Staff Recommended

Paper Advice by Thickness

Feature Advice by Add-Ons

Design Advice

Benefits Our #1 Favorite Brochure Size & Folding Style A new modern size that most clients love, including ourselves, is the 8.5x11 in a half fold as well as a trifold. How to Pick The Right Paper Thickness Our lead business card paper specialist of 18 years, Cory Roland, speaks on picking the right paper type. Hint: Soft touch 19pt suede is #1 CORY RENOLDS: Hi friends! I am often asked, "What is the best paper to print business cards on?" In short, there is not one paper better than another but simply your personal preference. The equivalent would be like asking what the best ice cream flavor is. It is whatever you want it to be and i am here to help you figure out what the best business cards are for you. First, you want to nail down the main categories - paper thickness, paper feel, and paper features. In this tab, i will discuss business card thickness. PAPER THICKNESS: • SUPER THIN BUSINESS CARDS (to be subtle): We offer super thin linen business cards that are as thin as the old school cards that were once the standard business cards thickness back in the '70s. These thin business cards have a 100# textured linen material that is great if you wish to be subtle and fly under the radar in meetings. At times, a client does not wish to enter a meeting having their business card scream, "I'm rich and powerful", because you may be perceived differently. A 100# thin business card keeps them wondering of your dominance. It is just 30# thicker than professional letterheads and has a 15% thickness of a credit card. The next step up in thickness is the 14pt cheap business cards. Great for those that do not wish to have their business image judged and simply wish to use a color business card as a form of contact information transfer and nothing fancy. • MEDIUM THICKNESS (to just get by): The standard business card thickness in today's world is most definitely the Premium 16pt business cards. They possess a 50% thickness of a credit card, have a smooth surface and offer an excellent ink absorption capability. The pricing of 16pt business cards is on the cheap side. They are 2nd in line for our cheap business cards category after the 14pt card stock. These are wonderful for customers looking for something standard quality but not in the impressive category (unless you add foil or spot uv to it) but in terms of thickness - it is an average business card thickness used by the entire industry to print premium business cards. A more impressive card that is slightly thicker is the 17pt silk laminated business cards. A top 5 favorite for many of our clients that offers slightly above average thickness with a very cool surface finish. • ULTRA THICK BUSINESS CARDS (to impress): The other extreme is the ultra-thick 32pt business cards which have a 100% thickness of a credit card. These are excellent if you are looking for a wow effect. These heavy super thick business cards are purposely made to help you stand out. They come in an uncoated surface finish which keeps them elegant and without much flash (until you add the option gold foil stamping to it). They also have a painted edge finish if you're feeling wild! This thickness is perfect if you are wanting to get a big wow effect for an impressive business card in terms of weight, not features. Perfect for hotels, boutiques, fancy department stores or creative types such as designers. • THE PERFECT BUSINESS CARD THICKNESS (for all above average occasions) : In all my years of business card printing - if i was forced to move onto a deserted island and i could only bring one business card material with me, i would without hesitation choose the 19pt soft touch business cards which are our suede business cards. They offer above-average thickness and a super impressive touch that you will rarely ever feel in other business cards. The soft touch business card printing offers an optional raised gold foil stamping feature or a raised spot uv gloss effect - both very cool business card options for the soft touch suede business cards. Types of clients that choose our soft touch business cards with suede laminate are, plastic surgeons, real estate agents, graphic designers, fancy steakhouses, interior designers, and anyone looking to be elegant but without much flash to cheapen your look or feel. It is truly the perfect business card that everyone loves. In a group test of 153 staff members, 97% chose the soft touch business cards of all our business card paper stocks. Yeah, they are super cool! And there you have it, folks! Business card thickness 101. Pick the soft touch suede 19pt business cards - thank me later but have a great day first! Best Wishes, Cory Renolds How to Pick The Right Paper Feature Our lead setup technician of 14 years, Angela Moskal, speaks on picking the right paper features. Hint: Raised spot uv gloss on suede material. ANGELA MOSKAL: Hey guys! I am so delighted to help you with picking the best paper finish. As a designer myself, i often go back and forth on paper features such as gold foil, spot uv or rounded corners. My go-to always is the raised spot uv on the soft touch suede 19pt business cards. It is simply perfect for anyone looking to impress. PAPER FEATURES: • GOLD FOIL STAMPED BUSINESS CARDS (the ultimate wow card): I absolutely LOVE the look of our gold foil stamped business cards - offered on our 17pt silk laminated business cards, 19pt soft touch business cards and our 32pt business cards. Nothing impresses more than gold. May it be on jewelry, watches, business cards or any luxurious trimmings. Like all things in life, the time and place has to call for it. Gold has inspired civilizations for thousands of years, stemming back to Ancient Greece and Egypt. For business cards, the industry you are in has to call for it. It has to represent you and must be done tastefully. An all-black or all-white business cards with minimal gold foil in areas such as your name or web address whispers elegance. If you are looking to dominate an image, gold foil stamped business cards will get compliments 10 out of 10 times. You cannot ever go wrong with it but your company theme and your personality must support it. Flat foil stamping is available for our 17pt silk laminated business cards and our 32pt business cards. We also have a raised gold foil business cards on our 19pt soft touch business cards which is my personal favorite. The perfect feature that applies to all industries is the raised spot uv gloss which i discuss next. Our foil stamping also comes in many other colors such as red foil, blue foil, copper foil, or silver foil. • SPOT UV GLOSS BUSINESS CARDS (the perfect all-around feature for all industries): There is the flat spot uv gloss and the raised spot gloss effect that we offer. The raised spot gloss is a feature that allows you to add gloss only to desired areas in a heightened feel, such as a logo outline while leaving the rest of the card a natural matte finish. The flat spot uv gloss is the same effect but without the added height to the gloss. The names self describe them. Many clients do not want much flash on their card and the absolute best business card feature to always go with is the spot uv gloss. It adds a major wow effect without going overboard. It makes your logos pop much nicer. The flat spot uv is very neat but the raised spot gloss business cards are in a class of their own. You will always get the best compliments on raised gloss no matter your industry. Raised spot gloss is available on our soft touch business cards, also known as suede business cards. • ROUNDED CORNER BUSINESS CARDS: Rounded business cards have been around forever and are very popular among clients that want to show a more playful side without getting into complex features such as gold, silver, spot uv or metallic inks. You can say it is the easiest and simplest feature to a business card. The rounded edge business cards are available for most of our paper finishes such as our 14pt, 16pt, 17pt, and 19pt card stocks. • THE PERFECT BUSINESS CARD FEATURE (for all above average occasions): If I was going with just one feature it would no doubt be the raised spot uv on the soft touch business cards that have the 19pt thickness. I have yet to hear a client say they do not like them. Many call them the best business cards they have ever printed or felt. Pairing both soft touch suede and raised gloss makes it subtle but ultra-unique to the fingertips. You have to try it to appreciate it. Even clients who had no interested in anything impressive end up sticking with it on all their reprints. It does not disappoint! I hope i have helped share some of my insight and experience on my personal favorite, our staff's favorites and our client favorites which universally seems to be our soft touch suede with option raised spot uv gloss. Dream big, Angela Moskal How to Design The Perfect Business Card Our lead graphic designer of 11 years, Michael Parker, speaks on picking the perfect design. Hint: Perfection is what represents you! MICHAEL PARKER: My dear friends! A pleasure to share my lifes work with you. I have designed for clients such as NASA, Lego Toys, Whole Foods, Arm & Hammer and Warner Brothers Studios to share a few of my projects. GRAPHIC DESIGN TIPS AND ADVICE: • BEST COLORS TO USE: Colors undoubtedly play a big role in human psychology. Red says urgency, blue says safe and calm, black purs luxury, shades of green speak peacefully, orange and yellows are friendly and optimistic while gray says balance and neutrality. The colors to choose depend on the emotion to wish to evoke. Restaurant owners should always stick to black, reds, and yellows as those are warm colors that tie into food. A banker or real estate agent tends to do well with blues or greens. If you are in a creative or fun line of work, you can incorporate any color that you personally desire. There is no right or wrong, purely preference but if you are looking to add color to business cards that you wish to be safe with, it is best to follow the color emotion rules that are proven in psychology that i share above. Muted colors show a calmer tone to your business. Neon colors show excitement. If you are in any professional business the colors you choose also fall into the personality of your business. What i like to do when designing the perfect business cards is i create 2-3 very different versions and i ask the opinion of 10 people. I ask them how they feel or percieve the business based on the look. I like to stay nuetral to my work and not fall in love with it so asking others for their option in the end will be the ultimate guide to knowing if you have chosen the perfect colors. • HOW BIG TEXT SIZE SHOULD BE: TThere is no right or wrong text size but there is certainly the rule of never going below the 11pt size. Big text can always be seen as fun or creative but very small text can be frustrating and be seen as poor design work. Small text is certainly creative and modern. Small text is subtle but too small of text is a failed attempt at a modern look. The perfect font size for people of all ages, young or mature is around 12pt. If you wish to get creative you can always pair a large font at around 22pt but you should always stick to no more than 2 font suizes in one design. If you have 7 lines of text and all 7 have different sizes your business cards can look very cluttered. • WHAT CRUCIAL INFO SHOULD BE PRESENT: All contact method of your choice shall be added on there. If you do not wish to have clients call you at random hours of the day, its best to leave operation hours or an email only. Some of our clients leave just a web address as they want to drive traffic to their site and not to a phone rep. One thing for certain is you should always add your logo, the rest is purly up to you and how you wish to operate your business contacts. • WHEN TO ADD PHOTOS: Real estate agents and sales agents tend to always add photos of themselves to their color business cards as the service provided is branded to them personally. Photographers also add a landscape photo to their business card printing. Rarely ever does a photograph belong on a professional business card but if you choose to add a photograph it is always best to add it to only one side. • OVERALL PERFECTION: The perfect business card feedback i receive from clients is always one with neatly organized text that is minimal in colors (2 colors max). The best business cards tend to be simple, minimalistic but with add on features such as spot uv gloss or enhanced paper such as silk laminated business cards or soft touch business cards with suede laminate. A simple business card design can become many times more impressive just by boosting the paper thickness and feel. In all my years of designing business cards, i have found one thing that works best - when in doubt, keep it simple and go with a nicer paper. To be creative is to be truly alive, Michael Parker Benefits of Brochure Marketing Why Brochure Printing is an Essential Part of

