Food is the quickest way to my heart. I think I'm not alone. Since Valentine's Day is just a few weeks away, I thought I'd take a look at the technologies used for custom printing on M&Ms, Sweethearts, and sheetcakes. After all, the only thing more intimate than shared food is personalized food.
Over the last few years it seems like everyone has been giving me plastic cards as gifts--mostly food cards, since that's the quickest way to my heart--but other kinds of cards as well. These seem to have become the gift of choice, not only for the recipient but also for the branded businesses for which these have become some of the best advertising opportunities available.
A print brokering client of mine just landed a new account. The client is global in its reach, which is particularly exciting. Now my client's client needs an identity package to project its image around the world.
Design Basics Index by Jim Krause has always given me food for thought regarding the fundamentals of effective publication design, including anything from posters to brochures. Since I've always considered it valuable to constantly practice the fundamentals of any craft, I get a lot of pleasure just dipping into this print book periodically, just to learn “one more thing.”
If you design marketing materials of any kind, it will benefit you to learn as much as you can about the USPS rules and regulations. (Go online and read the United States Postal Service Business Mail 101 web pages, or visit the Post Office and ask for printed business mailing guides.) As a start, here's some introductory information culled from the USPS website on ways to pay for postage.
Have you ever seen a printed photograph of a sunset, perhaps in a wall calendar, and wondered just how the printer got the sun to appear so bright?