Good things come in small packages

We've all been there haven't we? The shops are heaving with festive shoppers, the roads are stuffed with holiday traffic, yet you've still got one more person to buy for and you have no idea what to get. Sure, a nice box of chocolates will suffice, but there's nothing that shows your effort and thought more than a personalised gift. If you've bought personalised chocolate, you win.

Christmas for most is a time to enjoy time with family and friends and forget the stresses of work. As the turkey roasts and the sprouts boil, the last thing we should be thinking about is business, but there are a few reasons why ordering business cards as a gift is a brilliant idea. First off, they make excellent stocking fillers. Filled with sentiment and thought, you can really set out to impress. Why not use Christmas as an excuse to ignore the conventional use of business cards and make them as personal as you like? There are loads of ways in which you can use our templates to make someone a special Christmas present. Here's a few ideas;

• Why not design someone a Tweepcard? They have proven very popular with Twitter users who attend 'Tweet-ups' and social events. We have many Twitter style templates to choose from to suit any keen Twitter member!

• If you've a friend or family member who sells on eBay, you could make them a compliments card. A card for them to put with dispatched goods in a 'Thank you for your purchase' kind of way.

• Cards for that special someone. Everyone likes to be told that they're loved, so why not make your loved one a personalised card with space for a personal message? You could give them a card a day and write a thoughtful message. If you think you're the ultimate romantic, you could even order enough to give your loved one a card daily!

If you've already bought someone a present, but you want to add a final touch of class, why not design a tag to attach to the present? A personal message from you and your family will go down a festive treat, guaranteed!

For instructions on how to replicate this lovely festive design, click here!

When thinking of them as a Christmas present, there are many possible ways to design cards and in most cases, it will come down to the hobbies and interests of the person receiving the cards. So if there is someone you think that could benefit from a set of great quality cards for Christmas, go for it! It could just be one of the most useful presents they ever get.

...because good things always come in small packages.

Merry Christmas!

Nick

Comic Sans; so not funny

Earlier this week, I butted in on a short conversation between a few chaps that I follow on Twitter. Unfortunately, due to Twitter's lack of functionality this afternoon, I'm unable to see exactly what was said, but I recall the conversation was about fonts and how we associate fonts with certain places. One follower, Nick, mentioned how Florist signs always seem to be written in Zapf Chancery in caps on a curve. To tell you the truth, I'm not too clued up on fonts - sure, I know a few, the 'main' ones and have even dabbled in creating my own, but I wouldn't be able to name any but the most common of fonts.

Nick's mention of Zapf Chancery prompted me to delve into the fonts folder and check it out, and taking my lack of font-knowledge into consideration, see if my brain would associate it subconsciously with the classic florist's sign. With assistance from my production manager (who has a considerably greater Adobe Illustrator knowledge than myself), we managed to whip up a quick florist's sign, just to prove how right Nick was.

Uncanny isn't it?

How many people judge a corporation or company on their font? I'm willing to argue that it's a pretty small percentage, until that is, the company decides to change font after about 50 years, then it's the talk of the town...

IKEA, renowned for their modern and affordable housewares decided to make a change to their catalogue font. They decided that after five decades of using Futura, a change was needed and went ahead with the switchover to the popular but generic font, Verdana. With this change came an uproar from the designers and critics of the web, and within hours of the news, Twitter was afloat with thousands of people angrily commenting on the debacle. Apparently, IKEA's reason was to change to Verdana so that their web based text and their catalogue text matched, but in doing so, they lost a large chunk of their brand identity.

The truth is, choosing a font wisely for a company's brand is essential to how the brand will be perceived. Old and traditional businesses tend to use Times and Baskerville to say, "We're traditional, we do it by the book and we're reliable." whereas more modern companies who want a cleaner image generally prefer to use Futura and Gill variations. Apple are a great example! Apple use the hard hitting, clean cut Myriad semibold pro for their advertising and marketing campaigns. It's sleek, chic and simple but remains stylish, which is cleverly echoed in their line of products.

As for the title of this entry, it obviously refers to possibly the world's most hated font. So hated in fact that there is a website dedicated to campaigning for a ban on it. When Andy and Tom jokingly suggested that Andy use Comic Sans on a logo design on Twitter this week, I laughed along with them in the knowledge that it's still very much a joke within the design industry. How long before the world realises? Not long I hope. The below image provides all you need to know;

It's now obvious to me that ironically, Comic Sans has become a joke in itself.

Nick

P.S - Unfortunately, there was no option to publish this post in Comic Sans, I'm terribly sorry.

