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Spread Joy to your Customers, Vendors, and Employees this Season! 

The holidays are a’coming, and so is the mail. In the steady stream of bills, a customer, vendor or employee receiving a custom holiday card will feel appreciated by your organization.  

Holiday season is prime time to check in with customers and employees and show your appreciation and share your gratitude. It’s why big-name companies still send holiday cards, and why local businesses will continue to send holiday cards well into the days when our streets look like something out of Blade Runner. 

Still, putting together the perfect holiday cards for your corporation or business is no easy feat. That’s why we’ve decided to put on our holiday hats at Printing for Less and share our festive insights, best practices and tips for spreading some holiday cheer with a holiday card.

Why Send Holiday Cards? 

Sending a small memento reminds people they’re cared about. Holiday cards aren’t just a gimmick; they can be a sincere token of appreciation to show customers that you value them. Just think about the times that you’ve gotten a card in the mail; it probably made you smile or added a snippet of cheer to your day. 

Holiday cards also make good business sense. Emotions play a big part in decision making. By spreading some joy to your customers, they’re more likely to remember your brand and associate positive feelings with it. That association is a strong step toward conversions. Likewise, sending a holiday card is a powerful way to stand out against competitors: it’s a chance to showcase your brand’s personality, build deeper brand loyalty, and highlight your human side. 

As a side note, holiday cards have been making a comeback. Millennials are increasingly purchasing and sending holiday cards, embracing the personal touch they carry. Don’t assume then, that if you’re targeting a younger audience, they won’t be interested – holiday cards are in fact, cool. 

Holiday Card Customization Tips 

You need to ensure time and thought goes into the holiday card customization process if you want customers to respond well to your greeting card. Below are a few business holiday card tips from our paper professionals about how to make sure your holiday cards are signed, sealed, and delivered with love. 

Personalize your Holiday Cards! 

A personalized touch makes your business or corporation’s holiday greeting more meaningful and cherished by the recipient whether a partner, customer, vendor, or an employee.

”Personalization is essential for a holiday card campaign”, says our E-commerce Demand Generation Manager, Laura Phillips Laura. Customers should feel like their card was uniquely designed for them, not just sent out to the masses. How? Well, Printing for Less offers variable data printing, where businesses can change a postcard to say “Hello (name)” and address the person. “We can be incredibly specific with the variable data,” says Laura, “you could include a product someone purchased last year or even state your closest store to someone’s address.” 

Be Prompt  

Sending your business holiday cards promptly is crucial to making a lasting impression. It showcases your genuine interest and appreciation for your relationships. It can be tempting to leave your holiday cards to the last minute but doing so can be risky.  

In the United States alone, nearly 1.3 billion cards are sent every year. The flurry of the holiday season means supply chains can get backed up and deliveries often take longer. To guarantee that your cards arrive in a timely manner, prepare your campaign at least a few months before November. 

Patrick Trembley, Sales Manager at Printing for Less, comments that “the earlier you start your campaign, the better. And, you can always call us to ask about the timelines of production and shipping to clarify dates.”   

Be Inclusive  

Whatever aesthetic you use in your holiday card, remember to be inclusive. The text, images, and overall appearance should speak to everyone. Not all people celebrate in the same way during the holiday season, so select elements that are generally appealing and neutral. A good example is a card that reads “Happy Holidays” or “Wishing you joy.” 

Add a Unique or Festive Touch 

Stand out amidst the sea of traditional greetings. Uniqueness grabs attention and makes a memorable impression on recipients, demonstrating your creativity and thoughtfulness. A distinctive card conveys that you’ve put extra effort into making the recipient feel special, reinforcing the significance of your relationship. 

Laura recommends utilizing different mailer sizes or choose a specialty mailer, like one that includes hot chocolate or cider. “We’re used to seeing typical sizes for promotions and mailers, but by using a larger sized postcard, or adding a special treat, you can make your message stand out more.”  

