Custom Printing: More News on the Power of Print

I subscribe to a monthly magazine called GD USA (Graphic Design USA). An article by Gordon Kaye entitled “Print Is Getting Smarter” in the June 2012 issue of the magazine challenges the notion that commercial printing is dying with their 2012 GD Print Design Survey.

I find this interesting, and you may as well, since the survey supports a number of pro-print assertions with both statistics and commentary from the design community. Who is better than a designer to know what kind of custom printing work is being produced and why?

It’s a long article, so I’d encourage you to search for it on the Internet through the GD USA website, but I want to share with you a few of the survey’s findings under the actual subheadings of the GD USA article.

Finding: “Designers Still Value Print”

Quotations in this section of the survey focus on the unique character of custom printing work as a personal, sensory experience (in contrast to the primarily visual nature of the computer screen). The designers quoted in the survey used such words as “tangible,” “texture,” and “dimensionality” to describe print. One designer even noted that “holding something in your hands can have more impact than just seeing it on a screen.”

Finding: “Print Is Crucial to the Business of Design”

This section of the GD USA survey quantifies the importance of custom printing in the mix of communications channels. The survey notes that 74 percent of the average designer’s time is spent working on print projects and 71 percent of the average designer’s projects include a print element.

Interestingly enough, the accompanying list of the kinds of media the survey respondents have designed in the past year includes print and online in the top two positions (96 percent and 72 percent respectively) and point of purchase/packaging (at 62 percent) as the third medium.

This actually supports my own view, expressed in prior blogs, that boxes and cartons, and at least certain types of signage, will be with us for some time. More importantly, however, it shows that almost every designer who responded to the GD USA survey creates custom printing projects.

Finding: “Brochures and Collateral Are Bread and Butter”

The top ten kinds of commercial printing projects respondents have created in the past year include brochure printing and collateral at the top of the list, then sales promotions and self-promotions, invitations and announcements, direct mail, posters, advertising, identity materials, packaging/point of purchase, annual reports, and finally publications.

From this I can infer the following: While printed periodicals and corporate documents may have become less pervasive, advertising, graphic displays, and the simple but direct vehicle of the brochure still exert a strong print presence. Somebody must read them because marketing firms are paying lots of money for their production and distribution.

Finding: “Print Is Getting Smarter”

The GD USA survey notes that 72 percent of respondents are “designing print projects that have digital or interactive components (QR Codes, etc.) built in” and 70 percent are “designing print projects that are extended or repurposed from online versions.”

Commentary on this aspect of commercial printing work notes the important place of digital printing. The variable nature of digital presses allows publishers and marketers to tailor their printed products to the specific needs and interests of their audience.

Moreover, the ever increasing ability of marketing firms to segment and target their prospective clientele allows them to reduce the number of printed pieces while ensuring that each printed piece conveys important information to an interested reader. And the increased number of ways to respond to a printed direct mail piece (for instance through QR Codes and PURLs) allows interested prospects to immediately connect with the company, research their interests in greater depth, and take the next step in the buying process.

In short, the goal is to use custom printing wisely as one of many coordinated channels for communicating with one’s audience.

Finding: “Everything Old Is New Again”

Here’s a good quote from a GD USA Survey respondent: “It is special receiving a well-designed printed piece in the mail or on my desk. It cuts through the online noise like nothing else.”

I get a whole lot of spam in my email box. Granted, some is useful. Sometimes I relish the information that comes to me through news aggregators, online brochures for computer equipment, and blogs about printing. But I do get a huge number of emails.

I can therefore appreciate the views noted in the survey by designers who see a particularly well-executed print project as rising above the crowd of other marketing messages.

Here’s one final quote: “Print may have a smaller market share, but it will have a larger impact on people’s attention.”

In Conclusion

Print is not going away. However, it is no longer the only communications medium. The goal is still to make one’s message stand out from the noise. Savvy marketers and other communicators are those who can successfully convey their message through an effective mix of the available media to interest and influence their readers.

Check out the rest of the GD USA Annual Print Design Survey. It addresses other issues as well, including views on sustainability, what designers expect from their printers, the role of the paper mills, and online print buying.