What You Should Have In Your Business Plan

Always remember that a business plan is not something that you put together and then forget after youʼve completed the task. A business plan is a work in progress. This means that as you grow your business, your plan should also be able to grow with it. Your business plan should be regularly updated to keep up with the trends and changes in your business as well as the market in general.

Obviously, you need to know everything there is to know about your business. A good seller knows that you can only sell what you have and what you know.

Since the end goal of every businessman is to have your clients believe in you, enough to make a sale, you then have to persuade them of your knowledge of your product. You must convince them that you know everything there is to know when it comes to your business.

To be an expert in your field, you must be willing to work and dig for information; and later dig through all those details and facts to develop particularly your business plan.

Not all of the information you get may be relevant, but it helps to know first what you are looking for before you start your business plan. Here are the essential elements that you should have if you want to have a strong business plan.

- Executive Summary
- Market Analysis
- Description of the Company
- Organization and Management
- Marketing and Sales Management
- Product or Service List
- Funding Request
- Financials
- Appendix

We hope these elements help you to come up with a good business plan the next time you have your strategic planning session.

Making Time For Marketing

What makes a marketing campaign fail is not that it has a bad design or crappy writing. It’s actually the attitude that makes a marketing campaign ineffective.

If you want to become a big player and start getting ahead of your competition, then you have to make the effort to change your attitude towards your marketing strategy.

Make time for marketing.

Have you ever heard somebody who has his own business and say that he has no time for marketing? Well, I hear this a lot actually. And if you have this attitude then maybe it’s time to change it now.

If you don’t have time to market your business then it’s just one of two things: it’s either you already have a client and that you’re busy at the moment with trying to meet deadlines. Or you have some other important responsibility that takes up much of your time. Either way, you need to allocate a certain amount of time, even minimal, to do your marketing.

Just imagine when you’re already finished with your current job. What next? Do you have a new client waiting for you to finish? Of you’re still going to look for one? Marketing is important because it provides you the opportunity to keep clients coming in.

On the other hand, if you don’t have time because you’re busy with some responsibility, just a few hours every week would suffice to let you stay at the forefront of your business.

The bottom line is to make time for your marketing campaign. No matter how you do it – delegate tasks, create simple and small steps to complete one huge project, or simply set aside time for making the nitty gritty of marketing or updating your promotional materials (e.g. flyers) – you simply have to make it.

Quality Over Price

In selecting your printing company, whether online or not, make sure to choose quality over price. This means that the price does not determine the quality of the result you’ll get.

So despite the high prices, choose your online printing company or local vendor for the quality of the job that they can produce.

1. Choose according to experience.

Printing companies of repute have been in the business for a reason. They’re well skilled in what they do and they have experience to be proud of. Quality results would almost mean a longer time in the printing industry.

If a printing company has more than 5 years in the business, then they would probably have a wider selection with few errors to speak of. Moreover, they tend to have more services and cost effective price quotes.

2. Choose according to the most competitive price quotes plus quality of the printing job.

Compare price quotes and quality of items. Most printers offer free samples. And most experienced companies offer better prices. They can do this precisely because they have been in the business for much longer time, enough to get them special rates from other suppliers.

3. Choose the best guarantees.

Printing guarantees like customer satisfaction/delight, cost effective prices, and fastest turnaround time – these are benefits you get from printers that are committed to their clients and the brand of service they offer. You can never go wrong with this type of vendor.

4. Choose a printing company that values you.

The one that understands your needs and your schedule is most definitely the one that can provide you the best assistance. It just goes to show that they value their clients and the business that you give them.

Knowing Your Rights About Your Artwork

If you want to get your artwork right when you have them printed, you need to know your rights…to get them as closer to the original image as possible.

Some things to consider when you’re getting ready to have your marketing tool printed:

Vector and Raster Files

Digital graphics are generally saved as either vector or raster files. The difference between the two is that raster files are made up of a grid of pixels, which makes them become jagged when resized. An example of raster files are those saved as JPEG and GIF.

On the other hand, the vector format is more popular with product sellers because they offer better balance and scalability. EPS has this type.