For holiday marketing mailers, she suggests adding a QR code, allowing customers to scan the code and immediately access your website promotion. Elsewhere, James Casey, our Account Executive, says that a simple foil stamp can do wonders for holiday cards, as it brings some sparkle and feels expensive in customers’ hands. He also stresses the importance of having a holiday-themed call-to-action. “Include something like ‘Find your gifts here’ or ‘Get your holiday shopping started here’ and then point to a street address or a QR code,” James adds. 

Some Examples We Love  

The abundance of holiday cards means there is no shortage of inspiration for your masterpiece.  

Brooke Seidel, Sales Manager at Printing for Less, recalls a card that had the family’s photo outline printed in shiny material with a foil trim. “Behind the family photo, the rest of the postcard was a matte print, making the family focus really obvious.” This attention to detail and strategic placement of the photo is what made the card seem extra personalized, and while you probably won’t have photos of your recipients on file, you can highlight things that you know matter to them in the same style. 

Laura also notes that self-mailers can strike a particular chord with people around the holidays. “It’s a card that’s folded together, and you can include something inside the mailer like a peppermint hot chocolate.” Any additional gift will go a long way with audiences, especially if it relates to the season and has a certain coziness to it. 

There it is, the holiday card code, cracked. Whatever design and campaign you choose, keep it authentic, true to your brand tone, and be considerate of the diverse ways people spend the holidays.  

If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you spread holiday cheer to your customers, browse our holiday collection or send us an email at info@printingforless.com. We’d love to connect. 

Tear-off tabs have huge potential: micro-perforations in print media add a degree of interactivity and can even result in dual-purpose marketing materials. Despite these benefits, however, many brands overlook this print effect in their marketing strategies, limiting their use to coupons. In this article, we want to showcase some less popular (but still highly effective) tearable print ideas, from reply cards to business cards, and beyond.

Why use tear-off tabs? 

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: adding an interactive element to your print marketing is a great way to engage with customers. Tickets, coupons, rip cards: all these things give consumers something tactile to engage with, while simultaneously promoting your brand through special deals or advertisements.

Tear-off tabs—particularly coupons—are a fantastic way to promote in-store shopping. “If you’re trying to move more foot traffic to your store, or if you’re trying to move inventory at your brick and mortar, then giving away tear-off coupons that can be redeemed in person rather than online is advantageous,” explains Printing for Less’ Nathan Garner. 

More than just coupons 

Tear-off tabs are typically associated with coupons, but they have enormous potential beyond this application. Here are some of our favorite nontraditional tear-off tab flyer ideas.

Reply cards

You’ve likely come across these before, possibly while leafing through a magazine. Reply cards, or business reply cards, are essentially pre-stamped postcards that your clients or prospects can use to get in touch with your business directly. All they have to do is fill in their name, contact details and send it back in the mail. Reply cards are ideal tear-off prints as they can be placed in magazines, flyers, or coupon books. And there’s no single purpose for reply cards: they can be used to gather information about customers through simple survey questions or to drive subscriptions. Reply cards can also be included alongside event invitations. Invitees simply have to make their RSVP choice, tear off the card from the invite, and drop it in the mailbox. Easy peasy.

Tickets

Tear-off tabs have traditionally been used for tickets. When you buy a concert or movie ticket—at least the non-digital kind—ushers will tear off a portion of the ticket, leaving you with a stub. Brands can use this approach in their marketing by creating event tickets or even raffle tickets that feature a promotion or advertisement on them. With raffle tickets especially, participants will hold on to their ticket stub at least until the raffle winners have been announced. A cleverly placed advertisement could therefore end up catching their attention as they’ll have the ticket in hand. Moreover, a well-designed raffle ticket with a catchy graphic could encourage ticket sales and boost raffle earnings.

Interactive pages

Tear-off pages also present a unique opportunity for interactivity. You can easily add a puzzle page or coloring page to a catalog or booklet that customers can tear out and give to their children or fill in themselves. James Casey, Printing for Less Customer Advocate, describes a print job he is working on: “it’s a catalog with one spread that’s uncoated and perforated so that kids can tear it out and color it in.” Adding a touch of play to print marketing is a great way to get audiences to engage with your brand—and maybe even get it displayed on the fridge at home.

