Neenah Paper, Inc. and Crane & Co. Inc. today announced they have signed an exclusive partnership agreement for Neenah to manufacture, market and distribute Crane's fine business paper brands: CRANE'S CREST®, CRANE'S BOND®, CRANE'S LETTRA®, CRANE'S PALETTE™ and CRANE'S® Choice Papers.
"Neenah Paper and Crane & Co. have an unwavering and shared commitment to excellence and have formed this partnership based on manufacturing quality, market reputation and the history of two remarkable companies," said John P. O'Donnell, president, Neenah Fine Paper. "Together, we'll be able to offer distributors the preeminent corporate identity and business stationery within the Neenah portfolio, adding value and driving growth to their business."
"We are very pleased to embrace this opportunity with a partner who can offer Crane's business papers best-in-class manufacturing, marketing, promotion and channel excellence," added Charles J. Kittredge, president and CEO of Crane & Co. "This marks a premier partnership of the two top premium brands in the industry."
The agreement is an extension of a partnership Neenah and Crane launched in early 2007. Since then, Neenah has manufactured 100 percent cotton paper for Crane, although the paper continued to be marketed and distributed through Crane & Co.
"Because we've manufactured Crane's business paper for over two years, we understand its longstanding tradition of craftsmanship and quality and how well Crane's products complement our portfolio," O'Donnell noted. "Meaningful brands with a recognized promise drive real value in our category and the marketplace. This association with Crane is an illustration of how we are demonstrating our commitment to both."
Neenah will continue to manufacture the CRANE'S CREST®, CRANE'S BOND®, CRANE'S LETTRA®, CRANE'S PALETTE™ and CRANE'S® Choice Papers. The papers will be available to distributors through Neenah sales representatives beginning late third quarter of 2009.
What if digital media evaporated as print advertising grabbed all the dollars?
While many bemoan the shift happening as as our culture moves from print to digital media creation and consumption, Dan Blank explores the idea of what happens to the value of digital media if the opposite transition occurred.
In his Freaky Friday scenario, he muses about the possible reasons people would find more value in print: an appreciation for slowness, a personal connection with media, well-filtered content, beautiful design, more meaningful targeting, a return to local communities, just to name a few. His article reminds us why print is still viable. To read the complete article, check out Dan's blog.
Protective Coverings
New Page has a great educational series on all things print called Ed. The following is from their site, edliveshere.com
to read the full article click here. To request your copy of Ed, go to millcraft.com
Like Bob Dylan says, “Every man needs protection.” And so do many print projects. But even though protection may be necessary, it’s often overlooked. While a great deal of ink has been devoted to preparing words and images for the press, much less attention has been paid to preserving the work after it leaves the printer. Aside from using a varnish to highlight a photo, designers often give little thought to the use of protective coatings or laminates (sometimes called lams by their friends). And clients may not ask about them at all.
Ed believes it is time to fill this knowledge vacuum—to end what might be called the silence of the lams. And the place to begin is with some definitions.
Liquid coatings are applied in-line by the printer as part of the printing process or off-line, after the project leaves the press. While some coatings, such as varnish, can be spot applied to a precise point or points on the page—just the photos, for example—other coatings, including aqueous coatings, are usually flooded across the entire sheet. Different coatings are available in different finishes, tints, textures and thicknesses, which may be used to adjust the level of protection or achieve different visual effects. Areas that are heavily covered with black ink often receive a protective coating to guard against fingerprints, which stand out against a dark background. Coatings are also used on magazine and report covers and on other publications that are subject to rough or frequent handling.
Film laminates are usually applied by finishers or converters that also offer die-cutting, embossing, foil stamping and other such services. The film may be applied using either a wet method, which relies on solvents, water or both, or the more environmentally friendly thermal method, which uses heat to iron the film and paper together. Either way, the entire sheet is generally laminated—there is no practical way to spot laminate a project.
