In part one of this blog I mentioned ways to work with your printer to save costs. Now, I’m going to address ways you can plan ahead on projects to ensure you’re producing pieces in the most cost-effective way.
Be flexible with paper choices. Most printers carry “house” stocks that they purchase in large volumes and keep in stock. By using house papers instead of specifying stocks you can save considerable money. For example, on letterhead you might usually spec Classic Crest but your printer might have a house uncoated text that looks the same—the savings can be substantial based on quantity.
Use conventional sizes. 8.5×11 or 9×12 are the most cost-effective sizes for brochures and folders. Unique sizes may seem fun and interesting, but sometimes they don’t fit on parent sheets, which increases costs.
Group pieces together. Take advantage of opportunities to “gang run” items of the same stock and color. It’s an excellent way to save paper and money.
Smaller quantities? Go digital. Digital printing has come a long way. There are many paper options now that weren’t available a few years ago and, quality has improved dramatically. Digital isn’t great for larger quantities—anything over 1000 pieces—but for small jobs it’s a cost-effective fit!
Do you have tips or money-saving print ideas you can offer?
You may remember my post about the importance of selecting the correct typeface to help brand your company. I even got a little emotional and drooled over the Periodic Table of Typefaces.
Of course I enjoy designs that are “clean” and “simple” with beautiful type treatment and lots of white space, but as much as I am a believer in type, I’ve been reminded lately that designers can’t live by type alone.
I ran across this site, texturelovers.com and it reminded me how adding texture in design can also deliver a feeling and emotion to the person interacting with your product—even that office chair you’re sitting in right now makes you feel a certain way.
Texture gives your product dimension, it makes someone want to reach out and get closer. If your product or company were a texture, what would it be?
Times are tight, we have to spend smarter. I’d love to say I have great investment advice to give, but it’s best to stick with what I know—printing and paper.
In my 12+ years of print purchasing, I’ve picked up a few tips that I’d like to share to help you save some money on your printing projects.
Get your printer involved from the beginning. Your printer can make some excellent recommendations to help reduce costs, just ask. Sometimes, something as simple as reducing the size of your piece by a half-inch can lead to significant cost savings.
When your project requires mailing, have your print rep work backwards to advise you on how to layout your piece to meet USPS standards for the best postage rate classification available. In some cases, this could amount to hundreds of dollars in postage savings.
Allow at least 48-72 hours for estimating. This will give your printer more time to find the most cost-effective way to print your project.
Do you have any tips to share about working with a printer?
Sometimes taking care of business in the business-to-business business means people can get wrapped up in other peoples’ business. More specifically, we tend to focus heavily on what competitors’ or partners’ communications look like—browsing through trade magazines or other places that our own ads and messages may appear. Not that this is a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing. But, looking outside of your business is where ingenuity happens.
So, I suggest you remove the horse blinders on your business-to-business projects and look in all directions for inspiration and ideas. Here is one that caught my attention lately.
Children’s Books
Some of us parents have an excuse to read them again and again and again, for others this could be your chance. Often these books are printed with really extravagant techniques using special papers, inks, even sound and animation. Sure, your client is a widget company that might question your sanity when you use the animated teddy bear in their annual report. They might not mind, however, if you took the same technique and used it to show how their widget works, moves and behaves in a visually engaging way.
So, where do you find inspiration? Any good children’s books you’ve read lately (I’m always looking)? How many times can you use “business” in one sentence? Please share in the comments.
I consider myself fortunate that my job allows me to feed my obsession with paper. Recently, my attention has turned to tree-free paper options—as they are becoming more affordable and honestly, more interesting. It seems the days of high-priced, tree-free papers are fading fast, as more companies are creating unique alternatives to wood fiber paper.
Some common and more popular sources of tree-free paper are kenaf, bamboo, jute and bagasse (sugar cane). These options are so common in fact, that there are crops grown specifically for the purpose of making paper (a great resource I’ve found for tree-free paper options is www.conservatree.com). While these are great options for making tree-free paper, my excitement really lies in some of the more unique sources for paper making.
In my opinion, elephant dung is one of the more fantastic options for making paper. I’m not sure why I find this so intriguing; it just is. The elephant’s diet is very fibrous, which makes it great for paper! A few more wonderful treeless options include abandoned birds’ nests, and my all time favorite, rocks.
My only struggle with these tree-free paper options is trying to find an appropriate way to tell a client we’d like to print their project on poop!
Photo courtesy of MrElliePoo.com
Are you printing with any unique tree-free papers? Please share some of your favorite wood fiber paper alternatives with me.