Gifting tags 

We’ve all been there: digging through drawers for a black pen to hastily scribble over the price on a gift. It’s not ideal, but the alternative is removing the tag entirely (no more gift exchange) or leaving the price visible (a big no-no). Fortunately, there is another option: tear-off gifting tags. This type of tag, which is becoming increasingly common, consists of a two-part tag that lets customers easily tear off the price of a product without damaging the tag. “I’m working on a gifting tag project for a charcuterie board kit,” says Brooke Seidel, Quad Lead at Printing for Less. “It has the artwork and barcode on it, and then the price is on a tear-off tab so it can be ripped off if the customer wants to gift it.”

Business cards

If you’re looking for a dynamic way to distribute your business cards in a particular community, consider designing a rack card or door hanger with a tear-off business card attached. It’s effectively a two-for-one print: you can share details about your business’ latest products or services in the main part of the ad, while giving your audience the option to tear off a business card that they can slip in their wallet for future reference. This strategy is common in real estate, where agents can feature recent listings and distribute their business cards simultaneously. Ultimately, it gives prospects a direct invitation to get in contact with your business if the ad catches their interest.

Get in touch today 

There are countless creative ways to integrate tear-off tabs in print marketing, and Printing for Less can accommodate your vision. We can perforate many types of paper and card stock, as well as apply a wide range of print finishes, like die cuts, or Spot UV. Get in touch with a member of our team today to discuss the best rip card options for your brand or campaign.

When it comes to print marketing, it’s all about grabbing people’s attention and standing out. You don’t want your brochure to be forgotten among the masses and you certainly don’t want your business card to end up at the bottom of the stack. That’s why it’s important to get creative with your print marketing—with design, and with print finishes. Extra touches that can grab someone’s attention for even a second longer will make a difference and make your brand unforgettable. Here are our favorite print finishes and some tips on how to make the most of them.

Foil Stamping

Foil stamping is a great way to make your print marketing materials stand out. The process uses a heated metal die and a foil stamping machine to add a metallic finish to your print. Gold and silver lettering or line art provide a hint of glamor, while holographic foil has a fun and futuristic appeal. We recommend using foil stamping for crisp lines—like lettering—and for larger design elements rather than small details. Printing for Less’s eCommerce Marketing Specialist Ambre Zachmann recommends, “using a red foil around the QR code or a metallic arrow pointing to the QR code” to make it pop. Check out some more design tips for foil stamping here.

Embossing 

Many people think of print marketing as a two-dimensional medium, but it doesn’t have to be. Embossing is a century-old technique that uses a pair of dies to create raised design elements, or reliefs on a sheet of paper. The three-dimensional effect is most often used for professional print media, including business cards, stationery, and certificates. However, it can also add texture—not to mention a hint of class—to postcards, invitations, brochures, and more. Our embossing services are versatile: you can choose from several different edge effects, including straight, curved, or sloped edges, and can even integrate multiple embossed layers in a single design. Moreover, you can combine embossing with foil stamping for added visual and tactile intrigue.

Die Cuts 

While it may sound rather technical, die cutting is really just like using a cookie cutter for paper. Using custom-shaped blades, we can cut virtually any shape into your print materials for some added dimension and, in some cases, function. You can die cut the outline of your logo on a brochure and overlay it on a contrasting page to make it distinctive; you can cut out a shape on your business card to make it more tactile; you can create an interactive slide and reveal card; or you can make functional cuts for door hangers. There are countless options at your disposal. Ultimately, integrating a custom die cut will help set your print media apart from the competition and help make your brand more memorable to those who encounter it. 

Custom Folds 

When we talk about folding in print marketing, there are the obvious go-tos, like tri-fold brochures and folded cards. Don’t get us wrong, these are great, but there are also countless other ways to fold paper to enhance your marketing materials. Custom folds are a low-cost way to add dimension and even interactivity to your prints. For example, you can strategically integrate folds to create a reveal effect for the reader, you can also create expandable or 3D shapes. As Ambre says, “I think the best print finishes are actually foldout interactive pages. Invite your reader to unlock a secret by unfolding your piece. Or I’ve also seen a custom mailer that could be unfolded into a huge poster for kids to color in.” 