A design collation

I've always been a big fan of good, well executed design. I'm usually the one that gets branded a pedant because I like a design to be perfect. I like the sleek, clinical whites that Apple use for their branding, the colours and style of the Firefox logo. Working here, I'm fortunate enough to get the chance to see hundreds of unique and wonderful designs every week and I often scour the packing belts for cards that I like. It can be very inspiring to see the power of a good logo or design that stands above the rest.

We're all brought up on the basis that we're to share good things, so over the next few months, I'd like to share with you a few designs, ideas and items I've picked up in the factory over the past few weeks. After working here for a few years, still I'm impressed with new and exciting ways in which our customers design their business cards. It's important, no matter what sector of business you're in, that your cards make a decent first impression. The couple I've picked out to talk about certainly grabbed my eyes as good cards with excellent implementation of colour, design and layout.

Alison Faulkner's business card wasn't an upload design, it was in fact one of our most popular templates on our website. What made it stand out to me was the colours that she decided upon. It's common knowledge that the retro look is 'in' at the moment and that fact has certainly been reflected in recent business card orders. The combination of duck-egg blue and pale pink makes for a very effective and easy-on-the-eye look. You can see Alison's card below.

Leaving the retro look behind and moving swiftly to the equally popular modern look, the guys at Radflek had their cards designed by Paul Holt who created a very crisp and clean design. When I first saw the cards, my mind was instantly drawn back to Apple's iPod advertising campaign (both on the television and in posters) that featured crisp, blocky characters dancing to music on their iPods. Eye catching colours and a sleek image make this one stand out from the crowd. Nicely done Paul!


I'll pop another couple of designs on as soon as possible. I originally planned to do one long blog post but I though it'd be better if I split it into a few pieces and spaced them out over a few weeks. Easier on the eyes that way and it's less time consuming.

If you've designed business cards with us and you think your design is worthy of a blog mention, please do send me an email on nick@goodprint.co.uk and I'll see what I can do! Anything to inspire us and others is welcome!

Cheers!

Nick

Meet Alexa!

Good afternoon!

Friday has come around so quickly this week, so that means it's time for our second installment of 'Meet the team'. Hopefully you enjoyed last week's blog entry in which we introduced you to our management trainee Ben. Well today we'll be featuring Alexa, our pre-press and artwork specialist.

Name: Alexa Berg
Age: 28
Position: Pre-Press and artwork Specialist

Alexa, or 'The artwork elf' as she's otherwise known, started working for Goodprint in July of 2008. At 18, Alexa left college with qualifications in Art, Performing Arts and English Literature and went on to work for her Father's label printing business where she also completed an NVQ in Management. She came here with 10 years experience in a plethora of disciplines including managing accounts, running a printing press and making film. Alexa enjoys traveling across both this country and overseas countries and has not long returned from Turkey. She enjoys a spot of DIY too and is forever modifying and adding to the decor in her house. Even with these hobbies, most of Alexa's recent time has been taken up by planning her wedding which will be happening next March.



Alexa's role here at Goodprint is integral and involves both helping customers with general inquiries and more specifically, helping them with artwork issues. Alexa is in sole control of both our 'Tweak' system and free file checking service and is a dab hand on the Mac. She's an expert in customer services and due to her polite and helpful nature, Alexa receives no end of great feedback. Here are a couple of examples;

"Alexa in customer service was brilliant! She showed so much professionalism and her attention to detail is very commendable. She is definitely an asset to your team. Please extend my gratitude to her."

"Many thanks to Goodprint (with a massive nod to Alexa) for helping a computer numbskull overcome the minefield of image downloading. Well done!"

"I would just like to say a big thank you to all the team for the great work you have done for me, helping me with the artwork and tweaking of my new design Business cards. A big thank you to Alexa, the cards look fantastic."

That just about concludes this entry so I hope you've enjoyed learning about Alexa's role here at Goodprint HQ! Next week we'll be blogging about our Accounts Manager Louise so keep your eyes peeled on our Facebook and Twitter pages and we'll keep you updated!

Have a wonderful weekend and will catch you next week!

Many thanks,

Nick

Goodprint Uk Ltd

Meet Ben!

Good afternoon!

We thought it was about time that we gave our customers, friends and followers a look behind the scenes here at Goodprint HQ! Today's blog post will be the first of a series of 'Meet the team' style entries where we'll gradually introduce you to the people that work for Goodprint. Many of you may have spoken to various members of the team over the years, and for you to put a face to the name is important to us! Here's our debut 'Meet the team' post, keep your eyes peeled for future entries!

