Looking Back, Moving Forward
December 21, 2011 | 
Author 
As 2011 comes to close, it’s time we set our sights to 2012 and begin to plan for the upcoming year. This entry was supposed to be about just that: 2012 and lots of upbeat tidbits about the print industry, direct mail, marketing print collateral, etc.
However, while gathering some snazzy charts and mind-blowing statistics, I stumbled across a PDF of The American Printer. The American Printer is a printing trade publication whose mission is “be the most reliable and authoritative source of information on integrating tomorrow’s technology with today’s management.” The American Printer has a very nice, informative website that addresses the needs and wants of commercial printers. But what stopped me in my tracks was that the PDF I found was Volume 59, Number 5, from January 1915. Back then, the yearly subscription was $3.00.
What was interesting was the fact that many of articles still hold water today. If you’ve ever read a magazine from that time era, you’ll know that the writing was generally verbose. What took up three columns could have been said in just one. However, the messages were still relevant. Some articles focused on the importance of knowing your product and understanding the cost of running your business. Makes sense, right? Others focused on knowing your customer and anticipating their needs and wants. Right-on! A few spoke about the economy and how the war was causing the price of materials to go up, namely tin and other metals which were used in typesetting. We endure such circumstances today!
As a printer, what caught my attention were the advertisements in the back of the journal. Black and white illustrations of huge printing presses with hundreds of wheels, gears, belts, knobs and switches. A few ads featured photographs of a pressman operating such a machine – dressed in a fine suit, no less. The press was so easy to operate, he didn’t even have to put on an apron or roll up the sleeves of his crisp, white shirt. Scroll below to see some examples.
Some of the manufacturers of these machines are still in business. Others are long gone. Many of the presses have gotten smaller and computer chips have replaced the many gears, belts, buttons and knobs. But they still do the same thing. They print. They print YOUR image. They print YOUR message. They produce something tangible that your customer can hold and touch and perhaps pin it to their wall or stick in their wallet. And when they see it, they’ll think of you.
So, as you plan for 2012, don’t forget your print plan. Go ahead and include email and social media, but don’t forget print. After all, 96 years of the American Printer can’t be wrong.
Ready to Print? Contact First Impressions Printing at 845-692-4490 or visit our website at www.firstimpressionsny.com!
State of the Art Paper Cutter from 1914
Modern State of the Art Paper Cutter
Presses for $18.00 are L-O-N-G Gone!
State of the Art Folding Machine from 1914
Modern State of the Art Folding Machine
While numbering machines haven't changed much in 96 years, the price sure has. What cost $5.00 back then is now $30.00.
Happy Thanksgiving!
With all the rush, hustle and bustle, get-things-done-yesterday, mindset of today, here at First Impressions we wanted to take a moment and wish our customers and their families a very Happy Thanksgiving.
We are thankful for our family, friends, employees, customers and community for supporting us during this past year. Thanks to you, First Impressions continues to grow and be successful.
Have a safe and wonderful holiday!
Making A Difference In Our Community
Earlier this year, we were called upon to take part in ABC’s hit show, Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The Korpai Family, from the Town of Crawford, was chosen to have their home renovated to accommodate their 5 year old daughter, Haley. Haley is a strong, vibrant, outgoing little girl who was born with dwarfism. Living in the family’s older home, Haley found it difficult to complete the simplest of tasks – walking up and down the steep staircase, reaching her clothes in the closet, brushing her teeth at the bathroom sink and even looking out the window.
For seven non-stop days, the many volunteers from the Town of Crawford and the greater Hudson Valley area, came together and not only built a beautiful home for Haley and her family, but also a state-of-the-art community center which serves as headquarters for the local chapter of Little People of America. The result was not only a magnificent home where Haley can be an independent five-year-old, but an overall feeling of community and camaraderie that is often missing in our busy lives these days.
While First Impressions Printing played just a small part in this great event, we are proud of our contribution and wish the Korpai Family many, many years of happiness in thier new home.
Click here to learn more about this episode by watching the intro clip with Ty Pennington and his team as they head to Korpai Family home in the Town of Crawford, NY. Want to see the full episode? Click here.