Lamination 

If you’re looking for a consistent, professional print finish that adds durability to your print materials look no further than lamination. Specifically, liquid laminate. Also known as UV coating, liquid laminate consists of a transparent liquid coating that is applied to paper and cured, forming a thin durable coating. Not only does lamination protect your print materials from fingerprints, scratches, and scuffing, it also makes them moisture and sun resistant. In terms of a visual effect, you can choose either a high gloss or matte finish, both of which enhance the color and quality of your design and add a soft feel. Lamination is great for high-touch prints, like business cards, brochures, and menus, as well as posters and signs that require durability.

Soft Touch 

Take your print marketing to the next level with a Soft Touch® coating. Like liquid lamination, this print finish increases the durability of your prints, making them resistant to fingerprints and scuffing. But the real value of Soft Touch® is its tactile appeal. Best paired with high gloss paper, Soft Touch® adds a rich, velvety texture to your prints that will make customers’ fingers linger for a moment longer. It can also enhance visual aspects, particularly dark colors, which become more luxurious with the velvet-like coating. Soft Touch® can be applied to your entire print—whether it’s a business card, postcard, brochure, or catalog—or selectively to create dynamic visual and tactile contrasts on the page.

Spot UV 

There’s a reason Spot UV is one of the most popular print finishes available today. The quick-drying (and eco-friendly!) coating imparts glossy details onto your print, resulting in a stunning contrast as well as unique light-catching effects. “If you have a really bright image on the front of your print, you could add Spot UV to it so it stands out even more and catches people’s eye,” explains Printing for Less Account Executive Kristi Eby. There are many ways to use Spot UV to your advantage. We recommend using the glossy print finish with matte paper for the greatest contrast, or combining it with Soft Touch for higher impact.

Finding the Right Print Finish

If you’re still unsure which of these print finishes is the best for your marketing campaign or brand materials, the Printing for Less team is more than happy to help. Give us a call to chat about your needs and we’ll explain which of our print finish options can best benefit you.

When it comes to Thanksgiving, the bigger the better, and the more the merrier. Twenty pound turkeys, cups brimming with spiced cider, tables overflowing with rich, seasonal food—indulgence is very much the theme. But why stop at food? Deck out your table this holiday and shower your guests with all the festivity they can handle with these festiveThanksgiving printables.

Set your table with personalized name cards

Adding personalized name cards to your Thanksgiving table is not only a great way to spruce up your decor, but it also relieves guests from having to awkwardly navigate who to sit next to when the time comes to take a seat. As a bonus, your guests will feel well taken care of when they see their name at their designated seat.

 There are countless Thanksgiving place card ideas. You can go for something classic and formal, like calligraphy on printed cardstock, or something a bit more fun, like a die-cut place card in the shape of a leaf, or a name tag fitted onto a tiny pumpkin. 

For extra Thanksgiving flair, top off each place card or place setting with seasonal greenery, like rosemary, pinecones, or cranberries for an added pop of color and smell. At the end of the night, you can even invite your guests to take their place card home as a souvenir.

What’s better than leftovers? A recipe!

It’s great to send guests home with leftovers, but why not give them something that will last, like a custom recipe booklet featuring your mouth-watering stuffing secret, your sweet and savory yams, or your grandmother’s renowned pumpkin pie? It’s a special Thanksgiving printable that will remind your guests of your party for years to come and allow them to recreate and share your trademark Thanksgiving dishes. 

We offer booklet printing services that are perfect for bringing your personalized recipe book to life. In addition to the usual options—like booklet size, type of paper, and binding—we have several special printing effects that can take your Thanksgiving printable to the next level, such as spot UV. With this coating, you can add selective glossiness to your prints, creating a dynamic contrast on the page.

“Spot UV is really easy to work with! It’s something that catches people’s eye,” explains Brooke Seidel, Quad Lead at Printing for Less. “For example, if you already have something designed, it’s really simple to put fall leaves as a spot gloss in the back of the design.”