Lamination films are available in a variety of tints and textures, and there’s even a lenticular film designed to help create a holographic effect. The films are classified by thickness, which is measured in mils, or thousandths of an inch. The thinnest films, typically around 1.2 mils, are used on items that are rolled or folded. Heavier films, of up to 10 mils, leave a heavy plastic coating on the sheet that can stand up to anything short of a small but determined Rottweiler. The laminates can be applied on one side or both sides of the paper, and with a sealed edge, which makes the sheet virtually waterproof.
Virtual Paper Mill Tour
Never had the chance to go to one of the paper mills? Now's your chance, check out this video featuring one of Neenah Paper's mills. It's not rocket science, but it is kind of interesting to see the process.
Tight Economy Expands Stock Imagery Use
Now more than ever designers are driven to using stock imagery due to the economic downtown, according to a recent Graphic Design USA survey.
The preliminary findings of the survey show:
• 94% of professional designers are using stock visuals in their work (an all time high according to this survey’s history)
• 41% of professional designers are using for stock year over year
• The frequency of use is strong despite current economic conditions
• Royalty free licensing continues to climb
• High volume/low cost options are also slated for strong growth
• Print garners 93% of the media usage, with web/interactive gathering 52%
GDUSA promises full results will be presented in the September issue
Factors Freelance Designers Should Consider When Determining Rates
Part guesswork, part experience, part number crunching – how ever you look at it, determining your price is a difficult task. Here are nine factors to take into consideration courtesy of FreelanceSwitch:
1. Your Costs
If your rate doesn’t include enough just to break-even, you’re heading for trouble. The best thing to do is sum up all your costs and divide by the number of hours you think you can bill a year. Whatever you do, DON’T think you can bill every hour. You must account for sick days, holidays, hours working on the business, hours with no work and so on.
Also make sure you factor in all the hidden costs of your business like insurance, invoices that never get paid for one reason or another, and everyone’s favourite – taxes.
2. Your Profit
Somewhat related to your costs, you should always consider how much money you are trying to make above breaking even. This is business after all.
3. Market Demand
If what you do is in high demand, then you should be aiming to make your services more expensive. Conversely if there’s hardly any work around, you’ll need to cheapen up if you hope to compete.
Signs that demand is high include too much work coming in, other freelancers being overloaded and people telling you they’ve been struggling to find someone to do the job. Signs that demand is low include finding yourself competing to win jobs, a shortage of work and fellow freelancers reentering the workforce.
4. Industry Standards
It’s hard to know what others are charging, but try asking around. Find out what larger businesses charge as well as other freelancers. The more you know about what others are charging and what services they provide for the money, the better you’ll know how you fit in to the market.
5. Skill level
Not every freelancer delivers the same goods and one would expect to pay accordingly. When I was a freelancing newbie I charged a rate of $25 an hour for my design, when I stopped freelancing recently my rate was $125 an hour. Same person, but at different times I had a different skill level and hence was producing a different result. Whatever your rate, expect it to be commensurate with your skill.
6. Experience
Although often bundled with skill, experience is a different factor altogether. You may have two very talented photographers, but one with more experience might have better client skills, be able to foresee problems (and thus save the client time and money), intuitively know what’s going to work for a certain audience and so on. Experience should affect how much you charge.
7. Your Business Strategy
Your strategy or your angle will make a huge difference to how you price yourself. Think about the difference between Revlon and Chanel, the two could make the same perfume but you would never expect to pay the same for both. Figure out how you are pitching yourself and use that to help determine if you are cheap’n'cheerful, high end or somewhere in between.
8. Your Service
What you provide for your clients will also make a big difference to your price tag. For example you might be a freelancer who will do whatever it takes to get a job just right, or perhaps you are on call 24-7, or perhaps you provide the minimum amount of communication to cut costs. Whatever the case, adjusting your pricing to the type and level of service you provide is a must.
9. Who is Your Client
Your price will often vary for different clients. This happens for a few reasons. Some clients require more effort, some are riskier, some are repeat clients, some have jobs you are dying to do, some you wouldn’t want to go near with a stick. You should vary your price to account for these sorts of factors.
