3 Printing Trends You Need to Follow in 2020

These three trends are taking off in the new decade.

Welcome to the new decade! A new year always inspires us to think about our goals and opportunities. And, a new decade? Well, that’s an even better reason to imagine the possibilities ahead of us.

These three trends in printing all represent opportunities to set your business apart from the competition. Let each of these inspire you as you plan new projects and campaigns in 2020 and beyond.

Personalization

Expectations for personalization are rising from consumers. Businesses must demonstrate that they understand their customers and tailor their offerings appropriately. Consumers are being presented with so many digital messages and services today. It can be overwhelming to keep up.

One of the best ways to help you stand-out among the constant barrage of digital advertising is to use print. Relevance is key to success here. Consider using postcards to distinctly highlight your products and services. With a striking design, they will catch the eye in a stack of mail and generate the leads you’re looking for.

Even better, is to personalize your message and tailor the direct mail specifically based on a particular market segment. Instead of sending just one postcard for all potential customers, consider creating 2 or 3. Each postcard should have message designed for relevance among that segment of your market. This will help your potential customers feel valued and understood.

Postcards are a blank slate–they can be large or small and the sky’s the limit in terms of the graphic possibilities. This tried and true method for generating leads can be as modern as you want it, especially if you utilize the design trends that we highlight below.

In 2020, you can spark interest and bring new business to the table by utilizing personalized direct mail. M&M is here to help you take advantage of this trend through the full process including design, printing, and mailing.

Pantone’s Color of the Year: Classic Blue

Color is a fundamental component of most print projects. It’s important to think about how the colors you choose aligns to your brand, your message, and the goals of your project.

You can expect to see a lot of Pantone’s color of the year, Classic Blue (19-4052) in 2020. It’s a gorgeous deep blue shade that’s harkens serenity and confidence. Imagine the sky, right as dusk is shifting to night. This calm and confident blue is very elegant and works for a variety of brand styles.

Pantone began their color of the year tradition over 20 years ago in 1999 when it chose Cerulean, another serene shade to usher in the start of a new millennium. While quite a lot has changed in the world over the last 20 years, Classic Blue remains timeless.

Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, described Classic Blue as “A boundless blue evocative of the vast and infinite evening sky, Classic Blue encourages us to look beyond the obvious to expand our thinking; challenging us to think more deeply, increase our perspective and open the flow of communication.”

We expect to see Classic Blue in print, displays, and promotional products this year. Consider using Classic Blue this year to as an accent color on your next project. It compliments everything from vibrant and neon colors to neutrals.

Minimalist Design

Less is more in terms of design in 2020. Minimalist design constrains the designer to include only the most important information through the simplest visual construct. It requires discipline to eliminate extraneous clutter from a design.

We’re seeing this trend in action everywhere from booklets to business cards and everything in between. In addition to the calming aesthetic it brings, minimalist designs are often easier for audiences to consume. This is a great benefit when it comes to marketing products!

Minimalism pushes us to really get clear about our brand, our message, and our goals. There’s no room for excess when minimalist design is the goal. Exploring a minimal design can help you bring the fundamentals of your message to customers right to the forefront, with no question. It can be very powerful.

Some tips to consider when aiming for a minimalist design on your next project include:

Identify and Cut the Excess

This may sound obvious, but it’s one of the hardest things to do when designing a new project. Ask yourself whether each element in your project is absolutely necessary. If the answer is no, out it goes!

Include Plenty of Whitespace

The one area of abundance in a great minimalist design is whitespace. Whitespace doesn’t always have to be white. We consider whitespace to be any spaces between content. Make sure your content has room to breathe and you’ll be well on your path to a minimalist design.

Choose a Simple Color Palette.

Using one or two bold colors can stand out more than using 5 or 7 colors in a design. Whether you choose a monochromatic palette or one with a handful of complementary colors, try to restrain the number of colors in your palette. Don’t be afraid to stick with the essentials.

And, there you have it–the top three design trends in printing for 2020. No matter what’s trending, the most important and timeless aspect of any successful project is to create something you’re proud of that helps you achieve your goals. At the Marsid M&M Group, we’re always here to help you do just that.

