Tag Archives: Invites

Let’s talk Brand Identity. What is it?

*”A brand’s visual identity is the overall look of its communications. Effective visual brand identity is achieved by the consistent use of particular visual elements to create distinction, such as specific fonts, colors, and graphic elements. At the core of every brand identity is a brand mark, or logo.”

When is the last time you gave your business a facelift? Is your logo outdated, are your colors reflecting your business the way they should? We know you’re busy, but it’s good to take a moment to review what you’re putting out there.

Here are some things you should consider if your brand is in need of some polishing up…

• Why do you think you need to rebrand?
• Has your customer profile changed?
• Are you stuck being viewed as something that you (or your customers) have outgrown?
• Does your brand tell the wrong (or outdated) story?
• What do you want to convey? To whom?
• Has there been a change with your competition that is impacting your growth potential?
• Is your brand out of step with the current needs and desires of your customers?
• If you were starting your business today, would this be the brand identity you would want?

Your brand identity should tell a cohesive story from your logo, to your website, to your marketing materials, to your business cards. Take a look at your branding and see if it’s still telling the story you want it to tell.

*source

Did you know for every 2,000 business cards you give out, company sales increase by close to 3%? That’s a lot of power in a small card you can easily give out. Here are some tips on making your card stand out and stay in your customer’s hands.
 

Quality

If your cards have a little more weight to them, they’ll feel worth keeping, and stay in good shape. Your clients will see your investment in your card as your investment into your business. Show them you know you’re worth it.

Design

You want the design of your card to showcase your logo, who you are, and what you do.

Who Are You

Put a name and title on your card to connect with your clients. Include a tagline or description of what you offer, otherwise they could forget and your card will end up in the trash.

Communication Options

Not everyone likes to communicate the same way. You need to give your clients options to reach you, otherwise you’ve wasted an opportunity.

Email address

Web Address (aka URL) — putting your web address gives them another way to contact you, since you should have a contact page on your site.

Phone (if you put business and personal, make sure to note which is which) — believe it or not, calling is still some people’s preferred method of contact.

Physical Address — if you business is primarily online a physical address is not necessary. Only include it if you have a storefront.

Social Media

Focus on the channels that resonate with your client base (and where you are active).

QR Code

These can take up a lot of space, so evaluate if you have enough room on your card for it, and if your potential clients are likely to use it.

Call To Action

Why not add a sentence to say “email me today for a quote!” or “visit our site”? Calls to action can influence your potential client to reach out.

Proof

Before you approve your cards to go to print, make sure your proofread everything. Get a second set of eyes from your office on the content, you know what your contact information looks like, but sometimes you can glance too quickly and miss something small like a switched number.

Now that you know what should go on your business cards, let’s go to print so you can give those cards out and increase your sales!

Mother’s Day is just one month away. That gives you a month to come up with something more than flowers and candy
(though don’t forget the flowers!). We have some ideas to help you make this coming Mother’s Day even more special.

— Create a family tree
We can take your family tree and design it to be frame worthy.

— Family calendar
While we are closer to mid-year, this will give you an instant gift idea for next year, too. The calendar can have family birthdays and anniversaries pre-printed, and feature family photos for every month.

— The old trusty coupon book
We all know what mom really wants is to spend more time with you. We can design a more grown-up version for you to give.

— Enlarge a wedding, anniversary, or a family photo to be framed
We can do color corrections, and even clean up some of those old torn photos.

— Put together a family yearbook
Pull photos of everyone in the family and show everyone’s milestones. We can help with design and layout and bind it up nicely.

We hope this list helps spark some ideas to give your mom something unique this year. Let us know how we can help you create something special.

After we print your files for you, let us help you keep them together with one of the many binding options at P&B Print. Not all options are right for all types of bound materials, so here are just some of the possibilities for binding your book or photo album:

Coil Binding / Spiral Binding

Probably the most common binding choice you’ll find at your local printers (like us!) is coil binding, also known as spiral binding. It consists of a coiled strip of plastic that loops through holes punched into your paper. It is available in a variety of colors and sizes and is a sturdy and secure option for both thick and thin books.

Comb Binding

Comb binding (or GBC) is composed of a set of plastic “teeth” that are hooked into a set of square notches punched into the paper. You don’t see comb bound books as often, but they can still be found in the wild. The main advantage to this type of binding, is the ease of page removal and you can add new pages to the bound set without destroying the binding. The down side to this is that it isn’t the most secure of the options available to you. Books bound in this fashion lay flat when opened and it is best for thick books.

Tape Binding

The least secure of these three types of quick binding is the tape bind. It is a thin strip of book-binding tape that is coated in glue. The tape and the stack of pages to be bound are put into a machine that heats the glue and adheres it to the spine of the soon-to-be-book. Once it’s cool and dry, the glue holds the pages in a similar fashion to a book you might find in a store. The downside? You can’t really lay a tape bound book open flat. If you force it, the spine can crack and the glue could release some of the pages. Tape binding is good for manuscripts or something where a plastic spine would normally get in the way.

Saddle-Stitch

You’ve probably seen this type of binding in instruction manuals or small magazines. A large stack of printed paper is folded in half and then stapled at least twice along the spine to hold it together. This binding option is usually the cheapest and fastest, though it typically only holds around 20 sheets of larger paper (which translates to a 40-60 page document). Saddle-stitching is relatively strong and can lay flat when opened completely, though it will take a little smoothing out at first.

This weekend marks the first Saturday of the month, which means that it’s Round Rock Market Days! From 9am to 4pm on March 5th, come down to Centennial Plaza in Round Rock, TX and shop the myriad of vendors ranging from handmade crafts & fine art to yummy food vendors. P&B Print will be there, as usual, and we’ll have some FREE goodies if you stop by and say “hi”! We recently created these fun drink koozies, so get yours before they are gone!

Do you have a baby on the way? Let us help you create the graphics for your gender reveal parties, baby announcements, and baby showers! We know how exciting and overwhelming it feels when you find out you have a new baby on the way. As parents ourselves, we can help you share the news in the way that suits your life best. We’d love to help you share your excitement with your family and friends.

Photo Restoration

Do you have a shoe box in the closet full of old photos from a time before cell phone cameras? Just because the memories have faded, doesn’t mean the photos have to. Saving those pictures from the ravages of time is more important now than ever, because your collection of physical mementos is shrinking by the day as your world becomes more digital.

Don’t worry! We can restore those photos and reproduce them so you’ll have plenty of copies to hold on to for posterity. Whether it’s a family photo from the mall or your great-grandparent’s wedding photo, we can restore color and remove dust and scratches to make it look better than the day it was taken.

After we work our magic, we can print them at any size, and on a variety of materials. Need an 8×10? We can do it. Need a wallet-sized photo? We’ve gotcha covered. How about a ten-foot-tall banner with your baby photos on it? We can do that, too.

Give us a call or come in with your old pictures, and let our designers restore them today!