A good client of ours came in last week and told us a story that surprised us a little. She had been in a networking group who every month put together a package to either mail out or distribute in person to prospective clients. This package is basically a bunch of flyers that go inside a booklet which is supplied by the major sponsor. As usual the four or five small businesses print their flyers up (on a budget) and expect them to be placed in the package. This particular time there was a problem. The owner of the major sponsors business which is quite a small business in itself had rejected some of the flyers on the grounds that they need to be high quality glossy flyers. Now I can understand if some of these guys had thrown together a black and white dodgy old photocopy but upon viewing them they were actually very well designed pieces which were printed onto top of the range 100% recycled paper. They looked fantastic in my opinion. Although nice and white you could still see the beautiful grains of the paper and the full colour print was pulsating with vibrant colours.

Considering many of the top designers in the country will now recommend or specify uncoated papers to their clients makes me realise just how far behind the times some business people are especially when they make calls as the guy above did. I work in the print industry and when I see a business card come through production these days which is gloss laminated it screams “old fashioned” to me. Many top designers are using UV coatings and the likes which can look great if used properly but although it has become the latest trend so too has recycled uncoated papers which is quickly overtaking the UV market which may be short lived unless it tackles its environmental issues.

It is important to remember that any printed product which is laminated, celloglazed or UV coated is not able to be recycled, so we should really be trying to avoid it. As any good designer knows a good design and good copy will always be the selling point. Adding the “printing bling” such as these coatings and laminates are simply aesthetic. Why not spend the extra money you would spend on the “bling” on something that will really make a difference to your print products and thats your designer. I wont go into it here but it amazes me every day that people will bargain to get the cheapest possible design price but are happy to fork out plenty of extra money for the “printing bling”

Remember SHINY doesnt sell…. good design does
seeya in a couple of days