Today I witnessed a beautiful thing and the story is worth recounting. It started with a random call with a customer, and just a little bit of conversation and suddenly they discovered that we actually did print magazines and brochures. We then had the opportunity to quote for a large holiday brochure, within 24 hours we had won the quote for the holiday brochure and were awaiting the supplied artwork. This arrived within the next day and the job was booked in and passed into production, where the studio began pagination for the holiday brochure. Proofs were ran, passed and then sent to plate, where the job was loaded onto the press and printed in a most efficient manner. From there it was matt laminated and gloss spot UV'd with embossing and perfect bound. In my mind a beautiful thing, the whole company working in synch to provide a product for the customer, in this case their holiday brochure, which we all took pride in.
The lesson we learnt was that no matter how much we think, the customer isn't necessarily aware of the range of capabilities on what we can actually produce. We have great equipment but most especially staff. They are capable of turning out high quality work, we just want you the customer to know that. So if you ever wonder who can I ask to print my magazines and brochures give us a call. Check us out on social media to find out more about us, or ring for a free quotation, our staff really are happy to help.
Thursday 24 November 2011
Thursday 17 November 2011
Artwork Formats For Your Printer
Well this is the daddy of all posts, today we are going to talk generically about artwork formats for your printer. In the world as it is today, the customer tends to want to provide their own artwork, for very good reasons:
All of the above reasons are valid and we would never argue with a customer's wants and needs. Now with a range of products across our business, each department has very different needs in what they specifically require. Our best advice in all instances is to approach your printer to discuss artwork and artwork format before you send it in or even start it.
It is not always correct thinking to assume that by supplying us artwork it is going to keep costs down, quite often customer supplied artwork will require much more work to get it to a level where we can use it, also the software that comes free on a pc is completely different to the professional software designed specifically for print purposes.
Another source of artwork supplied to us for use is from your websites. This artwork is much lower resolution than we require because it is only needed as a visual reference, also there will be colour issues because of the colour spaces used between the different mediums.
The point of this post is to make the customer think before supplying their own artwork. We have managed to avoid all of the technical jargon and formats etc, because it isn't necessary. Just that we communicate before any wasted time is spent on both parties efforts.
Lastly, if you are going to supply the artwork, make sure it is finalised, because changes will involve starting again in most cases and seriously impacts on time.
Make sure you follow us on twitter and like us on facebook to get the latest news and offers from The Wealden group
- They know what they want
- They want to keep costs down
- They have software bundled in with a personal computer
All of the above reasons are valid and we would never argue with a customer's wants and needs. Now with a range of products across our business, each department has very different needs in what they specifically require. Our best advice in all instances is to approach your printer to discuss artwork and artwork format before you send it in or even start it.
It is not always correct thinking to assume that by supplying us artwork it is going to keep costs down, quite often customer supplied artwork will require much more work to get it to a level where we can use it, also the software that comes free on a pc is completely different to the professional software designed specifically for print purposes.
Another source of artwork supplied to us for use is from your websites. This artwork is much lower resolution than we require because it is only needed as a visual reference, also there will be colour issues because of the colour spaces used between the different mediums.
The point of this post is to make the customer think before supplying their own artwork. We have managed to avoid all of the technical jargon and formats etc, because it isn't necessary. Just that we communicate before any wasted time is spent on both parties efforts.
Lastly, if you are going to supply the artwork, make sure it is finalised, because changes will involve starting again in most cases and seriously impacts on time.
Make sure you follow us on twitter and like us on facebook to get the latest news and offers from The Wealden group
Tuesday 8 November 2011
Social Media
What is social media? Can it help my business? What social media do you use?
What is social media?
Social media is about connecting with like minded individuals and passing information and sharing content, otherwise known as web 2.0, this is an exciting time to be involved in the internet as you can reach out across the world and tap into potential customers, for instance, I reached out on my birthday through youtube and facebook to say hello to people and spread my message as far as I could across the world, it went to New Zealand, Australia, Falklands and America. This is a simple illustration of how far you can get your company message across.
Can it help my business?
If you can link with people that have a need for your product or information then social media can be a huge benefit to your business. The misconception here, is that numbers or hits are what you are after. Imagine, if you opened your doors to allow 10000 people through, you may consider that great or worthwhile, but if none of them are interested in your product or information then why were they there in the first place. But what if you had 10 people that had a huge interest in your product and they came in, are you more likely to sell to them? This is how social media should be used, find people that have an interest, engage with them and don't try to sell to them.
What Social Media Do You Use?
There are loads of places to start but get involved in youtube, facebook, twitter and google+. Just these few places will take enough of your time, keep a consistent image across all those areas and be prepared to talk, listen and answer. Find out where your likely customers are hanging out, they may have a forum that they congregate in. You need to be where they are.
You can connect with us, via the links on this page and we welcome the opportunity to engage with you. Hopefully you will see from our social that our message is, quality printing, reliable service and helpful people.
Good luck and enjoy your social media.
What is social media?
Social media is about connecting with like minded individuals and passing information and sharing content, otherwise known as web 2.0, this is an exciting time to be involved in the internet as you can reach out across the world and tap into potential customers, for instance, I reached out on my birthday through youtube and facebook to say hello to people and spread my message as far as I could across the world, it went to New Zealand, Australia, Falklands and America. This is a simple illustration of how far you can get your company message across.
Can it help my business?
If you can link with people that have a need for your product or information then social media can be a huge benefit to your business. The misconception here, is that numbers or hits are what you are after. Imagine, if you opened your doors to allow 10000 people through, you may consider that great or worthwhile, but if none of them are interested in your product or information then why were they there in the first place. But what if you had 10 people that had a huge interest in your product and they came in, are you more likely to sell to them? This is how social media should be used, find people that have an interest, engage with them and don't try to sell to them.
What Social Media Do You Use?
There are loads of places to start but get involved in youtube, facebook, twitter and google+. Just these few places will take enough of your time, keep a consistent image across all those areas and be prepared to talk, listen and answer. Find out where your likely customers are hanging out, they may have a forum that they congregate in. You need to be where they are.
You can connect with us, via the links on this page and we welcome the opportunity to engage with you. Hopefully you will see from our social that our message is, quality printing, reliable service and helpful people.
Good luck and enjoy your social media.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)