12 Days of Printing

The Holiday Season is upon us.  As fast as it swoops in and pummels us with Christmas cheer it is gone again, leaving behind a cloud of tinsel and wrapping paper.  Don’t forget the difficulty of attempting to figure out what to get your grandmother who doesn’t know what she wants or your uncle who has everything.  Don’t stress out, just do something different.

Here is a list of ideas for gifts to put under your tree.  Get started today and you could have them in time for Christmas.

12. Thank You Notes – There is no better way to say thank you than with a hand written note.  It is a great way to show your appreciation.  So, personalized thank you notes make a great gift.  Monograms, modern patterns, or a favorite photograph are among some of your options.

11. Envelopes - Forget about those return address labels you get in the mail.  Whether for personal use or business, personalized envelopes look clean and professional.  Know a graduating senior? If you get matching letterhead for their resumé, it will surely make them stand out when they start applying for their first job.

10. Pads – By your phone, on your refrigerator or in your car, the possibilities are endless.  Pads will never go out of style.  Get creative, and order some today for your children’s teacher or your best customers.

9. Stationery - Formal or informal, notecards or letterhead, there are many options available to choose from for a personalized gift for someone who likes to write letters.

8. Stickers and Labels - From crafters to canners, there are many uses for labels and stickers.  Maybe your Aunt likes to make jam?  How cute it would be to create custom labels for her jars?

7. Calendars – Who doesn’t love a calendar to show off their child, grandchildren or even pets?  Send them to your customers with your logo and contact information so they remember you all year.

6. Photo Books – Great keepsakes for anyone.  Pictures of a growing family or a showcase of your artwork.

5. Family Newsletters – Keep in touch with those near and far with stories and pictures.  Sometimes cards just don’t give you enough room.

4. Books - Is someone you know a budding author or poet?  You could have their work created into their first book as a keepsake.

3. Invitations - Help out someone close to you who is getting married or having a party.  A gift certificate towards their invitations would be a pleasant surprise.

2. Business Cards – There are so many uses for business cards.  Did someone in your family start their own business?  Does your niece or nephew run a hair salon or barber shoppe and need new appointment cards?  Maybe your grandmother and grandfather live here in the summer and Florida and the winter and would love a beautiful set of cards to hand out to all their friends with both sets of contact information.

1. Gift Certificate - When all else fails, get them a gift certificate.  Then they can use it for anything their company might need, like invoices, brochures or postcards.  It’s even a great idea for a nonprofit organizations like a child’s school to receive for raffle tickets or posters.

When I grew up and came back home after college to work with this company as an Office Manager.  I slowly transitioned into designing some of the products we have to offer, taking graphic design courses  along the way.   I never would have believed, back then, that I would eventually be able to design my own website without the help of the do-it-yourself tools on the web hosting sites.  So you will understand the excitement I have this morning when I announce that I have finally launched our new and improved website!

So if you have some spare time go check it out!  See what The Kingsbury Printing Co., Inc. has to offer because as much as people love their smart phones and their iPads people still love to have things to pickup and touch.  As much as our graphic design world has changed people still love a wedding invitation in the mail, a brochures with beautiful pictures or a program with their company advertised inside.

If you happened to drive by The Kingsbury Printing Co., Inc. this summer you would have noticed lots of activity.  We have expanded!  While we have a very busy pressroom for large run offset printing, our digital short run business has been growing which means, we needed more space!  The addition of our digital room has provided us the space to add and update our digital equipment.  This opportunity enables us to provide our customers not only quality short run color and black and white products like; take out menus, postcards, rack card, business cards, and custom designed wedding invitations, but more pricing options!

We had a wonderful time at the Fall Wedding and Prom Expo with the Adirondack Wedding Association and Center at the Great Escape Lodge in Queensbury.  It was a great turnout with many brides, grooms, families and friends.  Time flew as did our goody bags!  It was nice meeting all of you and hope to work with many of you in the future.

