Spotlight: Konica Minolta
For many, Christmas is already an emotional time, but for those who’ve lost a loved one in the service of their country it can be even more so. Folds of Honor, which provides scholarships to the children and spouses of fallen and disabled service members, sent donors, volunteers and others a special Christmas card during the recent holiday season to remind them of the important work the nonprofit does all year long. Through the use of the powerful MGI JETvarnish 3D Evolution (Evo) system from Konica Minolta, Chicago’s TEAM Concept Printing crafted a piece that positively shimmers with foil, even as it remains both tasteful and respectful.
Designed by Folds of Honor and produced by TEAM Concept Printing using an offset press on 100 lb. Gloss Cover recycled paper, the Christmas card was duplex laminated with a 1.7 mil soft-touch, double-sided finish. The completed piece is a perfect blend of the eye-catching and reverential. (It also demonstrates the power of the print provider’s commitment to handling everything – from printing to finishing – completely in-house for every project it tackles.)
“Although our team gets excited about all of the holiday cards we create, this specific project has generated a whole new level of excitement and passion in our shop,” admits TEAM Concept Printing CEO Tony Rouse. “Our production group knows of the great work that Folds of Honor delivers on and who they positively impact – we are all big fans. From my personal standpoint, creating projects for nonprofits like FOH and the many others we support gives me a huge sense of pride, and gets me going every day.”
A Luxurious Christmas Greeting
“Merry Christmas” trumpets the front of the Christmas card in Gold foil against a backdrop of seasonal Crown Red, while the Folds of Honor name and logo appear on the back – also Crown Red – in Blue foil.
Both front and back also feature an array of impressively raised snowflakes created using TEAM Concept Printing’s exclusive LUXFX finishing technique, provided by the same Konica Minolta MGI JETvarnish 3D Evolution (Evo) machine that applied the Red and Blue digital foils.
Not only do the raised-UV snowflakes catch the light hypnotically as the card is moved back and forth, but they’re also intriguing to the touch, ensuring the card will be handled – and remembered – long after the season has passed. And that’s just the outside of the card!
Says TEAM Concept Printing’s Paco Salcedo, “I have been in the graphic arts and printing business for nearly 30 years and I am hard pressed to find a machine that can elevate a print piece like our MGI machine can. The machine and our exclusive LUXFX finishing service line has been a game changer.”
Inside, the Christmas card is the model of taste you would expect, featuring Silver foil stars against a triangular background of Blue foil, echoing the folded American flag presented to the families of fallen service members. Beneath this is the Folds of Honor name in Silver foil, and a heartfelt holiday message printed in Black ink: “May this Christmas season bring you closer to the ones you love and remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.”
Observes Tony Rouse: “Throughout the initial press process and MGI finishing process, no detail was spared to make the Folds of Honor logo and message jump off the sheet. Our press operators added the highest end touches of our LUXFX finishing treatment to this piece.”
The Possibilities
The digital nature of the Konica Minolta MGI JETvarnish finishing equipment also presents designers with some other intriguing possibilities. From a cost standpoint, it allows you to add shimmering foil to projects that have a small print run without breaking the bank. (For example, only 1,500 copies of the Christmas card were produced.) And like digital presses, you can also personalize foil and raised UV effects so that each piece in a given run features different text and/or images.
Says Tony Rouse of the Folds of Honor card: “Our Konica Minolta MGI JETvarnish machine really helps bring a new dimension to pieces like this.”
Intrigued? See – and feel – this “new dimension” for yourself. Request a copy of this amazing Christmas card from TEAM Concept Printing right now! Hurry, this offer ends Feb. 10th! (North American requests only, please.) THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED
