Minuteman Press, Stockport, Blog
Leaflets, Brochures & Flyers
To Flyer Or Not, that is the question…
Flyers have changed. One change, from a few years ago, was the move from black or one colour print to ‘full colour’. The phrase ‘full colour’ is rather passé nowadays and probably doesn’t mean much to people. It just means lots of colour, to differentiate itself from traditional printing that concentrated on the number of colours used on the page. Maybe one, possibly two and at the higher end, three. The other fairly meaningless term is ‘digital printer’. Meaningless because even ink presses are ‘digital’. It used to mean technology such as laser printers that are able to process the whole job with minimal human interaction. Traditional print involved photographing art work, sticking it together on sheets, creating photographic films and then plates for the offset lithographic printing process. Newspapers, many will remember, used traditional type face assembled into huge blocks of printing and then plates. Most presses nowadays default to using 4 colours and the price of this process has fallen so much that printing one colour is now specialised and will cost more. So, after that digression, the flyers, leaflets and brochures are usually printed in full colour. After the growth of digital marketing, emails, social online networking, marketers reduced the amount of money they were spending on printed promotional material. Now people are become deadened to advertising via digital means and so advertisers are looking at the merits of flyers etc. Added to this mix is the development of amazing technology to enhance the flyers. Years ago the ‘Readers Digest’ was well known for its use of ‘variable data’ printing that almost magically liberally inserted one’s personal details into their mailings. This technology is now able to add graphical elements into a picture such as a person’s name written as sky writing onto a photograph. I haven’t noticed the latter being used on flyers yet, probably the aim of a flyer is designed to be cheap and disposable and adding expensive personalisation’s wouldn’t meet that criteria. I don’t know if this has happened to you but we have had smelly flyers with perfume matching the product. Holographic images occasionally; I tried to do one of those for our annual Christmas card last year, designing it, obtaining the appropriate software, pricing the lenticular lenses ‘stuff’. We were all ready to roll but the experts said one needed an inkjet printer to do the printing. Our equipment is laser based, the experts claimed they weren’t accurate enough. I wasn’t ready to risk messing it up (Christmas cards tend to be done rather late in the day!) and wasn’t going to invest in a new inkjet. (‘Hate the things). Other options include raised print; traditionally this was done by a sintering process but nowadays there are top end digital machines that simplify the process and create some ‘wow!’ effects. Other than that there is laminating, creates either a matt or super gloss product. Or embossing. Or foiling. Or shapes. Or cut-outs. These technologies are old hat and probably not suitable for mass market flyers, but then, printed in large quantities, the unit price comes right down.
Folding is another facility; modern lithographic machines have folding technology tagged on the end of the production line. There are lots of fold types and I usually have to do a bit of research to check we are thinking about the same fold type as the customer. Cross fold, envelope fold, zigzag, gate fold... Thankfully there are nice online animations to help clarify things. The technology is suitably advanced to make the process semi-automatic, unlike an old machine we have in one corner that would require an hour of setup to get everything working right. Folds are OK on thinner paper, like 130gsm, but as one goes to thicker stock then folds start to look unsightly because of the ‘cracking’ of the surface of the paper as the ink layer splits. One way to reduce the risk of this happening is to use creasing, so a brochure might be creased and then folded. When ordering stuff like this check whether or not your flyer is being supplied flat, that is, not folded. It keeps production costs down but the folding part of the job might be delegated to one of your staff members! Spot varnish is an attractive addition to some products, this process adds a gloss finish to certain parts of the design. I feel its best used for posh products such as brochures, perhaps used as a contrast, gloss laid on matt. Particularly effective against a dark tone such as black. This is usually charged by coverage area. Like 10% spot varnished out of the whole page. This would be typical.
Page count can be an issue for the initiated when planning a brochure or leaflet. Stapled booklets (the technical word is wire bound, I always find this likely to get confused with Wiro bound booklets, so I avoid using this term) Page count has to be divisible by 4, so designing a 6-page brochure would mean 2 blank sides. Blank sides are OK, like inside the front cover and the back page but is seems like a missed opportunity. Perhaps spread the text out, increase the text size, add more photos or use more ‘white space’. Or create more editorial.
Paper weight has to be considered too. Light weight flyers have the advantage of costing less and weighing less when transporting around. Flyers are frequently printed on 130gsm and most people seem to prefer the gloss finish. Remember high gloss finishes may have been laminated. Oddly enough these coated papers cost less than traditional uncoated paper. Perhaps they are more frequently used so the price is more competitive. Some customers request recycled papers. I personally am a bit dubious about recycled papers. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, the standard papers are usually branded with the FSC logo indicating they are sourced from managed forests; in other words, trees are being replaced at least as quickly as they being felled. Secondly, recycled papers are sold in a variety of recycled content and this isn’t made clear. Thirdly, these recycled papers look identical to ‘normal’ papers and so your average consumer wouldn’t know the different! But, because they are more specialised, will be costing more.
Heavier papers feel more luxurious. We print our flyers on something like 170gsm. They are practically better because they go through letterboxes more easily.
Finally watch the vat rules. Theoretically, a ‘flyer’ printed on card might be classed as a post card and attract vat.