Color Details

When printing your marketing collaterals (i.e. flyers, brochures, postcards, posters, and catalogs), you need to provide your printing company the correct color information especially with your graphics. Your color information would fall under these types: RGB (red, green and blue), CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) and spot colors (also called Pantone).

RGB is the same colors that you see in your computer screen or TV. CMYK, in contrast, are the ones used during the print process. Spot color or Pantone is something that falls outside the CMYK and has special characteristics which are very appropriate for logo designs.

Graphic Size and Resolution

You can have resolution based on the number of dots per inch used. And resolution actually differs from the ones you see in your monitor to the results you get when your flyers, brochures, postcards, posters, and catalogs are printed. When you want smoother and cleaner results that are true to the original, then don’t be content with just 72dpi. Rather, go for 300dpi for that crisp image.

Last but not the least, the best way to get your artwork right is to work with a printing company that knows how to make the process as easy as possible for you. Someone who offers flexibility in their file formats definitely gets the thumbs up in my book.

Delving Into Design

With the rapid spread of digital technology into the offset printing industry, beautiful full color custom brochures, flyers, postcards, business cards, catalog, booklets and other printed collateral are more affordable and accessible to everyone who wants to order.

Online printers abound; some of them provide design services for your color flyers or color postcards, others allow you to upload your own custom design for printing. Many online custom printers make both options available to their customers.

Creating your own graphics can be a fun and rewarding experience, but for novices, it can seem daunting. Even the basics may not seem intuitively obvious. Internet research can help! There are many websites that offer help with desktop publishing. Webpages like this one help you understand the principles of design, which you can apply to color business cards, custom color catalogs or booklets, postcards or color poster printing. Really, just about any printed product will benefit from well-conceived and executed design. When creating your custom printing project to upload to an online printing company, keep in mind the following: balance, unity, alignment, consistency, contrast, white space and color. Using the metaphors in the article indicated above can help ensure that you and your clients are pleased with the final product.

Online printing can be simple and affordable. An online printing company like PrintPlace.com. It provides instant price quotes, helpful customer service, premium quality printing and finishing services, free templates to use in a variety of graphics programs, and comprehensive design services for the apprehensive print buyer.

Catalogs: Eye Candy = Buy Appeal

A picture’s worth a thousand words. What do your catalog pictures speak of about your products from your catalogs? Does it suggest a sweet solution to your market’s needs or is it an eyesore that encourages the readers to look away?

Your photos and images create the centerpiece for your catalog printing project’s appeal to your target audience. But to make that photo appeal turn into cash is a totally different matter.

What makes a catalog an effective marketing material? Excellent quality photos that capture the whole essence of your business. And it doesn’t stop there. Not only should you have quality photos in your catalog printing project, you should also learn to optimize their place in the whole marketing scheme of your print catalog.

For one, designers would tell you that the top half and the right top corner of your catalog is the most prominent place in your print catalog. People’s eyes usually stray to that part the first time they look at a catalog or any other marketing piece for that matter. So take advantage of that fact. Use your upper half page to showcase your most important item in your product list.

Second, put together the smaller photos and a much larger one in your catalog printing page. This way, you’ll be able to take advantage of the appeal that a much larger photo creates among your target readers and transfer some of that to your smaller pictures.

Third, always expose and give emphasis to your big photos by putting them on the spotlight. Dedicate one whole page of your printed catalogs to your most important product and service. This would provide your target readers an idea of what is in store for them when they do business with you.

So use your photos wisely. Make sure that their eye appeal turn into buy appeal by using these techniques in your next catalog printing project.

Go Fishing With Flyers

The words you apply, in addition to the design and illustration makes for a flyer printing project that can certainly be used to market your business. But strong and persuasive words often make the difference in what makes a flyer an effective promotional tool.

Almost all effective flyers have two things in common: a persuasive message and a definite “call-to-action”. Without these two elements, your flyer campaign would surely be ignored and worst, thrown in the garbage bin for being useless and without any worth.

                           

To make sure that you have an effective copy that can convince your target readers of your business’ worth and make them want to do exactly as you bid them, here are some of the basic principles that you can include in your next flyer printing project:

- Know your target audience and cater to their preferences when writing your copy.