Following other trends in your market space that we should know about? Let us know in the comments below.

Beef Up Your Business Cards With These Plug-ins

Standard business cards are typically rectangular, 2 x 3.5 inches on white stock. The only thing that differentiates them from other business cards is the information and graphics. Adding custom finishes to your business cards bring them to life. The combinations are endless, but by using just one finishing option your business cards will be “Slicker than a harpooned hippo on a banana tree” (not entirely sure what that means but it seems to get the point across that your business cards will stand out!).

These Cards Mean Business

Embossing

Embossing your business cards is just awesome. This method has many variations from blind embossing to multi-level embossing to embossing with foil stamping. It gives your business card dimension, it makes you want to look at it from different angles. But best of all, if used correctly, it’s classy.

Foil Stamping

Foil Stamping enhances your business cards by reflecting light in the area where it is foil stamped. This reflection attracts the eye of the viewer. Foil is available in many metallic colors and even holographic patterns…if you want your business card to pop, this is the way to go!

Spot UV Coating

Spot UV coating creates a reflective mirror-like sheen only in areas where it is designated, hence the name “Spot” UV. By using a spot UV layer on your business card, you can intensify the visibility of a certain graphic or even create a graphic out of the spot UV itself on a solid background. The example above have the 7 A.M. logo using this method so that the logo is only visible when angled to a light source. Very creative!

Custom Die Cut

Custom die cut business cards are the epitome of customization! The shape of your business card can be made to just about anything. Match the shape of your logo or product or you can add special folds to really make your business cards unique. Give them something they will never forget!

Pantone (PMS) Colors

If branding is important to your company, making sure your brand is recognizable and memorable can be as easy as selecting a specific Pantone color for consistency This color is used throughout all of your marketing collateral and anywhere your logo/brand is displayed. Many (if not all) of the major brands do this. One of the most used examples is Coca-cola’s red.

A Custom Combination of Finishes

The more of these finishes you use on your business cards, the more they will stand out in a stack. I don’t think there’s any way of overdoing it. When used correctly your business cards will serve as a sales tool and conversational piece that can get the ball rolling on a new sale. Use them to feature a new product or to show prestige that reflects on your business. The variations and possibilities are endless.

Creating Die Lines for Custom Die Cut Printing in Adobe Illustrator

This post is best suited for graphic designers who will be working on a die cutting project and/or those of you who simply like to know how to do stuff.

Creating a die line for die cutting can be pretty simple or can be quite difficult, all depends on your design and some planning beforehand can come in very handy later on.

First, I want to make it clear that die cutting thin lines is not always a good idea. Thin lines in a die create thin cuts in the paper that can easily bend or rip off. Sometimes it’s unavoidable such as die cutting hair or thin fonts but if possible, always try to use thick locks of hair or bold type if your die cut is typography-based.

Custom Die Cut Hang Tags

For this tutorial we are going to create a Die Cut Hang Tag. Many clothing manufacturers use hang tags to brand their merchandise and sometimes include information about the product or the company on the back or inside if it is a folding hang tag.

For this tutorial, we will use a fictitious Clothing Brand called mmprint.

Our goal is to have a finished hang tag where we will die cut the mmprint with the white Stroke around it. Leaving the grey area (which for purposes of this tutorial is simulating the paper) by using a die cutter such as our Heidelberg Windmill Letterpress.

The Right Tools

The die line must be made using a vector design program such as Adobe Illustrator or InDesign. A die maker uses a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine which uses CAD software to send the design commands to the CNC machine.

Since the CNC is computer controlled, it requires vector lines to operate. Raster lines are created using blocks which then create jagged edges along the perimeter of the line.

Preparing the Artwork

Creating the die line for the mmprint hang tag should be rather straight forward and simple. We used Century Gothic Bold for the text and made an offset path to make it thicker, then added a 3pt. Stroke around it. All we really need to do is make a line that goes around the entire perimeter of the white Stroke.

Sure, you can show off your Pen tool skills and trace the whole thing but working efficiently is key for a designer and when you have other projects to move on to, time is important.

At this point in our design, our stroke is an effect applied to the object. When you select the object with the black arrow, you will see that the selection line is located within the stroke. Since we need the die line to be the outside edge of the stroke, we have to make the stroke an object itself.