Give it lots of thought
The more you think about your reasoning behind your price, the easier your quoting will become. Like all these things there is a large amount of trial and error and often you will find yourself constantly changing up your pricing and gauging the ratio of jobs lost to jobs won.
Economy Still a Concern Leading to Restrained Spending
Marketers are still being pressured to reduce their costs and spending in light of the economy, finds a new survey by the ANA (Association of National Advertisers). Today, 87 percent of respondents indicated they are identifying cost savings and reductions, the same as one year ago, and only slightly improved from 93 percent six months ago.
The top four ways marketers are reducing costs and spending remain the same.
81 percent are reducing departmental travel and expenses
74 percent are reducing advertising media budgets
71 percent are challenging agencies to reduce internal expenses and/or identify cost reductions
64 percent are reducing advertising production budgets
Reducing agency compensation continues to gain greater consideration by marketers. 56 percent are planning to do this today, versus 48 percent six months ago and 32 percent a year ago.
A positive note is that fewer marketers are eliminating/delaying new projects, compared with past surveys-53 percent in the most recent survey versus 58 percent six months ago and 61 percent a year ago.
"Marketing has been dramatically altered by the current economic conditions," said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the ANA. "Our ongoing series of recession surveys show that while marketers are consistently hopeful, the reality is that more tempered spending has become the new norm."
This third installment of ANA's recession survey follows surveys conducted in July/August 2008 and January/February 2009. 128 client-side marketers responded to this most recent survey.
Marketers' actual spending was lower than forecast in the previous survey.
In January/February 2009, 49 percent of marketers thought their advertising budgets would be reduced in the next six months, when in fact, 62 percent experienced a budget decrease.
43 percent thought their budgets would remain the same, but only 31 percent did indeed stay the same.
8 percent thought they would see a budget increase, whereas 7 percent did.
Looking Ahead
Marketers are cautious about their future budgets. 17 percent are hopeful that their budgets will increase while 39 percent think that they will see reductions and 44% think they will remain the same
Full survey results are available at www.ana.net/recessionsurvey3
Preventing Greenwashing
With the rise of environmental awareness among businesses and consumers alike comes a rise of greenwashing -- intentional or not. But a new report from Business for Social Responsibility and Futerra Sustainability Communications aims to help companies avoid those mistakes.The new report, "Understanding and Preventing Greenwash: A Business Guide," lays out a "greenwash matrix" of the different types of poor communication about corporate environmental activities, and explores the ways firms can move toward messages that more clearly explain their green works.
The report also includes a list of the top 10 "signs of greenwash" to help companies avoid making any unintentional mistakes. Those signs are:
1. Fluffy language. Words or terms with no clear meaning (e.g. "eco-friendly").
2. Green product vs. dirty company. Such as efficient lightbulbs made in a factory that pollutes rivers.
3. Suggestive pictures. Green images that indicate a (unjustified) green impact (e.g. flowers blooming from exhaust pipes).
4. Irrelevant claims. Emphasizing one tiny green attribute when everything else is not green.
5. Best in class. Declaring you are slightly greener than the rest, even if the rest are pretty terrible.
6. Just not credible. "Eco friendly" cigarettes, anyone? "Greening" a dangerous product doesn't make it safe.
7. Jargon. Information that only a scientist could check or understand.
8. Imaginary friends. A "label" that looks like third party endorsement -- except that it's made up.
9. No proof. It could be right, but where's the evidence?
10. Out-right lying. Totally fabricated claims or data.
To read the full report, click here
Digital Printing 101
Digital technology is forever changing the printing landscape. It’s quickly turning mass–produced communications into more targeted, personalized ones. This technology has evolved at an incredibly rapid rate — digital printing certainly has its advantages. Here are the five most indisputable reasons you will benefit from printing digitally:1. Cost–Effective Print Runs
Digital printing eliminates many of the manual operations required in offset printing. That means cost savings on even the smallest of runs.
2. Lightening Fast Turnaround
Films, plates and make–ready are things of the past when it comes to digital printing. This means that you can be on–press seconds after your file is sent so you can respond to market changes instantly. How is that for fast?