Posted in Community Service, Testimonials | 
Tags: community service, extreme makeover home edition, giving back, greater good, testimonials | 
No Comments »
Happy Holidays in October?!
While visiting Home Depot® this past Columbus Day Weekend, I was met with an extravagant display of Christmas trees, wreaths, lights, moving reindeer, ho-ho-ing life-like Santa’s, Hanukkah Menorahs, giant Dreidels and other December holiday fare.
Yikes! Halloween is still 3 weeks away and the witches and ghouls are making their way to the discount aisle already!
So, how soon is too soon to start spreading the Holiday cheer? Well, if you own a business, then the time is NOW to purchase your Holiday greeting cards. You’ll want to give yourself enough time to sign, address and mail them before the holiday rush and inevitable slow-downs at the post office.
You may ask yourself: Do I need to send out holiday cards? In short, the answer is yes. Here’s why:
Generate goodwill. It’s a great way to greet your clients, vendors and other contacts on a more personal tone and not as a direct sales pitch.
Brand your business. By including your logo, slogan and business name, you reinforce your brand. Perfect for those clients whose last contact was in July!
Revive Dead Accounts. Send holiday cards to “dead” accounts. Include a quick note stating that you miss their business and are standing by to work with them again.
Offer gratitude. A holiday card is the perfect medium to say “thank you” for their business over the past year.
Get Noticed. Holiday cards tend to get opened and read more than a regular direct mail campaign.
Now that you’ve decided to send out holiday cards, keep these tips in mind:
Don’t skimp on quality. If your cards look and feel cheap, your clients may get the same impression about you. Your customers may also interpret cheap cards as a sign that your business is struggling. Choose a quality card from a respected vendor.
Know Your Audience. Avoid religious themed cards unless you are mailing to your local church or synagogue list. Stick with Seasons Greeting or Happy Holidays.
Personalize It. Whenever possible, personally sign the cards yourself. If you’re a small enough business, have all employees sign as well. If your list is manageable, handwrite the addresses rather than using printed labels. Choose seasonal postage stamps and mail first class. Nothing says impersonal like a holiday greeting card with a standard mailing permit indicia.
With a little planning, you can build new and existing customer relationships and spread some holiday cheer at the same time. Now that’s a present worth giving AND receiving.
The Language of Print
Every industry has it’s own language. Those in the medical profession use words like “STAT”! Financial planners like to toss around the words “bullish” and “bearish”. The printing industry is no different. We use words like “bleed”, “stripping”, “gripper” and “creep”. Oh, and don’t forget “ghosting”.
While these may sound like words to describe a low-budget horror flick, knowing their meaning when it comes to the printing of your project will help the process run smoothly.
So, here’s a quick list of the top printing terms you should know when using a professional printer.
• Bleed – Printing that extends to the edge of a sheet or page after trimming. When designing your piece, if you want the color or image to run to the very edges of the paper, you need to extend the image 1/8” past the trim lines. Your printer will print on paper larger than your finished size and trip the excess.
• Crop Marks – Crossed lines placed at the corners of an image or a page to indicate where to trim to complete the finished piece.
• Camera Ready – Mechanicals, photographs and art fully prepared for reproduction according to the technical requirements of the printing process being used. Also called finished art and reproduction copy. Huh? In its simplest terms, camera-ready artwork is artwork that is ready to be printed. It requires no touch-up or clean-up.
• Stripping – Assembling images on film for plate making. Stripping involves correcting flaws in film, assembling pieces of film into flats and ensuring that film and flats register correctly. Also called film assembly and image assembly.
• Gripper – Edge of a sheet held by grippers on a sheet-fed press, thus going first through the press. The gripper edge needs to be taken into consideration during the design stage.
• Ghosting – An unwanted condition that occurs when an image on a press sheet also appears faintly elsewhere on the same press sheet. It is due to ink starvation: a shift back and forth from heavy ink coverage to light ink coverage back to heavy ink coverage. For example, surrounding a photograph on four sides with a heavy-coverage solid color might create such an effect. In such an example, you might see a faint image from within the photograph repeated in the solid color. To avoid this, share your design early with your printer. He may be able to position the page on the sheet, or impose the job, in a way that minimizes the chance of ghosting.
• Creep – Phenomenon of middle pages of a folded booklet or brochure extending slightly beyond outside pages.