Select the mmprint object then click Edit>Copy then click Edit>Paste in Front

With the new object selected, click Object>Expand

While still selected, click the Unite button in the PathFinder tab (Window>Pathfinder)

Now you should have the outline of the object that is completely white, which notably is the shape that will remain in the sheet of paper once the mmprint is die cut out…

Now just 2 more steps.

While our new white object selected, all we need to do is give it a 1pt. stroke (I chose orange so it stands out) and remove the fill color.

Here is the result:

The orange line is the area where the die cut will be made

Cleaning Up

The final step is to convert the orange color we selected into a PMS color that we will call “Die Line”.

The purpose of making the die line its own PMS color is so that it separates correctly when making plates. The CMYK parts separate accordingly for printing and our “Die Line” PMS will separate as one separate plate for the die.

Here is how it’s done:

With the Die Line Layer selected, Double click the Orange color in your Swatches Panel.

Change the Swatch Name to “Die Line”, change Type to “Spot Color” and click OK

Notice the Orange color swatch has a White corner with a Black dot in it…this means it has been converted to a PMS color

Tips and Tricks

It’s always a good idea to consult with the printer/die cutter before you spend a lot of time on your design. Discuss and if possible, show a sketch or basic artwork of your die cut to get feedback on what may or may not work.

As a graphic designer/consultant, you are hired to be efficient and work within budgets.

To save on die charges, you can always use a pre-made Die Cut shapes and customize only the printing.

We offer a nice selection of pre-made die cut shapes:

Take the Design Even Further

When budget is not an obstacle, take your creativity to the next level with Foil Stamping and Embossing.

At this point you can design a hang tag with all the bells and whistles that people may possibly keep. Hang tags create an amazing opportunity to spread your branding with the very merchandise that you sell. Make your hang tag reflect the quality of your company and your product.

So how do you prepare the design for foil stamping and embossing?

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Printing Terms Infographic – Color Quick Guide

We strongly believe that an informed customer can make all the difference in print jobs going smoothly and without misunderstandings. I’m sure it goes for any industry.

We strive to offer a unique and pleasant experience when working with us. By providing our customers with informative collateral we not only educate our customer, but we also ease the lines of communication which instills confidence in our customer that what they are ordering is exactly what they want. It’s logical, it makes sense.

With the recent popularity and practicality found in infographics, we decided to release a series of Quick Guides of printing terms and print related infographics to offer to our customers and anyone else who can use them. Please feel free to share this!

For a more in-depth look at color, visit our Colorful Guide to Understanding Color.

Typography: Kerning, Leading and Tracking

Kerning and Leading are ways to manipulate the spacing between characters. Spatial manipulation in type can be a very important tool. Some fonts need to have individual characters adjusted to help create better readability and a more aesthetically pleasing layout. Changes to kerning and leading often go unnoticed, but in most situations that is what the designer will only want a subtle change that fixes readability.

Leading

Leading is the spacing between the baselines of type. The term leading is derived from the practice of placing lead strips between lines type on older hand set printing presses such as a letterpress. Adjusting the leading is also a very useful way of saving or using space on a page. Leading can also be used to change the aesthetics when dealing with a typographical design.

Kerning

Kerning is the spacing in between individual characters. Most fonts will have specific default kerning for individual character sets so that the spacing in between the letters in words feels more natural. The image below has a sentence with and without custom kerning applied in 5 different spots to show how subtle the change is. Most of the time, people will not realize that kerning was included to change the type of the design.

Tracking

Another adjustment to type that hasn’t been mentioned is Tracking. Tracking is very similar to kerning in that it is the spacing between individual characters, but tracking is the space between groups of letters rather than individual letters. Tracking affects the overall character density of the copy. Other than the actual effect that it could have on readability of type, tracking would be used to make lines of type even. Tracking will help to eliminate widows and orphans in paragraphs. Widows are when the final line of a paragraph begins a new column or page. Orphans are when paragraphs end in single words, part of words or a short phrase that seems out of place.

