Gimbel & Associates Blog

Unlike one-dimensional digital ads, printed marketing materials connect with more of our senses. You can you see vividly printed pieces, but you can also touch, feel, and even smell them.

A printed piece appeals to us visually and makes us want to touch it. We become engaged at a deeper neurological level. This heightened response makes us more receptive to messages conveyed through print. Printers can intensify this haptic response with embellishments that add tactile appeal.

Printers have historically performed embossing, debossing, foiling, die cutting, spot varnishing, and raised UV in post-press production, often outsourcing the work. Today, printers can embellish documents in-house. Some techniques can even be performed inline on an offset or digital press.

Printing can be alluring. The technology is fascinating and the end result, with its popping colors and textured finishes, can be a feast for the eyes. But behind the fancy ink and substrates, there’s a business to run. If you’ve ever considered starting a print company, make sure you have a firm handle on all the variables before jumping into the business. Also, keep in mind that some of the biggest printing firms started as a dream in a basement or a garage.

Establishing or expanding a printing business can be a complex undertaking that requires a lot of strategizing, planning, and a good business plan. Let’s run through the key areas of that plan.

Printers often focus on how a project looks. Are the colors right? Is the registration exact? Any smears or smudges? Are the graphics and text sharp and clear? These are all important, of course, but we usually base the analysis on what we can see, hold, and touch. How often do you consider the suitability of a printed piece for someone with a disability? Nearly a quarter of the global population is disabled, and regulations like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) make looking at a piece from an accessibility aspect important.

Digital printing has been an intrinsic part of the printing industry for over two decades, yet many printers still struggle with finding a successful sales strategy. Even the term itself has gone through various iterations, and the technology has evolved considerably over those 20-plus years.

For our purposes, we’ll take a broad view of digital printing, encompassing the first-out-of-the-gate toner technology, followed by inkjet and its incursion into most applications including flexo. Digital technology also has been a game changer for finishing, with raised UV, die-cutting, foils, and specialty inks.

How many of us have the time of day to sit and listen to the myriad of webinars being advertised in all industries.? After a year of being stuck in your house attached to Zoom, you are probably dealing with virtual exhaustion. We all want to get back out there and see actual live versions of clients and associates. But webinars are still an important way of getting first-hand information on what other print and graphics professionals have experienced, how they changed course to increase business and where they see the future of our industry. Here is a short report from one recent webinar you may have missed.

Fonts have personalities and convey different moods. A typeface or font matched to the personality or attributes of a specific individual or group can be the element that makes designs resonate with the viewer. Today’s variable printing technology makes it possible to match typography to audiences, but font usage in variable documents can be tricky. Fonts will display differently, depending on their attributes.

Font Considerations for Variable Documents

When designers create a variable project, they leave spaces in the documents into which the software will place the variable text. Since data files are not always available at design time, designers may guess at how much space to reserve for the variable data. Choosing too large a font for the data will cause unwanted line wraps or printing over static graphics or text. A too-small font results in odd-looking unused document spaces.

Recent studies show that there have been 66 school shootings since 2019. With the steady increase in these events, protection from active shooters has become a high priority for schools across the county. Once of these protections is called “target hardening.”

Target hardening is the process of making a school building a more difficult, or unattractive, target for violence and is one of the strategies schools have used to try and reduce the possibility of violence. Target hardening strategies include armed security on campus, keypad entries, metal detectors and safety and preparedness drills.

In-plant printing centers operate in an in-between world. They’re not commercial printers who must constantly hustle for business, but their continued existence is not guaranteed, either. The traditional model for in-plants to passively print documents for internal departments no longer works well. In many instances, those departments can outsource work to third-party printers or turn jobs over to staff members who may have only a passing acquaintance with design and production.

In this environment, we recommend in-plant centers develop strategic approaches that keep their operations relevant and thriving. In-plants can build a good strategy around adding value, selling services, and a little self-promotion.

Data, as they say, is king. But data, in its raw form with lines of numbers, can be challenging for readers to absorb and process, especially if you want them to discern key themes or trends.

The human mind processes information in various ways. Writers and communicators can produce reams of copy but, depending on what is being communicated, this approach is not a welcoming or interesting presentation. By itself, copy and numbers are not visually appealing, they don’t draw us in or encourage retention. Most of us, however, are receptive to visual information, that’s just how our minds work best. That is particularly true when dealing with data.

The best way to drive home a point that includes data is with data visualization.

In the early 90’s, VDP was the anxiously awaited “next big thing.” The concept was solid. The dream persevered as the industry impatiently awaited fast enough network file transfer speeds and on-demand press output capacity. Undaunted early adopters tested the waters and proved the value. Over time it became a viable option for any printer who wanted to play.

In parallel we experienced the advent of internet publishing and the scramble to figure out how to monetize it. Company resources became focused on figuring out online marketing. Marketing attention to VDP direct mail was sidelined, eclipsed, or incorporated. The same underlying concepts for VDP served as the foundation for the (then) shiny new data-driven web sites, digital marketing, and marketing automation.

Well before the pandemic, Gimbel & Associates published “Making Your Event a Success” to help print industry professionals plan and execute in-person events. This free guide is still available and includes useful tips about any kind of event, whether in-person or virtual. You’ll find in the library section of rogergimbel.com.

Click Here to Register for Our Complimentary Webinar!

Gimbel & Associates Sr. Consultant for New Market Development, Randall Swope, will be the featured speaker delivering  an insightful 1-hr complimentary webinar on when and how to hire a business consultant.

Hiring a Consultant is not an easy decision to make, but it is an important one! Consultants generally save companies both time and money.

The story of color is changing. An overenthusiastic use of loud, bright hues in recent years has, ironically, dulled their impact. Perhaps we’re all yearning for more mellow, calming

experiences, or perhaps we simply want a visual change. Whatever the actual reasons, design trends are shifting to a more muted, less vibrant color palette.

With that in mind, let’s consider how the printing process can affect color choices and see how to use color cost-effectively without reducing its visual appeal. Besides the amount of ink needed to print a brochure or a wine label, crucial elements such as the number of colors, and the paper or other substrates on which the images are printed, have a great effect.

A difficult, painful lesson from 2020 is that sometimes we simply have no control. But, while we can’t change the course of a pandemic, we can control how we react to it and move past it.

So, onward to the hope of 2021 and to thinking about how to position your company for the expected recovery. Projected GDP growth will reach 3.7% this year and, according to industry association Printing United Alliance, commercial printing will grow by 2.5% to 4%.