Your Print Marketing Campaign





You decided to launch a print and digital campaign for your business. The digital promotional campaign is taken care of, but what about the print side of it? If you want to maximize the benefits of a print promotional campaign for your business, you need to include the basics like a business card, brochures, flyers and letterheads. Here, we will delve a bit deeper into the importance of brochure printing and why it should be a part of any print marketing campaign. Why Should I Print Brochures? First, what are brochures and if you’re a business owner, why should you bother printing them? When you print brochures, you are basically producing a document which contains useful information. What’s written on a brochure could be information about your company, the products or services that you are offering, or a new promotional campaign that you would like readers to learn about. What’s good about brochure printing is that the printed material is tangible, the marketing technique is effective, and it’s one of the cheapest ways to launch an informational campaign. Here are specific instances when brochure printing would be beneficial for you: If you are a new business and you would like people to learn about the products and services that you are offering. On the brochure, you can indicate your company’s history, mission and vision, and give readers a preview about the benefits that they will gain from doing business with you.

If you are an existing business and you have a new product or service that you would like to offer to your target market, print brochures to effectively get your message across. If you’re offering women’s products, for example, and you are launching a new line of organic facial cleansers, design a brochure which you can distribute in your brick-and-mortar store or send to your mailing list. Add a discount code or freebies and watch your initial sales grow in no time! If you are rebranding, changing your image, reaching out to a broader market, or adding a different age range to your existing clientele, brochure printing is the way to go. Rebranding means that you are changing or improving your image. When using custom brochures for this purpose, make sure that the look and feel of all your marketing materials is consistent all throughout. If you’d like to reach out to a broader audience, perhaps you can distribute brochures during trade shows. The people who will receive the brochure is already a targeted audience and this is one way to expand your reach. When adding a different age range to your existing clientele, make sure that the design of the brochure appeals to them visually. The way that the brochure is written should also be consistent with the language that your target audience is familiar with.

What Types of Brochures are Available? Next, when you print brochures , what options can you go for? There are many companies offering brochures online printing packages so you can take your pick from them. Generally, however, the final product of brochure printing is based on the size and folding option that you will choose. For the size, you can take your pick from these custom brochures: 4.25” x 11”

8.5” x 11”

8.5” x 14”

9” x 12”

11” x 17”