• Deckle Edge – Edge of paper left ragged as it comes from the papermaking machine instead of being cleanly cut. Also called feather edge. Often used in stationery, invitations and greeting cards.
• DPI – Dots per Inch – A measurement of how many individual dots of ink that a printer can produce within a once-inch space. The more DPI, the higher the resolution of the image, resulting in a sharper and cleaner printed piece.
• Signature – Printed sheet folded at least once, possibly many times, to become part of a book, magazine or other publication.
This is only scratching the surface of the Language of Print, but there’s no need to know ALL of the terms if you’re not a printer. Your printer should be well versed in the Language of Print and will be able to help you understand what is important to your project when it comes to design and the quality of the finished product. To learn more, visit our Print 101 Glossary of Printing Terms.
Printing is Much More Than Words on a Page
When we opened up shop over 20 years ago, our intention was to be a company that can help people and businesses communicate via print. Business cards. Brochures. Stationery. Newsletters. Books. Catalogs. The end result was a tangible, printed product. However, the driving force behind the product was, and still is, communication. The printed materials are simply the means to an end.
Fast forward 20 years and we continue to follow that mission. Help our customers communicate. We do it everyday through art, design, copy and yes, print. But knowing that communication is our goal, we are not content to let new technologies pass us by. We’ve always been ahead of the curve when it comes to printing equipment – from computers to presses to image setters. So it comes naturally to us to embrace the art of communication in a digital world.
Digital? The archenemy of printing? The killer of newspapers and mail order catalogs?
Yes. Digital. Digital and print can live together peacefully. In fact, they can be best of friends. Case in point – the QR Code. The QR Code is the best way to bring the print and digital worlds together. A QR Code is PRINTED, scanned DIGITALLY and COMMUNICATES a message to the user instantly. When done correctly, the end result is both engaging and satisfying for the customer. Businesses using QR Codes can see a lift in ROI, grow their email lists, increase traffic to their websites and brick and mortar stores, or simply raise brand awareness. The possibilities are practically endless.
We are constantly on the lookout for new and innovative ways to help our customers communicate. The QR Code is just a small step into the digital world. What’s next for us? We’re working on that and closely watching what the 900 pound gorillas in the room are doing (Google, Apple, and Microsoft, to name a but a few). But rest assured that print will continue to be a big part of what we do. Print is not dead. Print isn’t even sick. Print is healthy, alive and kicking and preparing for the next best thing. So we will keep you abreast of the changes in communication to come as QR Codes become ubiquitous on both smart-phones and tablets and new multichannel methods come into vogue.
QR Codes That Don’t Deliver
Have you ever ordered your lunch to go only to be disappointed when you get all the way back home or to your office to find that it’s NOT what you ordered? Maybe they forgot the cheese or didn’t put extra pickles on like you asked. That feeling of anticipation as you head home – practically tasting that delicious sandwich, is quickly replaced by feelings of disappointment.
That’s how I feel when I scan a QR code that leads me to a less than exciting destination.
Now that I am aware of QR codes and all of the wonderful things they have to offer, I scan them whenever and wherever I see them. In magazines. On billboards. On postcards. On point-of-purchase displays. If I am taking the time and energy to scan your QR code, could you PLEASE send me to a place that I want to be?
Send me to a cool video featuring your great new product. Send me to an easy to read and execute form so I may enter your latest contest. Send me to a money saving coupon that I can use RIGHT NOW. But whatever you do, PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE, DO NOT SEND ME TO YOUR DESKTOP WEBSITE!
I can’t believe how many ads I see with QR codes and I think “Aren’t they great!” But when I scan and land on their desktop website, I think, “That is so NOT great!” Landing on a desktop site on my mobile device is frustrating. I can’t read your site! I can’t find what I am looking for! Oh – and sending me to a smaller version of your site is a nice attempt, but I still have to scroll and search.
If you want to send me to your website, send me to a MOBILE OPTIMIZED website! A mobile optimized website works on an iPhone, a Blackberry, a Droid – over 5,000 mobile devices. All the information I want to find is right there at my fingertips. No need to make the image bigger, scroll left, scroll down, etc.
I think it’s wonderful that more and more businesses are embracing QR Code technology. But please go the distance and do it right. As consumers become more acquainted with QR codes, their trust in them will falter if the end result is less than engaging, entertaining and beneficial to THEM.
Don’t skimp on the pickles. Give your customer what they want and EXPECT, and they will come back to you again and again and recommend you to their friends, associates and family.
Posted in Mobile Websites, QR Codes | Tags: mobile optimized sites, mobile technology, mobile website, printing qr codes, qr code reader, qr codes | 2 Comments »
Questions to Ask Your Printer Before You Print
Making sure you have all your ducks in a row is important when planning any project – especially when it comes to printing. No printer worth his salt wants to deliver a project that does not meet or exceed the customer’s expectations due to a lack of communication.
Your printer should be covering these, and many more points when you first discuss your project. To include them all would be an endless task, so here are a few vital topics you and your printer should discuss.
1. When will my project be completed?
Oftentimes, this question comes at the END of the initial conversation. It is important to let your printer know when your due date is and if you are on a strict timeline. Knowing upfront what your needs and expectations are will allow your printer to give you the best quote based on your timeline and plan production accordingly.
2. Do you have a minimum order?
Ask if the printer has a minimum order for your job. Some printers require a 500 minimum on business cards or a 250 minimum for brochure. Also keep in mind that as the quantity goes up, the cost per printed piece comes down. It may be beneficial to you to go with a higher quantity now then have to do a reprint in the near future.
3. How should I send my files, and what format should they be?
Check with your printer how you should submit your artwork. Can you bring it in on a disk or flash drive? Can you email the file? Does the printer have an FTP where you can send your larger files? Your printer should be able to accept the most common types of art files – PDFs, JPEGS, EPS, TIFFs, as well as the most common software files – Photoshop, InDesign, and Quark, to name but a few. Make sure your printer can accept, open and use the program you are working in.
4. Will I see a proof?
A printer will send you a proof before going to press. Be careful to check for spelling errors and typos, make sure telephone, email and addresses are correct, and ensure that the colors and layouts match your expectations. Keep in mind that some proofs are for layout and copy only – meaning the color on the proof is not a true representation of the how the color on the finished piece will look. If you require a press proof, be sure to let your printer know beforehand.
5. What’s included in the price?
Clarify what is and what is not included in the price of your project. Things such as design, color correction and binding are sometimes extra items not included in your price quote. And don’t forget to account for shipping and sales tax! If you are a tax-exempt entity, be sure to let your printer know when he quotes your job and that you send him the necessary paperwork.
For more information about design, prepress and printing, be sure to visit the First Impressions Printing website.
What’s Next in Print Technology?
All we can say after watching this video is “WOW!”
While it looks like something out of Star Wars, the implications and possibilities of such technology are mind blowing, to say the least.
There really isn’t much more to say except, after you watch it, we welcome your comments.
Posted in Printing Technology | Tags: 3D printing, printing techniques, printing technology, resin printing, the future of printing | No Comments »
See What QR Codes Are All About!
Here at First Impressions Printing, when we talk about QR Codes to our clients, the response more often than not, is a tilt of the head, a squinting of the eye, and an all around look of curiosity and trepidation. But, once we explain what they are, how they work, and most importantly, how they can be tailored to any business or marketing campaign, the response is a resounding “TELL ME MORE“!
Our experience has shown us that once the client sees the power of the QR Code and a mobile optimized website, they “get it”. Their look of suspicion and bewilderment quickly becomes a look of anticipation and determination as they begin to think of ways to use QR Codes for THEIR business.
We could go on and on all day at the Print Assistant Blog about the benefits of QR codes. But today, we figured we’d show you. So turn up the volume, sit back, maybe grab some popcorn, and watch these informative videos about QR Codes mobile websites.
Miami Herald Tech Review:
From CBS News:
QR Code Scanning in Japan:
QR Codes on CSI:
The Mobile Movement:
Posted in Direct Mail, Graphic Design, Mailing Services, Marketing, Mobile Websites, News from First Impressions, Printing Technology, QR Codes | Tags: graphic design, mobile optimized sites, mobile technology, mobile website, print direct mail, qr code reader, qr codes, quick response code | No Comments »