Kerning and Leading are important in typography and should not be ignored. It is the finishing touch on the type that makes everything read and flow properly. The design is not really complete until kerning and leading have been considered, but that doesn’t mean that they are always necessary. It shouldn’t be forced upon a design, but it should look natural.

Which do you find yourself adjusting the most when creating typography – Kerning, Leading, Tracking or all of them?

The Ultimate Marketing Piece – Eye Popping Media Kits

What Your Marketing Mix Is Missing

When promoting a new product, service, music album, a band, a company, a brand, creating a media kit is essential to a successful marketing and/or branding campaign.

A media kit is an informative resource like no other since it can include so many different types of media, all packaged into one convenient place we like to call Presentation Folders.

Pockets and Slits, Media Kits!

Presentation folders are incredibly versatile because of the fact that they can hold so many types of media with simple pockets and slits made into the paper. Presentation folders can hold marketing materials such as:

Business cards
Brochures
CDs
DVDs
Labels
Letterhead
Magnet cards
Mousepads
Notepads
Postcards
Sell sheets
Stickers

If it is not too bulky and it will help promote your service or product it should go in your media kit presentation folder.

A Customized Presentation

Presentation folders come in many varieties to fit the purpose and can be completely customizable. Here are a few samples of standard “extras” that can help you create the perfect media kit:

Standard Business Card Slits

Horizontal Bus. Card Slits

Vertical or Horizontal

Optional Business Card Slits

Optional Horizontal Slits

Vertical or Horizontal

Horizontal with Four Slits

CD/DVD Slits

Presentation Folder with CD/DVD Slit

Expanded Box Pockets

Presentation Folder with Expanded Box Pockets

Expanded Spine

Presentation Folder with Expanded Spine

Tri-Panel Folders

Tri-Panel Presentation Folder

These are only a few of the most common features found in Presentation folders for Media kits. Customize them with your own ideas to fit that marketing materials and their purposes. Feel free to contact Marsid M&M if you have questions or to request a quote.

For your Design Inspiration, here are some of the best Presentation Folders and Media Kits made by awesome designers:

[Disclaimer: The folders in this post were not printed by mmprint.com, they are used for demonstration and inspirational purposes only]

(click on the image to view the original source)

What kind of Funky Items have you put into your

Folders and Media kits?

Please leave your comments below.

The Influence of Color – Color Psychology and the Subconscious

We live in a world of Color.

Everywhere you look color is influencing us consciously and subconsciously; naturally and synthetically: The blue sky, the green forests, the red stop sign, the green light. Color stimulates our emotions and motivates our decisions.

In this article we will investigate what some colors represent and how they can be used in your design.

Marketing and advertising employs the knowledge and practice of color psychology in its work to drive results. The main purpose of an ad is to motivate the viewer to take a course of action designated by the advertiser. Whether the call to action is to purchase a product, sign up for a contest or simply to modify the perception or mood towards a product or brand, color scheme is key to a successful campaign.

Color is applied to the shape of a logo to represent an emotion, objective, a meaning, as well as to increase brand recognition.

Colors can be presented and visualized as to signify verbs, circumstances, feelings, conditions, environments and objects to name a few.

Make sure to use color to assist in getting your message across whether you are designing a sell sheet or a logo. Remember to keep in mind the perspective of potential viewers can make a difference in their perception of the design in its entirety. Not every color will affect every individual in the same fashion. It is possible that an individual experienced something involving a particular color and may react very differently from everyone else. It is important to investigate the potential hazardous impact that a color may cause when researching and choosing color schemes. This includes cultures and countries which may have a different meaning of colors.

Red

Love, Warning, Energetic, Leadership, Ambition, Heat, Courage, Passion, Intensity, Aggression, Vibrant, Attention

Black

Power, Authority, Discipline, Confidence, Elegance, Secrecy, Sophisticated, Evil, Depth, Mystery

Blue

Peace, Cold, Water, Loyalty, Corporate, Seriousness, Sky, Authority, Security, Calmness, Productivity, Freedom, Cool

Green

Nature, fertility, Vigor, Inexperience, Patience, Growth, Money, Harmony, Refreshing, Health

Yellow

In what way do colors affect you? Have you used color in your workspace to help you be more productive?

Please share your comments!

A Colorful Guide to Understanding Color

– Vision gives us the ability to see color, but how many of us can truly explain or describe what color is or where it comes from?

This quick guide gives you a brief understanding of color, how it works, its application and how it affects your design and printing outcome.

Q. What is the definition of a color?

A. Color is the sensation produced in response to selective absorption of wavelengths from visible light. It possesses the attributes of Brightness, Colorfulness and Hue. – www.Color.org

Light is emitted by a source such as the Sun or a light bulb. Only the colors that cannot be absorbed by an object are reflected. When the light is reflected into our eyes by the object, color is the result of receptors in the eye reacting to the specific wavelength of light.

So basically, the surface properties of the object actually reflect the colors that it does not absorb. The object itself does not emit the color.

Color Application

Color plays an extremely big roll in design. For those not already aware, color is a tool that goes beyond aesthetics and delves into the subconscious; besides our visual response, we also have an emotional response to color.

If you have a black muscle car that has 550hp under the hood and one day you decide to paint the whole thing purple, do you think the perception of the car – even though it still pushes 550hp – will remain the same? Would the viewer be more interested in the color of the car than the seconds it takes to get down the quarter-mile? With color you can control perception.

Our emotions also change the perception of an object based on its color. Our age, experiences with certain colors and other triggers all affect the perception of a color at the time of viewing.

Color Communication

Color is defined by various properties and for the sake of communication, it has been given a name or number. Pink is a variation of red but it is distinctively a color in itself so a name was given to it. But how do we communicate the darkness or lightness of that pink? So can a yellow be referred to as Lemon Yellow or Canary Yellow, but to replicate it there must be a standard.

A system for coding color hues was developed in the 1900’s although today we have standards such as the Pantone Matching System® (PMS) which is widely used in the print and design industry and is the default matching system for popular graphic design software like Adobe® Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. With Pantone, a designer can designate a specific PMS color in his artwork and the printer all the way on the other side of the world can replicate the color exactly as the designer expected it to be via a Pantone swatch.

Color Vocabulary

Here you can find the definition of the most important properties of color. These will help you manipulate color and communicate efficiently.

Hue: a gradation or variety of a color. – dictionary.com

Chroma: the purity of a hue at its furthest from gray.

Saturation: the purity of a hue at is furthest from white.

Intensity: the strength or sharpness of a hue

Luminance: the amount of light reflected by the hue

Shade: a hue created by adding black

Tint: a hue created by adding white

Color Models

Color output is affected by the media it is applied to or displayed through. For web and print purposes I will only mention the Additive and Subtractive color models.

Additive: The colors that you see now on your monitor are created by adding white (light) to black. As more color is added to the black screen, the closer it is to white. Red, Green and Blue (RGB) are the additive primary colors and combined together produce 100% white. The RGB model is used for web graphics.

Subtractive: This color model is typically used for printing. By applying ink, the amount of white from the paper is reduced or subtracted. Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are the subtractive color primaries. Combining these three colors produces a muddy brownish black. To achieve a better blacks and to save ink, black (K) was added to the mix. The CMYK model is used for print.

Color Types

A color wheel is used to show the relationship between Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Complementary colors.

Primary Colors are pure colors that cannot be made by mixing any combination of colors. The are in their purest form.

Secondary Colors are created by combining two primary colors.

Tertiary Colors are made by mixing primary and secondary colors.

Complementary Colors are those positioned directly across from each other in the color wheel.

Using a color wheel can clean up your color choices specially when using complementary colors. These are basically colors that complement each other and go well together. Many designs have beautiful structure but the chosen color combinations crash and take away from its beauty.

Both web and print designs can benefit greatly from understanding color and using a color wheel. Subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter to stay tuned for the next post about Color and the Subconscious.

How would you explain color to someone who cannot see color?

Brand Identity Built for Success

In all successful brands you will find fundamental characteristics that create recognition and assimilation. Comparable with that of seeing a familiar face, “Brand Identity” strengthens trust and confidence.

Color

A color scheme can express and communicate different things about a company, product or service. Color psychology plays a big roll in the viewer’s subconscious and reaction to a brand. The employment of color psychology in your brand can change a simple shape into a memorable association with an experience or emotion which may be positive or negative. Color is by far the single most important stimuli to reach the end consumer.

