If you can imagine it, great printers today have the experience and technology to bring your vision to life. Yet communicating this fact to designers has often been challenging for print companies, which have traditionally tried to impress you and me with equipment specs rather than “speaking our language” – namely beautiful design.
That’s not the case with our friends at Enpointe [projects / website], who take potential clients on a powerful paper tour of their capabilities – from digital printing and foiling to White and Fluorescent inks – in this fun and engaging volume, which they both designed and produced.
Like any good paper tour we’ll begin at the beginning with this snazzy 110 lb. GPA Ultra Digital Black Cover sleeve, complete with a digitally printed CMYK Rich Black “Always Enpointe” slogan for that oh-so-trendy tone-on-tone effect. Two die cuts, including a broad thumb notch, allow just enough color to show through to intrigue.
Sliding this 29-page (plus cover) brochure from the sleeve reveals a sudden burst of color thanks to a Green-Blue Soft-Touch cover, the Enpointe name rendered in Copper hot foil stamping on 11 pt. GPA Ultra Digital Silver Foil board.
If you take a closer look you will see that some of the graphic elements have a soft metallic sheen – this is where CMYK was directly printed onto the foil board. Others are true to color, where 2 clicks of White were under-printed.
The cover sheet was also printed oversize and then folded in half and glued together for a nice substantial feel. The back cover is imprinted tone-on-tone with the printer’s logo on 110 lb. GPA Ultra Digital Black Cover. This was then hinge taped to the front cover.
Opening the cover reveals that this book is bound in a variation of Swiss binding. Enpointe has broken the rules a bit here, demonstrating their willingness to go that extra mile to entice. The book block is tape-bound, its spine tastefully covered with white book binding tape.
But instead of this book block being glued to the inside back cover, it is held in place using 2 die cuts and a silicone rubber band that sports the book’s title. The first few pages set the pace for what is to come: crisp photography, tongue-in-cheek scenes, vibrant colors, and impressive restraint when it comes to the capabilities demonstrated.
Where other promotions like to weigh down a single piece with every conceivable printing and finishing technique at their disposal, this one only applies 1 or 2 techniques per page, and always in service of the design.
All 29 pages consist of cover stock of 100 lbs. or heavier; most are GPA or Sappi sheets, and nearly all digitally printed.
Some of the treats on offer include:
- MGI JetVarnish clear raised embellishment
- Soft-touch lamination
- Gold foil
- Digital White, Silver and Fluorescent inks
- Die-cut perforations
- GPA Kraft and Pearlescent sheets
- Coated and uncoated papers
And just when you think you’ve gleaned everything you can from this piece, the back cover provides information about Enpointe’s various certifications behind a fold-in French flap, which can also be used as a bookmark to save your place in the piece.
By using engaging design to show off the printer’s printing and finishing capabilities a few at a time on a variety of different papers, this piece not only demonstrates what is possible using today’s cutting-edge equipment, but also that Enpointe understands it is design that drives the vision, not the technology, no matter how cool that technology might be.
While tape-binding was the perfect choice for this booklet, enabling the printer to pack a wide variety of different stocks between its covers, there are so many different binding options available to you today. Be sure to download our free, newly expanded “Binding Cheat Sheet: The Ultimate Guide to Binding” right now.
Inside you’ll discover:
- A handy overview of ALL your binding options, complete with diagrams, page counts and relative costs
- Detailed explanations of how each technique is applied
- Sumptuous photographic examples
- Tips on how to “break the rules” of each technique to achieve a special look all your own
and more!