Name: Ben Goodwin
Age: 21
Position: Management Trainee

6 foot 4, dashing good looks, a rippling six pack and an IQ of 170 is how Ben wanted to describe himself, although the truth may differ slightly. Ben started in July as a Management Trainee after graduating from the University of York with a Bsc (hons) in Accounting, Business Finance and Management. He's no stranger to the company however, having worked in a variety of part-time and summer positions in customer service and production. He's a keen pool and snooker player, representing his University in both and his county (Suffolk) at pool. As exhibited by his lack of a rippling six pack, he's also enthusiastic about good food and enjoys cooking, eating out and growing his own Dorset Naga - the world's hottest chilli plant.


Ben’s job involves four three-month stints with our four senior managers, learning their roles and the roles of their staff. So he’ll be working in accounts, production, advertising and web-development all in his first year of employment. He’s also in charge of our Facebook fan page, which is about to get a completely new look, so keep your eyes peeled!

Next week, you'll be lucky enough to meet the artwork elf herself, Alexa. As our pre-press specialist, she deals with checking your artwork, looking after our tweaking system and answering customer queries, so stay tuned!

Cheers!

Nick

It's all about the material!

Hello all!

For some, choosing a material for their business card might not bear a second thought. For others, it's an important part of the design process in making sure that their card gives the right impression or makes the desired impact. There's nothing worse than receiving a floppy, poorly made business card is there? It doesn't really make a good impression! Here at Goodprint, we take great pride in offering a wide range of high quality materials and our standard material for printing business cards is a thick 400gsm silk art board. The feedback we receive from our customers about the quality of our paper is phenomenal.

Our business card materials
So as aforementioned, our standard card is 400gsm silk art board, but don't be fooled by the word standard meaning 'normal'! This card is still thicker than many of our competitors' stock and it's guaranteed to impress with its sleek and crisp appearance. The best thing about this card is that it looks great with matt lamination, great with gloss lamination and even looks great without lamination!

For our greener customers, there's the Greencoat Digital Velvet. This is 350gsm paper that is 80% recycled. One may assume that recycled paper lacks the aesthetics of the other stock, but in reality the quality is astounding. It's soft, smooth and velvety to the touch and is a very popular option with many of our customers.

If you wish to add an air of warmth to your design, you may want to consider the 350gsm Accent Natural. This paper is cream in colour, so it may actually slightly affect the colours in your design. In my opinion, this card works excellently for the minimalist. A few lines of text written in a swish font can look incredibly suave on the cream material.

Up next is one of the more artistic substrates. The hammered texture of our 300gsm Accent Fresco Gesso is a very popular choice with artists, illustrators and designers. The appearance of the paper is very similar to watercolour paper, featuring the same hammered effect to add another dimension to your design. Due to the raised texture, this is the only one of our business card materials that we do not offer lamination on.

I've saved my personal favourite until last. It's a 350gsm sheet and it's called Conqueror Concept Gold Dust. It's a beautiful material that shimmers and sparkles as you move it. The natural colour has a gold tint as suggested in the name. We don't recommend that you use this paper for dark backgrounds as it drastically reduces the shimmer. Lamination will also reduce the effect of the sparkle. A duck egg blue background, tangerine text and a couple of rounded corners is my favourite way to utilise the special look and feel of this material.

I hope this helps you choose your material wisely in the future. It may not seem important at first, but if you choose something that separates you from the rest, you're already one up on then.

Here's a brilliant example of what I mean - Youtube - American Psycho Business Card Scene A true classic.

Thanks!

Nick

Pimp my business card!

When it comes to business cards, there's nothing more effective than a well designed, creative and unique card and we're going to give you a few little hints about how to achieve this. This can be done after you receive your cards, as we're going to be talking about modifications that you can do at home to further improve the look of your cards. This is a really cheap and personal way of making your cards as individual as possible.

No matter what your trade, if you can think along creative lines there's always something you can do to your card to give it that individual touch. We suggest that you stop by your local arts and crafts shop as most of them sell great products that you'll be able to use. You can aim for simplicity by adding small stickers or you can really go for it and use decorative card cutters to shape the card to your style.

There are several directions you can take when tailoring your cards. For example, if you're an interior designer and you've ordered 100 cards with all of the important info on, you could separate your 100 into 4 piles of 25 and embellish each pile in a different way so each customer can be presented with a card that reflects their taste.