- Use “you” more often than “I” or “we”. Your target audience would care more with what your business can do for them to make their lives better.

- Make it crystal clear what your target readers should do, think and even believe after they’ve read your flyer printing message. Be clear and quick with your message such that you impart a clear message and imply a straightforward call-to-action.

- Your call-to-action should have a commanding element and an expiration date to make your target readers scramble to get in touch with you. Use the words “now”, “today”, or a specific date.

A Christmas Picture Is Worth A Thousand Holiday Words

‘Tis the season to be merry, and the time to enjoy life with your family and loved ones. The holiday season always brings that special feeling during this time of the year. And what can be the best way to send your loved ones greetings of good tidings but a holiday postcard design that depicts the warmth and affection that is normally associated with the season of giving and sharing.

When you want to show that you care, the most practical and yet special way of doing it is to send your special people with postcards that are customized to show the past holidays that were spent together. Full color printed and personalized pictures and photos of past Christmases can contribute to an awesome holiday postcard that your friends and loved ones would surely appreciate even when the season is long over.

You can tell that you care for them and appreciate them, whether they are a favorite coworker, or even your mailman by sending them your holiday postcard design that is created and printed by you.

A son or daughter’s favorite teacher would appreciate a holiday postcard design that shows last year’s Christmas pageant. A corporate holiday postcard with some of last year’s Christmas party highlights would definitely be a hit among co-workers. Grandma and grandpa would surely love pictures of the kids in their holiday postcard design.

The possibilities are endless. The only thing that can hamper your creativity is your own budget. Holiday postcards are definitely a great way to touch someone’s life this season, and a surefire way of strengthening the bond that ties each and one of us together.

To get started with your postcard printing project, visit PrintPlace.com.

The Ties That Bind

In addition to the finishing touch to your paper stock, either gloss or matte, you can also look for the binding that would be appropriate for your catalog printing project. There are a lot of bindings out there, so here are a few of the popular binding techniques that you can include in your choice list:

The Perfect Bind – The most common binding method, the Perfect bind, is used if you want to achieve that professional look you’re aiming for in your catalog printing project. The disadvantage: the spine is glued flat so that it is often that you’ll see catalog printing jobs that crack along the spine when opened.

The Coil Bind – This type of method uses a coil to bind your catalog printing project, hence the name. The catalogs are punched near the binding and then put together with a flexible plastic coil. The best part is that the binds can be adjusted by hand, thus, you can easily add pages after pages, and even remove a few ones if you want to.

The Spiral Bind – This is the same as that of the notebooks you see around. The spiral coil, usually made of plastic, is threaded through the holes punched in your catalog printing project. The advantage of this type of technique is that you could make your catalog printing pieces lay flat on a surface.

The Saddle Stitch – This method is more appropriate if you’re planning on a very thin catalog printing project. The pages of your catalog printing project should be two times larger than your finished product because you’re going to fold it and then stitch it down the center.

Your choice of binding for your catalog printing project will help a great deal in getting you that professional look. It’s up to you to decide what kind of binding would be appropriate for your catalog printing project, as well as your business needs.

Communicate Better With Your Flyers

Good communication means being clear and precise with what you want to say. No doubt about it, unless you as a business owner, are able to convey your message to your target audience, your flyer printing project would be worthless even if you spend thousands of dollars just to get them printed.
 
Nevertheless, effective communication can also depend on how you present your flyer printing message and idea. How you present your information equals the importance of what you want to communicate.
 
More than likely, you know that color has an important part of helping you create an effective flyer printing project. However, going overboard with your colors can also distract as well as irritate your target readers. As they say, too many is too much.
 
So how do you make full use of your color? Here’s how:
 
1 – 25 percent or less is the best way to use color in your flyer printing project. More than that and you’ll definitely lose the effect you want.
 
2 – Use colors on headings, markings, logos and images. Use black ink in your flyer printing text for more clarity.
 
3 – Provide consistency in all your elements. Use one color for every component such as the headings and sub-headings.
 
