa. In order to answer that, it is important to understand a few differences between the two similar, yet very different, processes.

In the red corner we have Litho, short for Lithography, is the more traditional process, and involves ink being applied to paper as it makes a journey through a system of rollers. Ink can either be applied as individual spot colours (more on that later) or CMYK colours (more commonly known as full colour). It takes a little while to make ready the press, which involves mixing and testing ink, making and setting plates and then running test sheets. All of this takes place before the job has even started on the press. As a result of the time involved in making ready, it really only works out economical to run larger quantities, as the same set up time and cost is involved no matter what the final quantity that is run. So smaller quantities can sometimes seem artificially expensive.

In the blue corner Digital, is perfect for short run work and in particular variable data.  Variable data is the process involved in making each sheet different, for example different contact names, which means it's ideal for short run, targeted marketing pieces. Unlike litho, you can run 500 sheets and each one can be different from the last one. It's also generally much quicker as there are no make readies in between each order, which means customer orders can be completed in order to meet that "needs to be ready yesterday" deadline!

So really, there's a case for both processes, depending on your final application. We've got extensive litho and digital facilities in house at Hillview Road so have the best of both worlds.

1473? A fine year, or the number of golf products...

With the start of the 2012 Open Championships at Royal Lytham & St Annes only a few hours away, we have 1473 promotional items related to golf currently available on our website for personalisation.

That's correct: 1473!

Check them all out here or click on the photo above.

Sometimes, even Mount Everest seems easy...

"Lack of planning on your part, does not constitute a crisis on mine!"

I love this quote.

I read it on a recent Tweet and thought it was hilarious.

Of course in reality, any service provide will do whatever they can to assist in a time of crisis.

No-one ever likes to see a customer in trouble. There are always circumstances that see the last letterhead in the box used before anyone notices. Or a new employee has an exhibition to attend and discovers they're a bit short on marketing collateral.

At Printagraph, we'll always do what we can to help out. We'll always tell it straight. If you've given us a mountain to climb, we'll tell you.

And then we'll fit our crampons and get climbing.

It reminds me of another famous quote: "The customer isn't always right, but they're always the customer"

Business cards? Yes we do!

There's a really interesting thread running at the moment over on Aberdeen Business Network all about business cards.

http://aberdeenbusinessnetwork.ning.com/forum/topics/hey-i-just-met-you-and-this-is-crazy

Just doing my job...

It's always nice when a client takes the time to contact you and let you know that they're happy with an order (let's face it, we're always quick enough to react when we're not happy).

So it was pleasing to receive this feedback following the recent completion and delivery of an order "Just received USB stick with company logo from Grant/Printagragh which are amazing "

Thanks Tom.

Be Our Guest...

It was really nice to spend the afternoon showing a group of clients around our production factory at Printagraph.


We have a fantastic resource and it was satisfying to witness their genuine awe at some of the stuff going on!

Evolution...it's a wonderful thing!

During my recent meetings, it's been interesting to hear that some people still perceive Printagraph as purely a printer. Not that there's anything wrong with that, many people still make a decent living by being just a printer. However throughout the last 30 years, we've evolved into something much more!

Of course, printing remains a core element of our business, add to that our internal design team, our digital print and large format exhibition departments and we've pretty much got it all covered as far as print is concerned.

However we've also got a division dedicated purely to personalised business gifts, all of which can be viewed on-line.

Another division that specialises in day-to-day office supplies, along with larger items such as furniture and complete office refurbishments.

We've even got a team of specialists that supply and maintain office printers and copiers.

So, as you can see, "from thought to finish, we really do deliver"

A Cuddly Friday Moment...

All at once now...Awwwww.

Cute. And yes I mean the bear.

One of the more cuddly promotional gifts that we do.

More memory than we know what do to with...

Absolutely love these USB torches that we recently delivered to a customer.

This 4GB keyrings can hold 1904 photographs, 952MP3 music files or 7.62 feature length movies.

Or a hell of a lot of word files!

You can view our entire range of promotional gifts here>

The Pen is Mightier...

Here's our latest promotional pen, which is available in many different colour combinations. However we think silver and black looks real sexy...

Click on the photo to view our entire range of personalised promotional products or click here.http://printagraph.co.uk/index.php/promotional-products

So, why "Business Cards, Letterheads & Other Stuff"...

So, why did I choose Business Cards, Letterheads & Other Stuff... as the title of my blog.

Well, it's sort of an in-joke and anyone from within the industry will understand where I'm coming from.

One of the most popular, and similarly frustrating, questions that I'm asked is "do you do business cards?"

The answer is of course, yes, along with letterheads and 'other stuff'.

But sort of other stuff, I hear you ask?

Well the list is fairly exhaustive, however you can take a look at the company website for more information...

...and then call me on 07584 473738.

As One Door Closes....

The old saying suggests that as one door closes, another one opens.


Today, my door to Printagraph opens.


Here goes...