Here are a couple of our own designs that we'd like to share with you;

Here's a design we did with upholstery in mind. A small piece of ribbon and a matching bow stuck on to the card not only gives a nice texture but it also it looks professional, especially if you co-ordinate your text colours with your embellishments as we've done here.


Getting married and want your guests to receive something a little more special? Add some relevant stickers! Placement of extras can work extremely successfully as demonstrated here.


Cupcake anyone? Everyone likes cupcakes, and how better to advertise your cupcake making with a delicious looking card. We used a Martha Stewart edge punch for this lovely cakey effect!

When the artwork was uploaded, we intentionally added it with a gradient at the top so that when we used the cutter, the tips of our yummy cakes remained pink! There are a huge range of cutters to be found out there to embellish the edges or corners of your cards.

Why not add something by taking something away?

Hope you enjoyed this short post, and we would love to hear from anyone who enjoys modifying their business cards!

Thank you!

Nick

QR Codes, clever stuff!

Good afternoon!

You may have heard of QR codes as they've been around for a while. When they were first put into use, you could expect to see a QR code on a router label from a courier. But now, thanks to to the rapid way in which technology moves forward, QR codes are easy to generate and put to use yourself. The peeps here at Goodprint HQ have only recently noticed the full potiential of these codes as they're becoming more recognised in a business capacity. If you've not discovered them yet, then you might find this as interesting as we did.

Quick Response codes are 2 dimensional, square barcodes. They are designed to be scanned by intelligent QR code readers, which as suggested by the name, very rapidly scan the code and deliver to you the information that they hold. Sounds expensive doesn't it? Well if you've got a smartphone, then the chances are good that you can pick up a free app that will do the job.

Okay so there's the snazzy technical bit out of the way, and now for the really good bit. When we read about this technology initially, we didn't realise that the codes were easy to generate for your own use. When you read about barcodes and scanners, you might associate them with more industrial uses rather than ones that you can use to wow your friends, promote your business or use how you wish.

Here's a little guide that you might like to follow if you've got a few spare minutes to try this out. It's good fun and if you can think of interesting ways to use this great technology, then you'll enjoy it more.

1. Firstly, you're going to need a code scanner. This is a very easy step that you can complete by downloading 'I-nigma', one of the many QR reader apps for your smartphone. The reason we suggest this particular app is that it has a very large range of compatibility. Once you've downloaded the reader (it's free, by the way!) then you're ready to generate your QR code.

2. Visit a website which is capable of QR code generation. Some websites will allow you to download the QR code generator but to try them, you may just want to use one online. We've been using http://delivr.com/qr-code-generator which works excellently.

3. Alter the options listed there to suit your needs. If you wish for someone to scan your code and be taken straight to your website, then click the drop down and select an option. You can link to loads of things such as your phone number, your email address or your social networking site. We recommend using a URL to test with.

4. Select code size. Doesn't sound too important but logically, the larger the code, the more likely that the camera on your phone will be able to read it. We recently tested some QR codes here but they were too small to be seen with some of our older iPhones. However, retesting with the better camera of the iPhone 3GS was a success, so as they say, size IS important!

5. Check your information is correct and then click Generate QR code. Your code will appear on the right and you'll have the option to download a .png or .pdf. Alternatively, if you're just testing this code, then you can just scan the image on screen to save time.

6. Open your I-Nigma app, find 'scan code' and frame your QR code on screen. If everything has worked correctly, your code should take you to your URL, very quickly.

Here's one to take you to our Twitter page;

These are a great thing to include on your business card. We frequently see them on cards ordered here at Goodprint, so they're obviously working. Just make sure they're nice and big!

Just thought we'd share that with you! We'd love to know what you think, and even know if anyone has got any really unique ways of using it.

Have fun QR'ing!

Nick

All systems go!

Welcome to our blog!

If you don't already know, Goodprint are a web-based printing company situated in the heart of Breckland. Our HQ is in Thetford, Norfolk and we've been printing your business cards and stationery since 1984! You can find us online at www.goodprint.co.uk.

Goodprint have been on Twitter for some time now, and over that time we have learned that 140 characters isn't really enough space to post the things we think you'll like. After some thought and discussion, we decided that a blog would be a good idea and a great way to keep you guys out there inspired by the things that we see and do. If anybody chances upon something that you think we will be interested in, we'd love to hear from you. You can email me at Nick@goodprint.co.uk or hit us up on our Twitter page- you'll find us under 'Goodprint'.

'til the next time. Adios!

Nick