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.

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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