We offer custom designed wedding invitations, save the dates, programs and beyond weddings including birth announcements and party invitations.  While “custom” may sound scary and expensive, it can be simple and affordable.  Since we create and produce your invitations at our facility we have complete control over paper and supplies.  This offers us the ability to create something beautiful with budget in mind.  From a simply elegant panel card to a pocket folder package we will work with you to create something special and unique to you and your bride or groom.

The process is simple, our free consultations will help us get to know you and what you like.  With this information we put together a few pricing options.  Once you choose a pricing option, we work with you to create your design.  This can take a few weeks or a couple months depending on what products you are ordering.  With your designs approved, production takes only a week or two, again depending on what you are ordering.  We have worked with brides for as long as a year to as short as a few weeks.

We can even print your guests names and addresses on your envelopes so all you have to do is fill them and stamp them.  Once you have your RSVP’s we are even able to put all your guests names on your placecards.  A great time saver!

If you are interested in finding out more information or getting started contact The Kingsbury Printing Co., Inc. today!  Call us at 518-747-6606 or email us at info@kingsburyprinting.com.

Here is an example of a poster we just did for the Fort Ann Volunteer Fire Company and their fish fry.  Do you have any dinner plans tonight?

Product Sheets are great.  They can be used to highlight one particular product or give a brief overview of all the products and services you offer.  Also, since you have more room to work with you can describe services that some people might not be familiar with or highlight specialty products such as green products that others in your industry might not offer.

Be creative.  You can use different colors and paper types to help reach perspective customer groups.  If you are soliciting a corporate office you might want to pick a more conservative color scheme and use a nice heavy weight paper, like the example above.  Alternatively, if you are soliciting a youth organization you might want to try a brighter color scheme and a magazine type stock, like the example below.  Basically, use colors and stocks that your target audience might use because they might be more likely to look at your product sheet.

Don’t forget that you are showcasing your company and your work.  Don’t be afraid to add pictures or testimonies to help get your point across.  Still, the same lesson goes, keep it simple.  You don’t want your product sheet to look ridiculous and cluttered.  Make sure you sit down and come up with what information you would like on your product sheet before you worry about what it is going to look like.

]]> http://thekingsburyprintingco.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/product-sheets/feed/ 0 Product-Sheet thekingsburyprintingco Single Product-Sheet Product-Sheet-3 http://thekingsburyprintingco.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/keep-it-simple/ http://thekingsburyprintingco.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/keep-it-simple/#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:55:03 +0000 The Kingsbury Printing Co., Inc. http://thekingsburyprintingco.wordpress.com/?p=104 Read more]]> Business cards are vital part of networking, even with today’s electronic capabilities.  Many people will judge your entire company based on your business card.  You want to make a great first impression so you can open the door to a potential business relationship.

We see many business cards every year. Whether you would like someone to design a business card for you or you would like to design your business card yourself there is one important motto that I learned from my calculus teacher.  If it can help you pass calculus it can help you do pretty much anything.  It is something that many of us lose sight of because we don’t want to leave anything out.  You just need an eccentric and grouchy college professor to remind you … Keep it simple stupid.  It made me realize when faced with a complex problem (believe me getting your first impression across on a 3.5″ X 2″ space is complicated), you have to step back and think about how to get from point A to point B on the simplest level.  When I did that I realized that the basic skills behind calculus were only simple math functions.  I could add, subtract, multiply and divide.  That meant I could do calculus.

So back to business cards with, “Keep it simple,” in mind.  There are many common issues that we have seen over the years.  Avoiding these road blocks can help you create an eye-catching business card that will surely impress your customer.

1.  Too much information.  People want to know three basic things;  1.Who are you?    2. How do I  get a hold of you?    3.What basic service do you provide?

•  Who are you is simple: Company Name and your name and title.
• How do I get a hold of you is your basic contact information, your name, address, phone number, email address and website.   Some people might think of just putting their website on the card because all of their contact information can be put on their website.
• What service you provide for some might be tricky.  Remember you are giving your card to someone who knows nothing about your business.  If you are a landscaper they are going to assume that you will do pretty much anything that involves their yard.  You don’t necessarily need to list that you will mow, weed, plant, etc.  However they may not think that you offer snow removal or yard clean up.  So instead of trying to list everything how about “Seasonal Services Provided.”  That takes a long list of services all the way down to one line.  There are many other products you can create to showcase your services like brochures or rackcards.

Too much information is one of the most common issues we see on business cards.  Sometimes it is harder for us to design a business card with too much information than not enough. People are not going to read it.  They will see the card as cluttered and might think your business is run the same way.

So, before you bring in your information to have your cards designed sit down after you put the kids to bed, and list all your services.  Then look at them and find a way to simplify.

2.  Too many typefaces.  You only need 1 or 2 typefaces tops.  If you use more than one typeface make sure they flow together.  Maybe pick a typeface that stands out for your logo or company name and a simple, complimentary typeface for your information.  Also, remember your fonts are going to be on the small side so don’t make it harder for your clients to read by putting a bunch of different typefaces on the page.  Instead, use characteristics like bold, italic, underlining and color minimally to get your point across.

3.  Don’t use cheap looking supplies.  Many people use their inkjet printers and perforated paper thinking that they are saving money on their business cards.  Using basic perforated business card paper and depending on color coverage, an average ink cartridge price could be the same or more expensive than a professionally printed full color card on heavier stock.

4.  You don’t have to stick to standard sizes.  If you need to include a lot of information on your card there are many other formats you might consider; double-sided business cards, folded business cards or an enlarged business card.  Also, instead of trying to fit all that information on your business card give interested customers a panel card or brochure to elaborate on the services you provide.

5.  Don’t be so literal.  You don’t have to put a picture of everything you do on the card.  Just because you are a general contractor and you use a hammer, a drill, a saw and a truck every single day doesn’t mean they all have to be on your card.  Use a simple clean logo or think outside the box and use a creative design that will catch your customers’ eye.  Using a simple design is a quick way to modernize your business.

Check out our website http://www.kingsburyprinting.com and receive 5% off your first business card order for new customers!

There are two main reasons we love doing invitations.  First, we get to use our creativity to help showcase your special event.  From a casual panel card to an elaborate folded card with ribbon we can work with your to create an invitation you are excited to send out.  Second, we get to become part of your family in a way.  In some cases we have clients that come in for wedding invitations and a year or so later we see them again for baby shower invitations.  The one scary part is when that baby graduates!

Not only can we create an invitation that will showcase your party, we also provide envelope printing.  No need to hand write all those addresses until the wee hours in the morning.  Just provide us with your address list and leave the rest up to us.

The first design project was a bag topper for her Hip to be Square Looper Loom package.  We created the the above tag using a provided logo, color scheme and photograph.  The bag toppers were printed on a heavy duty stock which could be folded over and attached to the top of the packaging.

After much success for her looper looms we then worked together on two more projects, cards for her Solmate Sock Rug Kit and her Hip to be Square Rag Rug Kit.  We wanted to make sure all items had a common identity but could stand alone as a product.  To tie the product line together we used the same color scheme and logo but the bright photographs provided by Crazy as a Loom helped set each product apart.

Interested in having elements designed to help sell your product contact us today!  It is important to make a great first impression, people will be more likely to purchase your product.

To learn more about Crazy as a Loom and their products, check out http://www.crazyasaloom.com today.

Summer is here and the Washington County Tour Guide has been published by Washington County Tourism association.  The cover was design by Victoria at Kingsbury Printing Co., Inc., and photographs were taken by Gordon Ellmers.  Pick one up at your next visit to Kingsbury Printing Co., Inc. or other Washington County businesses.