4 – Create a balance in your colors – too much bright colors can overwhelm, while small areas of lighter shades can go unnoticed.

Use Color For Your Poster’s Message

You can have the best poster printing project in town if you are able to communicate your ideas and message effectively. Communication is the key to a successful marketing campaign. It doesn’t matter if you are listed in the Fortune 500, unless you are able to express your poster printing ideas clearly, all your efforts made on your poster printing project will be for naught.
 
The important thing is that, in addition to your clear and precise message, your poster printing message should also be conveyed in full color.
 
Colors have proven to be effective factors that render your poster printing project the success it deserves. Since the late 1980’s, astute business owners have applied colors to upgrade and deliver a more attractive marketing material, be it office documents, presentation materials, and promotional ads in the form of poster printing pieces, brochure printing items, as well as in flyers and catalogs.
 
With the advent of digital technology, colors have improved, becoming more and more affordable, with faster and quality results. Color more than likely ensures that your poster printing project, or any marketing medium for that matter, will be read. In addition, complex topics can be made simple by having colors to highlight and organize your poster printing ideas, making sure that your target readers’ interest are drawn to critical points.  
 
So the next time you’re thinking of updating your poster printing project, consider this: use color to emphasize and highlight your poster printing message. Color can help you get the success you want and deserve.

E-Book Developments Open Up Changes

E-books have been in the market for more years but we still have to open up to the idea of changing the way we read books. In fact, e-book technology is slowly but steadily improving its capabilities especially in terms of changing the way we utilize these e-books, read and use the information we get from them.

Nevertheless, the things that make e-books revolutionary are still the same technology found in the new e-books in the market today:

1 – An e-ink is still used which makes the words and letters legible and readable in all types of lighting.

2 – Energy is conserved just because the e-ink is powered to compose a screen and not to make the ink visible in all kinds of lighting conditions.

3 – E-books are very portable because it’s made up of light and compact materials, with a huge memory capacity, able to hold hundreds of heavy paged books. No more physical activity, enough to strain the muscles and shoulder blades.

4 – Your e-book has the same capabilities like that of the Internet. Documents and files can be uploaded and downloaded easily. A WiFi is built in. And you can even send an annotated and corrected term paper or journal writing from your e-book to another person.

The only thing that hasn’t changed is the price. It still is very expensive to purchase one. Hence, not too many are able to see the benefits of getting one. Maybe by next year its technology would be developed enough for the common man to be able to afford the first version.

PDA’s Unveiled

More than just for email, your Blackberry, Palm Treo, or any other PDA is useful for other things, including getting yourself the scoop on how long is the airport’s security line.

Life is even easier with a PDA to guide you. Here are some of the services available with your PDA:

Hotel Room. Even if it’s the last minute, you can get a list of available hotel rooms with your PDA. Orbitz, a hotel mobile service, lists about vacancies in 20 US cities. Although the service can’t help you get booked, it provides a phone number however, which you can readily access by pressing one button in your PDA. Take heed though, because Orbitz charge a bit more for calling the hotel, rather than directly contacting the hotel yourself.

Airport Scene. FlightStats will help you scope what’s happening in your airport, including letting you know how long the line is in airport security, flight schedules, and delays. The data imported to your PDA comes from the Transportation Security Administration so it’s reliable. Just type the three-letter code of the airport where you’re going to take your flight, or the beginning of the airport name.

Language Translator. Now you don’t have to look dumb when in another country that doesn’t speak English. Beiks.com can be downloaded in your PDA to help you understand words and phrases in 26 different languages. Some of the programs would even help you pronounce the words right. You have to purchase the program though, starting from $8.

Weather Forecast. The quickest weather service would be the Weather Channel which provides extended forecasts for 98,000 locations worldwide. It looks as good as they would in a computer too.

Time For High School Musical 2

It’s the start of something new for the teenagers of High School Musical. From the highly popular Disney original movie, the cast are now getting out of school for summer vacation.

 

Troy Bolton got a job at a highly exclusive country club of Sharpay’s parents and then ends up getting everybody jobs at the same country club, which of course, irritated the heck out of Sharpay. Gabriella got to be the new lifeguard, while the others (like Troy’s best friend Chad) got to work in the kitchen. There were problems and changes in the movie but in the end, as always, love conquers all.