11” x 25.5” There’s really no right or wrong size – choose one based on your printing needs. Of course, the bigger the size when you print brochures, the more space you’ll have to write your promotional material in. Companies offering cheap brochures usually require a minimum order of 100 pieces, so base your budget from there. For the folding options, custom brochures come in these varieties: Accordion These custom brochures are folded four times length-wise, giving you eight panels or pages to work with. Double Gate The double gate fold also has eight panels, with the two front pages tucked inwards. Double Parallel When you print brochures, you can go for a double parallel folding option which is exactly what the name implies, giving you four back-to-back pages to work with. Half Fold If you want your brochure designed with big illustrations and a lot of text, select the half fold option which gives you four big pages to work with. Half Then Half or French Fold Cheap brochures can be made using the French Fold option, which turns a page into four rectangular panels. Half Then Trifold If you want twelve small rectangular pages, go for the half then trifold custom brochures printing option. Roll Fold The roll fold gives you eight pages to work with, but the difference with similar folding options is that it looks like a convenient, foldable pamphlet. Single Gate The single gate fold has six panels and the two front pages can be designed in such a way that it opens up to a bigger surface inside that’s double the size. Trifold Another variation that can be had for cheap brochures is the trifold option, where six panels are produced. Z-Fold Lastly, there’s the Z-fold option which gives you six panels to work with. Other Things to Consider when Printing Brochures Aside from the size and folding option, what other things should you consider in brochure printing? Similar to business cards, a good quality brochure will leave a lasting impression to your customers. Just imagine what a reader would think if you distribute a brochure printed on cheap paper. No matter how great the content is, people won’t even bother looking at it because it is not visually appealing. The good news is that cheap brochures do not necessarily equate to poor quality. There are many brochures online companies that specialize in printing out brochures, business cards, flyers, envelopes, folders, rack cards, letterheads, notepads, and similar promotional materials. To make sure that you are producing high-quality brochures, go for a thick paper stock. The more solid a brochure feels on the hand, the more impressive it is. The best brochures are available either in semi-gloss or matte paper finish. Choose one based on the overall look and feel that you’re going for. More importantly, you need to pay attention to two things when creating a brochure: content and design. Make sure that the content of the brochure delivers the right message. Unlike business cards which only contain your business name and contact information, brochures online have quite a lot of text. If you want to print an 11” x 17” double gate fold brochure, for example, there are eight panels where you can place content. There should be just the right mix of images and text so readers won’t get bored. The pages should not look too crowded, otherwise they might be too intimidated to even read the content. Depending on your target market, the best brochures should be written in such a way that it does not alienate your audience. If you’re a law firm, for instance, and you want to introduce a new specialized legal service, then you should have the brochure written using formal language. If you have a more general audience, write the content in an enticing but still easy to understand manner. You should not forget to include a call to action. The best brochures have a call to action in the end, which is based on what its purpose is in the first place. Let’s say that you ordered brochures online to make customers visit your website more. The call to action can be something like “Visit our website to learn more about….” You can also include a QR code or your social media information so that the younger audience can have an instantaneous way of connecting with you. This is one instance when print and digital marketing techniques go hand-in-hand. If you want customers to visit a brick-and-mortar store instead of an online one, you can probably make the brochure double as a coupon code. Let them know that they’re entitled to a 10% discount, for example, when they bring the brochure in your store.

The brochure should be designed consistent with your branding and image. Just like using the right language to attract your target market, the best brochures should be designed consistent with your branding and image. It’s a given that you should use good quality materials and high-quality printing. But this should be combined with choosing the right colors, high-quality images, and a layout that would make the pages look not too crowded. This way, the holder of the brochure will be interested enough to actually read what’s on the inside. The more visually attractive it is, the easier it is for you to sell your products or services through the brochures. How to Look for a Good Brochure Printing Company Finally, how can you have cheap brochures made without sacrificing quality? There are many brochures online that specialize in printing not just brochures but also business cards, postcards, letterheads, and similar promotional materials. You basically have two options: digital and offset printing. Digital uses a typical desktop printer which is fine to use as long as the resolution is good enough to produce high-quality images. Offset printing, on the other hand, produces a more professional look. The machines are typically huge and state-of-the-art. As compared to desktop printers, offset printers can deliver high-quality brochures and churn them out even in high volumes within a short period of time. In terms of quality, the best brochures are usually produced by offset printers. Full color high-definition prints can be delivered by these machines so they really are the best choice. Another thing to consider is the turnaround time. Most online printing companies have a purely online ordering system. If you need to have 500 pieces of trifold brochures delivered to your office next week, can the printing company finish within a short span of time? If yes, ask about the price and the turnaround time. If you’re in a rush, you might have to pay more but if you want high-quality prints and there’s no tight deadline, you can stick with ones that offer regular rates. Depending on your budget, you should also ask about the minimum quantity that they can produce. Usually, 100 pieces is the minimum order for both brochures and business cards. you can even check out client testimonials to see if a specific online printing company delivers as promised. Compare prices, materials, and varieties and take your pick from there. By doing a bit of research, you can hire the best printing company to produce your business brochures. How about Distribution? One final thing to think about when using brochures as a main marketing tool is distribution. If you have a physical office, a stack of brochures and business cards should be prominently displayed in the reception area. If you’re in the food business and you printed out brochures to introduce a new menu, place the brochures near the cashier and right outside your door. This way, even customers who are usually intimidated to go inside without ordering can read about your new menu. If you’re a law firm, leave a stack of brochures by the reception area so that visitors who are interested in what you have to offer as a business can get your contact information. You can also distribute brochures in trade shows, community events, and other social gatherings. If you’re looking for new business partners, have brochures printed out and insert them as promotional materials in menus, deliveries, supplies errands, etc. The more creative you are with the distribution channels, the more effective your print marketing campaign will turn out to be. As you can see, brochures are a cheap but effective marketing tool. No matter which product or service it is that you are offering, you can promote your brand with the help of brochures. Use it as part of your business’ overall print marketing campaign, and watch it grow in no time at all.