Look ahead to the new year with custom calendars

When Thanksgiving rolls around at the end of November, it’s a good reminder that a new year is right around the corner. In anticipation of new and exciting things on the horizon, printing a series of custom calendars can make the perfect gift for your dinner guests. 

If you’ve got a knack for photography, pick your favorite photos from each month of the past year and use them for calendar pages. Think budding flowers for May, pumpkin patches for October, etc. Alternatively, fill the calendar with funny or sentimental photos of you and your Thanksgiving guests from over the years. It’s a great way for everyone to keep their loved ones in mind all year long.

Calendars come in many shapes and sizes. For instance, you can choose a compact desktop calendar or a wall-hanging calendar with larger images. You can also pick from a variety of print finishes, including high-gloss UV or soft touch coatings, as well as embossed pages, foil stamping, or metallic inks.

Bottle up fall flavors with custom hang tags

Surprise your Thanksgiving guests at the end of the evening with a little something sweet to take home. Make a batch of autumn-inspired cranberry cordial, fragrant rosemary syrup, or everyone’s favorite pumpkin spice mix. From there, all you have to do is bottle it up, and attach a custom hang tag to the bottle, in the style of Alice in Wonderland’s “Drink Me” potion.

Hang tags are a great way to not only indicate what’s inside the bottle, but also to share kind words of thanks, a recipe, or an anecdote. Did you make the rosemary syrup from home-grown rosemary? Say so! Does it go well mixed into a particular cocktail? Share the recipe!

For a small gathering, you can opt to make your own tags, but for a bigger crowd why not print a batch of hang tags or bottle neckers? The tags will elevate your take-home gift and allow you to show off your personal brand and creativity.

Give thanks with a custom greeting card

In the spirit of giving thanks, send each of your guests a greeting card in the weeks following Thanksgiving to thank them for celebrating with you. You can always go buy a box of pre-printed thank you cards, but a custom card will show your family and friends how grateful you are to spend time with them and take your host rating from A to A+.

As with our other printing services, our greeting cards and postcards can be personalized in many ways, using die cuts, special inks, and coatings. “You could die cut fall leaves on a postcard, or you could use UV coating, or incorporate an interesting folding,” says Ambre Zachmann, eCommerce Marketing Specialist. “I’ve also seen soft touch included in fall campaigns. It’s adding a soft, almost velvety touch to a piece. Imagine soft fall leaves on a card.”

“Greeting cards are a great option around Thanksgiving,” adds Printing for Less Account Executive Kristi Eby. “We can even handle all the shipping of the cards or gifts.” Indeed, at Printing for Less we not only can print your custom thank you cards, we can also take care of mailing them. 

Happy Thanksgiving from the Printing for Less team!

Printable products—like place cards, booklets, calendars, bottle tags, and greeting cards—can up your hosting game and elevate any holiday. Give these ideas a try this Thanksgiving and see firsthand how impressed your guests are. If you need any help with Thanksgiving printable designs, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team of experts, we’re here to help!

Your logo is a little slice of your business, but an important one. It deserves to be front and center in your marketing campaigns. A logo is your badge, sure, but where you position it should depend on the content, the messaging, and the action you’re trying to persuade customers into taking.

Think of your logo like your business card. Sometimes it makes sense to leave it in the middle of the table during a conference, other times it’s better to hand it over after chatting with someone for a while. Context matters.

With that in mind, our print professionals have put together this short guide to logo placement success.

Logo Placement: Best Practices

So, while logo placement needs to be tailored to the medium you’re using and the impact you want to have on audiences, there are a few best practices you should follow. For instance, did you know that people are 89% more likely to remember a logo that is positioned in the top left rather than on the right?

Sticking to the practices below will help maximize the visibility of your logo, engage customers more strongly, and boost your number of conversions (according to whatever your goal may be). 

Think About The Product

Just as they say in real estate: location, location, location. Ambre Zachmann, Printing for Less’s eCommerce Marketing Specialist, says that “your logo needs to be seen by customers. When a package or mailer arrives, your logo should be the first thing that catches their eye.”