 

The movie is a sequel to the Disney Channel movie that boosts the careers of two of the hottest actors nowadays, not to mention the soundtrack that got the best-selling album award in 2006. If you’re still not familiar with Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez, you might want to ask your 14 year old sister or brother who’ll definitely give out the most information you may need.

 

This time, songs like “Start of Something New”, “Breaking Free”, and “Get’cha Head In the Game” are replaced with songs that are appropriate for the sequel’s poolside and ritzy country club backdrop. The Wildcats are singing to the tune of summertime gigs (“What Time Is It”), summer love that’s lost and then found again (“Everyday”), as well as an interesting music about baseball accompanied by a very upbeat background of the “heavy batter, batter” chorus (“I Don’t Dance”).

 

The movie also got to feature more songs by Zac Efron (Troy Bolton) which confirms his vocal prowess indeed.

 

And as usual, the movie sequel again tackled the love between Troy and Gabriella and the conflicts that would, hopefully, make them stronger as a couple.

 

Everyone would sure have fun watching this Disney movie and relive the times when you were still on the brink of first loves and best-friends-forever type of stories.

Do You Need An Envelope Printer?

When your shopping list always includes address labels, then yes, you should seriously think about getting one of those envelope printers.

 

When you need to print more than thousands of envelopes per hour, then yes, I strongly recommend you do get yourself an envelope printer.

 

When your efforts to print your envelopes with an ordinary personal printer are always a failure, then yes, you should seriously think about getting yourself an envelope printer.

 

When you always have to make do with the envelopes you were able to print from your personal printer because reproducing another batch costs too much, then yes, definitely, you should get yourself an envelope printer.

 

Yes, an envelope printer can do all that and more. With an envelope printer, you are able to print not only hundreds, but thousands of envelope printing pieces in an hour. An envelope printer can handle different mailing sizes – from postcard sizes to full sized clasp envelopes. It can also handle as mush as 1.25 inches thick of pure solid envelope printing pieces.

 

And you don’t have to come out dull and boring with your envelope printing project. Envelope printer models can print in black, as well as in full color with ranges from 150 to 600 dots per inch.

 

Although the envelope printer can cost you a little higher than doing it in an ordinary laser printer, when you have an envelope printing project in thousands every month, it is eventually more reasonable and economical to purchase one.

 

There’s no question about it, when you have more problems and it costs you too much every time you do your envelope printing job in an ordinary printer, then it’s time for you to consider getting one for yourself. Or else, you could always go to an envelope printing company to do the job for you.

Honesty Is Still The Best Policy When It Comes To Brochures

The bottom line for any brochure printing project–it is not how well you design your layout or combine the elements to come up with a pleasing and quality print brochures. Your brochure printing pieces would not be worth anything if you don’t have honesty on your side of your business.

With the need to say anything positive to everyone to get a positive response from our target audience, we often make the mistake of embellishing our product information and brochure printing content. Our brochure printing projects (or any marketing material for that matter) often paint a pretty picture of our business and what we can provide our target audience. This is evident in every glossy and brilliant marketing medium that we produce to entice our target clients to avail of our product and service.

As business owners, we spend much of our budget and time to develop and produce the ultimate quality brochure printing piece to highlight and even gloss over what is really happening with our business. Messages are strategically planned and placed to convey the most persuasive angle. Our brochure printing design is often bombarded with brilliant and colorful designs with the aim to dazzle and inspire awe. 

However, we need to realize that people are very smart and that everyone knows one scam from the other. We need to know that people have the tendency to reject anything that doesn’t sound true and are embellished with so many things to dazzle. With so many trimmings, our target audience knows how to sift through all that and get to the nitty gritty of what makes one business work.

The bottom line- despite all the trimmings you put in your brochure printing pieces, your target reader knows how to scour through all that and get to the most important aspect of your business. And that is quality customer service that promotes confidence and honesty with your target clients.  