Intel Pentium 4 Trademark and Logo Usage Guidelines

Shape

The shape aspect of a brand also carries a psychological twist to it. Shapes can guide the viewer’s focus, arrange information and express significance. A circle for example, has a natural tendency to lead the eye to its midpoint. This gives a prevalence to the information within the circle.

A circular shape can also be used in the projection of emotions such as love and friendship :

In LG’s own words:

Face – The stylized image of a smiling face is meant to convey company friendliness and approachability.

Circle –The circle represents the globe, symbolizing the world and all of humanity, as well as youth and the future. – LG Brand Identity

Consistency

“Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.” – Norman Vincent Peale

Similar to studying for the vocabulary test at school, associating the word to its meaning and repeat, repeat, repeat until you remember the word an its meaning by reflex. Except, this is easier because what the viewer has to remember is only a shape with color; an image. The meaning is left to the viewer’s interpretation – which if your brand identity scheme was well executed – will have the impact you planned for. Keeping a consistency throughout your marketing materials is key to brand recognition and identification. Shape and color should always remain the same although some shapes are so well designed and unique that they can be in any color and still be recognized. The same can happen with a color scheme, the shape can change and the brand is recognizable just by color.

Here are a few examples:

Color Consistency – Pantone Matching System

In this article I would like to talk about the Pantone Matching System (PMS) and its various uses. For those of you who are not familiar with the CMYK and PMS color processes, please visit our infocenter pages to learn more about the Pantone Matching System (PMS) or our page on CMYK and color separation.

Coca Cola®

Pantone Colors and Branding

Now, just about everyone in the world is familiar with Coca-cola print ads and the use of the color red in its branding. What most people might not realize is that the red is a specific color “tint” that is used consistently throughout Coca-Cola’s advertising, a variation between PMS 484 and 485 although no specific Pantone color is specified (CMYK values can vary as well). This “Coke Red” color is claimed as “a feature of the mark” as written in Coke’s trademark with the USPTO.

In some cases, differences between a logo’s use of color or symbols (including type) as it applies to their memorability do exist and can lead to a hefty discussion. In my opinion and in this case, Coca-cola has made great use of both color and symbol (type) to leverage “Brand Stickiness”.

Color and Purpose

Establishing a color scheme before starting a print project is key to providing the client with the most effective design possible. A logo for example, should be easily printable in either color or black ink only. Budgets and the purpose of the print can vary and will affect how the logo will be printed. When printing an NCR Form, the difference in price between full color (CMYK), PMS colors or black ink only can be quite significant. Most NCR forms are used for record keeping such as receipts, not as a marketing piece. Therefore, having a full color logo printed on an NCR Form might just be a waste of money that could in turn be used for marketing! On the other hand, having a CMYK version of your logo will come in very handy when printing full color brochures or full color postcards. Some clients might have a strict branding plan that demands the use of say a 2 PMS color logo to be printed with a full color brochure which basically renders a costly 6 color job. But hey, some budgets allow for that and as a designer or print buyer, it is your duty to consider these possibilities when establishing a brand.

Converting PMS colors to CMYK in Adobe Illustrator®

Using a Pantone Matching System Conversion Swatch is quite easy. As is using the Adobe Illustrator® swatch panel.

In Adobe Illustrator®, Pantone (PMS) colors are recognizable in the swatches panel by a white triangle in the bottom right corner which also has a black dot in the center.

– In your swatches panel, double click the PMS color and you will find that a dialogue box pops up titled “Swatch Options”.

– To change or view the corresponding CMYK values, simply click on the drop down menu labeled “Color Mode”, select CMYK and the value will be shown.

-Last but not least, click on the “Color Type” dropdown and select “Process Color”. Click the OK button. You will notice that the black dot in your swatch panel has disappeared and only the white triangle remains.

This small but significant Illustrator® function can come in very handy for designers when a PMS swatch is not available.

Have you ever had a customer supply you with artwork in PMS format to be used in a CMYK print project?

Please share your advice on how you would convert the PMS colors into CMYK value by commenting below.