3. Personalization Through Variable Data
Digital printing and direct marketing is a match made in heaven. Digital printers can link directly to databases that personalize and customize each click—targeting your audience and increasing response rates.
4. Printing On Demand Means Less Waste
Digital printing allows you to print exactly what you want, wherever you want, whenever you want. This reduces costs associated with shipping, storage and overstock resulting from updated versions of your piece.
5. Vibrant, Hi–fi Color
Digital printers can reproduce a much larger range of colors than offset printers, which translates into stellar color matching and reproduction.
Choosing a Digital Paper
There are three key differences between conventional printing and digital that can impact a paper's performance on the digital press:
Paper Grain
Paper grain is a key consideration throughout the production process. Typical digital presses put paper through its paces—it’s very common for paper to get turned, stopped and started during a job. If you are using the wrong paper, these movements can result in paper jams and registration problems. Choosing paper with a project–appropriate grain direction not only assists in smooth operation of the press but also affects finishing processes and paper performance. For all these reasons, Sappi is providing stocking support based on optimized paper grain direction for text weights (grain long) and cover weights (grain short).
High Temperatures During Production
Choosing paper with properties designed for the specific digital printing equipment you use is critical. Many digital printing systems use electrophotographic processes and dry toners to fuse toner to the substrate at high temperatures. In such cases, the faster the digital press operates, the more heat it creates. Many digital papers fail to hold up under such high temperatures. This can cause paper jams, curling, and degradation in paper quality. To help safeguard you from these problems, Sappi has employed rigorous third party testing to validate our digital press runnability. In addition, our best–in–class tech support can help alleviate any issues arising during the production process.
Toner Adhesion
Poor toner adhesion can lead to scuffing, scratches, and rub–off. Therefore, paper used in digital presses, printers, and copiers must be properly acclimated to achieve the best results. Temperature and moisture content are the keys in this process. Both are essential for the paper to attain the correct electrostatic charge during printing, which, in turn, will optimize image transfer and toner adhesion. Fortunately, there are many sheets available in the digital line–up that are engineered and quality tested to meet the toughest and most stringent adhesion challenges.
The Simple Way to Lose Weight
Although paper is usually specified in terms of weight (70 lb. text, 80 lb. cover), the printer and bindery consider paper in terms of thickness. A paper's thickness (or caliper) is an indication of the bulk, the heft, and the feel of the paper.
Uncoated papers are thicker than coated papers of the same weight, so you'll find you can get the same bulk with a lot less weight using an uncoated paper. For example, a 48 page catalog printed on a typical uncoated 60lb. text paper has the same bulk as a coated 80lb. text - yet weighs considerably less. The 60 lb. text sheet comes in around 4.5 oz. vs. 5.92 oz. on the 80 lb.coated sheet.
If your printed piece is going to be mailed or shipped choosing a lighter weight unocated paper can provide the bulk you want but will cost less for shipping and postage.
Think Ink: Color Unleashed
Think Ink from Neenah Paper is a vital tool for designers and printers around the world. This latest edition, Think Ink: Color Unleashed™, focusing on CLASSIC CREST® and CLASSIC® Linen Papers, is no different. Neenah has partnered with a leading color theorist to create a proprietary application to let you build color palettes in a whole new way.
Using the scientifically validated Dewey Color System®, Think Ink lets you explore the psychological meanings of color, ink and paper combinations before you even turn on your computer. Creating fresh, powerful and beautiful color palettes has never been easier. Or more fascinating. Get your copy here.
Environment in Action
What happens when 24 of the most celebrated, iconoclastic and highly sought graphic designers in New York City are asked to create posters about punctuation? A stunningly beautiful limited edition series of screen prints emerges.
Enter now to win three limited edition 26” x 40” Punc't Posters, designed and signed by these notable designers, and screen printed on Neenah Environment Natural White Cover . In a random drawing, three winners will be awarded three different posters of their choice. To enter, go to http://www.neenahpaper.com/environmentseries2/
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