5 Elements Your Business Card Can’t Do Without

Handing out your business cards is like having a box of chocolates where you never know what you’re going to get next. Same with the exchange of business cards; you’ll never know how your target client would react to your business card printing project. Either they accept your business card or reject it.

In business card printing, it’s all about what elements you have included in your design that would make your target client keep your business card. Here are the 5 top most elements that your business card printing should never go without.

Number 5: Fax Number. Although there’s the ubiquitous email and web message, there are still those who prefer using fax machines to relay messages. That is why your fax number should be up there along with your telephone number just to be sure that you cover all the possible areas of getting connected.

Number 4: Web Site. Who doesn’t have a website nowadays? Your business card printing project should have the information where your reader could link to your website if they want to check out your company’s information and work experience.

Number 3: Telephone/Mobile Number and Email Address. It’s either the telephone or mobile phone (because just about everybody has a mobile phone, not to mention that a telephone is an important item in every household or office) for communication; or the email when busy clients would prefer to contact you via this medium. 

Number 2: Company Name. Your company name is as important as your contact information. So never go without your company name in your business card printing project.

And the Number 1: Company Logo. Your logo is your company statement. It is how you can be recognized and be remembered by your readers.

By making sure that the top 5 elements are in your business cards, business owners can guarantee that theirs won’t be included with those thrown in the garbage bin.

Long Term Poster Design and Printing Plan

Poster printing has become a popular marketing campaign strategy that delivers big results–we all know that. But one thing probably new to your ear is that periodic launching of poster campaigns not just capture the audiences’ attention and convert them into actual buying clients. They also establish over time a brand identity that allows people to instantly recognize your marketing collateral even after a mere glimpse. For this reason, planning the design of your posters, and the designs then on after, directed towards a corporate theme or identity is one of the most significant strategy that you can develop for your business.

 

What is an identity anyway? Your business or brand identity in your marketing tools—whether you use brochures, postcards, or posters—is more than just creating a flashy logo. Your identity is what would differentiate your business from all the others in your field. Your logo is beyond a mere design. Rather, it’s something you should build your company’s belief and character around. It should symbolize what your organization believes in or what it is looking at as a goal. Most companies, as it is proven effective, fuses modern icons or modern design to allow their logos or design theme to appeal to the newer generation making it a hippier brand to know and eventually patronize.

 

In order to be different, you need to have a design plan that can withstand time. No matter how many years would pass, your identity should be able to sustain your position in your industry.

 

Take for example the golden arches and the swoosh sign. You know when you see them that the former is McDonald’s and just thinking about their sign makes you hanker for a Quarter Pounder. A swoosh in your shoes only means one thing- durability and comfort that Nike has established over the years.

 

More than anything else, a consistent poster design in print, or moreso on your other marketing materials, would provide your audience with the message that you are a company that is stable and durable and is worth their buck. As long as you support your logo with nothing but quality products, services and customer relations, your icon can go a long way. Who knows maybe one day, you’ll see yours right next to that swoosh and those golden arches?

Your Catalog Printer, Your Partner

You have everything you need; you have your design, your message, and you have your layout. All that’s left to do is to look for a catalog printing company that will work with you. So how do you find your partner?

 

Look for the a catalog printer nearest you –

 

Aside from the cost of traveling to and from your catalog printer’s place, you also have to consider how your catalog printing pieces would be delivered. Shipping costs will almost always deplete your budget. And consider the additional expense that your catalog printer would add if they have to bring your printed materials to your place.

 

However, this is not the case with PrintPlace.com. The company sees to it that not only do they provide you with excellent quality catalogs, but allow you hassle- and trouble-free printing experience from beginning until the time that you get your hands on your catalog printing items. Their branches are placed all over the US to give you lower shipping costs and even faster delivery time to anywhere you are located.

 

Choose a catalog printer with wider range of catalog stock options –

 

More choices mean more chances for your catalog printing project to get excellent quality results. This is how we do it at PrintPlace.com. We offer the widest range of options not only for your catalog stock but also for custom sizes. Any size you need, we got them. And even if we don’t have them on our list, we can provide you with a larger size from your size specification and cut them down to fit your requirement. It’s that simple.