James Casey, our Account Executive, goes further to say that your logo should be on more than one side of the package. “Sometimes logos get covered by shipping labels, or when the package is delivered it might not be face up, so having your logo in multiple places will ensure that it’s still immediately visible.”

Elsewhere, fellow Account Executive, Tyler Diebold dives into the types of products that you should be targeting to showcase your logo. He explains that “promotional products are ideal for your logo. Imagine a product that is going to sit on your desk for a long time or a magnet on your fridge. These items can display your logo and subconsciously put your business in front of your customers.”

Keep It Proportional

You want your logo to be the star of the show. Whatever people are using or reading that has your logo on it, you want them to walk away with a feeling of being entertained or informed, and associating that sensation with your brand.

Katie Younge, Director of Sales, suggests that your logo should be on every item that you send in a package. “The sweet spot for people to remember your company is to display your logo, phone number, slogan, and other contact details at least three times.”

Account Executive, Kristi Eby, says that it’s worth adding a larger logo on the box too, as it’s the first thing that customers will see. “However, if you have a smaller box,” she says, “think about proportions. A smaller logo in the corner of the mailer can be just as powerful.”

Some Customer Logo Examples That We Love 

Brooke Seidel, Printing for Less’s Sales Manager, recalls a project she recently worked on where a customer die-cut their logo to put on top of a mailer. “The result was a logo that really stood out and made the aesthetic of the package much more interesting.”

Kristi adds that she worked on a project where the customer opted for a smaller logo but then used spot UV to highlight the first letter of the company name in the background of the piece. Simple, subtle, and very striking.

Ambre also notes that Printing for Less uses matte black boxes with the company logo printed with shine or clear gloss to produce a really sharp effect. Brooke recommends that businesses do the same, or take advantage of finishing attributes with spot UV or foil.

As an overall tip, James Casey says to have a very clear contrast of colors; for example, a darker blue postcard with a white version of your logo.

Brands Doing It Right

Apple

Apple are geniuses (pun intended) at logo placement. How often do you see the iconic bitten apple logo throughout the day? You probably don’t know the exact number, but we can bet that it’s a lot, and it will have popped up in places beyond phones and laptops. The tech company’s dedication to sleek, minimal branding has meant that only the apple appears at the center of campaigns and deliveries, and that’s more than sufficient for customers to recognize the brand.

Trader Joe’s

Trader Joe’s markets itself as a national chain of local grocery stores, and so keeps its logo looking rustic and wholesome. Their classic brown bags have a large logo printed on them, carrying the theme of a neighborhood store in the greater aesthetic. And, by having a logo that is simple, block red letters, Trader Joe’s maintains its no-frills, good-quality characteristic.

Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club’s logo stands out because of its straightforwardness: the two razors combined with the business name’s three-letter acronym seems more like a stamp than a logo. Compared to other shave brands that prefer a more aggressive logo, Dollar Shave Club keeps things clean and makes the logo the central point to reinforce its offering of low-cost, high-value razors.

What Not to do 

While we encourage all companies to lean into their creativity when it comes to logo placement, there is one big “no-no”. A dull logo is the equivalent of a spelling mistake at the printing press – it’s expensive and it could haunt you for years.

Your logo should be your pride and joy, and you need to take care to include it in your marketing efforts as much as possible and as obviously as possible. That doesn’t mean all your packaging needs to be a tiled pattern of your logo, but it does mean that people should be drawn to your logo in some capacity.

And, if you need a hand getting your logo into the limelight, chat with one of our advertising and design experts today.

Cohesive and eye-catching print designs are an important part of building a successful brand. They allow you to connect with your audience and make a lasting impression through tangible—even interactive—print media. But where to start when creating printed designs for your business? Finding the right approach will help you make the most of your printed design campaigns and ensure that your message is well communicated. Here are some printing design ideas and strategies to help put your brand or business on the right track.

Will Printing Designs Work for My Brand?

There is no denying we live in an increasingly digital world. But to overlook the value of printed designs is to deny that we also live in and engage with the physical world every day. Integrating printed media into your brand’s marketing can therefore be hugely beneficial, both for driving brand awareness and building lasting customer relationships. 

For starters, printed designs enable you to reach potential customers offline in a localized way. They can also help you to establish your brand as more authentic and real. This is because physical prints offer people a tangible object they can engage with. The best print designs will also grab people’s attention for longer than an online ad that can be scrolled past in an instant. 

Jonathan Millman, Lead Graphic Designer here at Printing for Less, explains it well: “Despite the digital age we live in, print can provide a unique physical engagement that cannot be achieved digitally. In our fast-paced day-to-day lives, our attention span can shift from moment to moment. So when presented with a print piece that speaks to your specific interests, you are more likely to become intrigued and explore further.”

In other words, printed media can be very advantageous for promoting your brand and engaging with customers. Like most things, however, it will have the greatest impact when used in combination with an effective strategy. 

Coming Up with a Printing Strategy

Perhaps the important element when coming up with printing design ideas is to think about where and how your customer will be engaging with your prints. Will they be opening up a leaflet that’s been delivered through their mail slot or slipping a business card in their wallet? These factors have a huge influence on how you design your assets. As Jonathan says: “Envision yourself in the eyes of the target audience member and form a clear idea of the most effective and attention harnessing impact.” 

For example, if you are designing a Rack Card to be placed in a local tourist office, consider how it will be viewed. Depending on the placement of the card, the middle and bottom may not be visible. It is therefore vital that the top portion of the card be visually interesting (i.e. brightly colored), have a large typeface that stands out from a distance, and provide clear, concise messaging. 

The impact of a Rack Card should not stop there. When it is picked up, the audience should be taken in by the rest of the print design. Below the heading, for instance, use high-quality, eye-catching photography relevant to your brand or services. By arranging these design elements strategically, the audience should naturally move their attention from the top to the bottom of the card, where additional details and contact information are found.

Thinking practically about how people are encountering and interacting with your print designs will help make your strategy clear. “In my experience, if intimate knowledge of the customer engagement is not understood, even the most amazingly designed pieces can fall flat,” Jonathan adds.

Printing Design Ideas and Suggestions

“As a designer, it can be easy to get lost in the minutia of your layout and graphics but the effectiveness relies heavily on the strategic presentation,” Jonathan says. At Printing for Less, we are here to empower you and give you the tools to create printing designs that are optimized for function and engagement. In the end, we understand that well-conceived and designed print media can make a big difference in how your brand is understood. Here are some of our top printing design ideas:

Appeal to the Five Senses

While digital media appeals primarily to our visual and aural senses, print media has the unique opportunity to engage more senses, like touch and even smell. Soft-touch or glossy coatings, embossed surfaces, and scented inks can take your printing designs to the next level and give your customers a more dynamic experience.

Use interactive elements

Arguably some of the most impactful print strategies we’ve worked on have included interactivity. Adding elements to your print design that people can physically engage and play with will heighten the overall experience and make your brand memorable. Die-cut pieces that can be punched out, foldable 3D features, stickers, infinity folds, and hidden messages revealed with decoder glasses all appeal to the child in us and our enduring love of play. 

Integrate the digital 

You shouldn’t think about print media as totally separate from digital media. Instead, link both sides of your brand by integrating digital elements into your print designs. For example, QR codes are a great way to transport the customer from the printed page to your website or social media accounts, where they can find more information and become a follower. QR codes can also be used to share vCards to seamlessly import contacts into a smart device.

Have a color story

Color is a huge part of print design. Not only does the right combination of colors look good, but color can also be used strategically to convey tone or mood. For example, choosing orange as your main color can convey optimism, pleasure, and freedom. Green will set the tone for harmony, health, and prosperity. Choosing warm or cold-toned colors will also influence your print design’s impact, with the former being welcoming and the latter being soothing.  You can find more on what color communicates here to find a palette that matches your brand and message.

In the end, combining a solid strategy with these printing design ideas will help your brand not only create a dynamic experience for existing and prospective customers, but will also set you apart from the competition.