 

A catalog printer that fits your budget –

 

All your work and effort will just go to waste if you won’t be able to afford your catalog printer. Before you decide on the best catalog printer for your budget, PrintPlace.com makes it easy by providing you with free samples to compare our prices and the results. PrintPlace.com has the more reasonable pricing scheme compared to others in the market.

 

For your next catalog printing job, go with the best- get PrintPlace.com to do your catalogs for you.

Ethics on Brochure Artwork

Is there such a thing as ‘ethics’ when it comes to producing artwork in brochure printing projects? It seems that a free-for-all mentality is adapted when it comes to creating a design that will compel readers to take a second look and get hooked. Everyone is invoking the First Amendment when it comes to justifying the use of pictures and images that pricks the sensibilities of most people. However, there should still be drawn lines to stop art from getting too risqué and unethical.

So what is ethical anyway? And when is brochure printing art considered too much?

I recently came across an informational brochure for a Summer Ethics class, depicting an artwork with a murder scene on the cover. Aside from the murder scene, what was more interesting was the picture of a cross drawn upside down which outlines a pair of bare buttocks on the back of the brochure.

Apparently, this particular brochure (the author called it artwork) elicited a lot of heated controversy and mixed reactions among its readers. This, I think is the ultimate response that the author is aiming for.

Some said that the image violated the responsibility of free speech. They even further elaborated that the First Amendment has equal responsibilities and respect attached to it; that crossing the line of respect violates one’s own responsible freedom.

I, myself, find it a tad over and above what should be allowed for brochure printing. In fact, this particular picture crossed the line of ethics.

So, again, what is ethics in brochure printing? How much is too much? And how much is less? I think that ethics is something relative to both the brochure printing designer and the reader of the brochure. And on issues of how much is ethical or not, I only believe in this particular principle in life: one’s freedom or ethics should stop when it starts to cross the other person’s freedom. Think about it.

Rules of Desktop Publishing

Although there are no hard rules when it comes to desktop publishing, there are tried and tested practices that can help in providing you with the most effective pages for your catalog printing. In order to get your message across, here are a few suggestions from about.com for desktop publishing:

 

1. Use fewer fonts. How much is too many? The basic rule in fonts is three to four per project. Nevertheless, as we said, this is not a hard rule that can’t be broken. Nobody’s telling you not to do so. However, you should always make sure that your fonts do not create confusion and clutter in your page.

 

2. Use all caps with the right fonts. Acronyms and abbreviations are the only words that may be allowed to be set in all caps, either in the headline or the content. Long headlines, and most especially paragraphs, should appear in mixed case. Continuous use of all caps in your whole page is definitely hard to read and dreadful to look at. So refrain from using them.

 

3. Avoid using centered text too often. The use of a centered text basically depends on the design of the page. However, there are a few circumstances where you could use it appropriately. Just make sure that when you do use the centered text it is in line with the purpose of your piece, as well as it is in harmony with the other elements of your page layout.

 

There are a few more suggestions provided. For more details you could visit the website of about.com.

When You Need To Bind Your Brochures

Brochures don’t only come in panels or folds. When your brochure has so many pages, I think it is best that you take the plunge and ask your printer on what kind of binding that suits your brochure printing.

 

The first thing you have to do is to plan (if you want with your printer) how you want the finished brochure printing product to look like when it’s put together.

 

Second, decide on the binding method that you’ll apply to your brochure printing task. There are several binding methods that your printer would be able to help you with. And with each of the method you’re going to use, it all depends on three factors: (1) the purpose of your brochure, (2) durability and appearance, and (3) cost.

 

Your bind depends on the purpose of your brochure. You may use a simple method for binding if your purpose is to just put all your pages together. Nothing fancy. Then you just have to ensure that your margins are wide enough to provide holes for either a ring binder or a spiral. If you feel that a saddle-stitch is what best suits you, then you need to consider that the inner pages can extend outside when folded.

 

Some bindings may be durable than the others. And still others may help you make your brochures lay flat when opened. For costs, you just have to decide whether it is more cost effective to do the binding yourself or have it included in your brochure printing job.