printing
Moo Cards
08/14/2007 @ 09:44 PM Filed in:
Photography
I received my note cards and mini
cards from Moo in the mail tonight. For the most part I'm pretty
happy and a little surprised.
First my grievances...ordering multiple items from Moo seems to be a pain. If you try to order multiples of the same product, that's easy. Try ordering say 1 mini card set and 1 note card set all in one order. I couldn't find a way. Never saw a "continue shopping" button or something similar. So I was forced to make two separate orders and thus may full price for shipping. Its gotta be cheaper to mail things in a larger container than mail several small packages. And I'd like if the mini cards were twice as wide. If I have to pay twice the amount or get half the number of cards, fine. The mini cards are cool, but coming from a photography point of view, its tough trying to get a good portion of an image on one of those cards. Instead I have to really be selective (which can be cool and fun but if you are wanting to use them as advertisement materials, I think its best to include photos that represents your work not just a portion.).
And now what I like...The note cards are cool. I dig em. I really like how thick the card stock they use and the feel of them. I think the card stock is laminated. The cards themselves and Moo's packaging remind me of Apple's packaging. Granted they don't conform to a 3:2 ratio, they are large enough to place a decent amount of your photo on them (maybe similar to cropping a 3:2 image to an 8x10). But at the same time they are small, but the right kind of small. And I liked the look of the text you can have Moo print on the back. I included a copyright symbol and name on one line in the center of the back of the card and my name and URL at the bottom. Looks good and looks professional. Maybe work not only as advertising but maybe as promotion too. And I dig the small side flap. The extra paper that is small but enough to make the whole piece called a "note card". The flap is great at propping the card up for display on a desk. No frames necessary.
The mini cards seem fun. I think I went the wrong route with them. Instead of using them to show off my work seriously, maybe I should design each card with the idea that I need to heavily crop. That way I go through my library looking for small components to print. Then use them as small business cards and use them to generate intrigue to drive web traffic.
First my grievances...ordering multiple items from Moo seems to be a pain. If you try to order multiples of the same product, that's easy. Try ordering say 1 mini card set and 1 note card set all in one order. I couldn't find a way. Never saw a "continue shopping" button or something similar. So I was forced to make two separate orders and thus may full price for shipping. Its gotta be cheaper to mail things in a larger container than mail several small packages. And I'd like if the mini cards were twice as wide. If I have to pay twice the amount or get half the number of cards, fine. The mini cards are cool, but coming from a photography point of view, its tough trying to get a good portion of an image on one of those cards. Instead I have to really be selective (which can be cool and fun but if you are wanting to use them as advertisement materials, I think its best to include photos that represents your work not just a portion.).
And now what I like...The note cards are cool. I dig em. I really like how thick the card stock they use and the feel of them. I think the card stock is laminated. The cards themselves and Moo's packaging remind me of Apple's packaging. Granted they don't conform to a 3:2 ratio, they are large enough to place a decent amount of your photo on them (maybe similar to cropping a 3:2 image to an 8x10). But at the same time they are small, but the right kind of small. And I liked the look of the text you can have Moo print on the back. I included a copyright symbol and name on one line in the center of the back of the card and my name and URL at the bottom. Looks good and looks professional. Maybe work not only as advertising but maybe as promotion too. And I dig the small side flap. The extra paper that is small but enough to make the whole piece called a "note card". The flap is great at propping the card up for display on a desk. No frames necessary.
The mini cards seem fun. I think I went the wrong route with them. Instead of using them to show off my work seriously, maybe I should design each card with the idea that I need to heavily crop. That way I go through my library looking for small components to print. Then use them as small business cards and use them to generate intrigue to drive web traffic.
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promotion printing ideas
08/04/2007 @ 11:04 AM Filed in:
Photography
Last week I was sick at home for 2
days and found www.moo.com (based in London). At this moment, they will
take your images in make stickers, note cards, and small cards.
Could be used to spread my name and work. I want to try them out
soon.
On the higher end side, check out www.paperchase.net. They seem to have some good product ideas (I dig their products listed under "Photographer Promos" especially their accordion style cards). The problem I have with them is their price sheet listed on the web. I have no idea why they do it but it doesn't all that comprehensive and thus requires some contact them. I'm not too happy about having a saleman or saleswoman push stuff on me as I normally push them away even if they are selling something so awesome and at a cheap price. Seems to me they are fighting the benefits of being on the web and making it more difficult for the customer than it needs to be. Maybe after I sell more prints I'll contact them. Their cards would be good to help differentiate yourself from others.
On the higher end side, check out www.paperchase.net. They seem to have some good product ideas (I dig their products listed under "Photographer Promos" especially their accordion style cards). The problem I have with them is their price sheet listed on the web. I have no idea why they do it but it doesn't all that comprehensive and thus requires some contact them. I'm not too happy about having a saleman or saleswoman push stuff on me as I normally push them away even if they are selling something so awesome and at a cheap price. Seems to me they are fighting the benefits of being on the web and making it more difficult for the customer than it needs to be. Maybe after I sell more prints I'll contact them. Their cards would be good to help differentiate yourself from others.
T-shirt color problems Part II
06/02/2007 @ 05:59 PM Filed in:
News
So I finally got around to emailing
the order of Skreened.com how I can get better color and if they
had color profiles for their printer.
His reply was no profiles are available and he claims they they get so many low quality images uploaded they do their best to improve them and sometimes colors get weird. I replied back asking if it was possible for them not to tweak my designs. If they can NOT do that, I'll try again and see if their is any improvement (I thought it may be possible their tweaking is ruining my colors). I'm currently awaiting his reply.
If in the end I don't get what I want I may just scrap all my t-shirts or maybe go elsewhere. I don't want to come off as saying I think their service sucks because it doesn't. They offer one off t-shirt printing a pretty low prices, that's pretty cool. I'm just not happy with the color reproduction of their printing.
His reply was no profiles are available and he claims they they get so many low quality images uploaded they do their best to improve them and sometimes colors get weird. I replied back asking if it was possible for them not to tweak my designs. If they can NOT do that, I'll try again and see if their is any improvement (I thought it may be possible their tweaking is ruining my colors). I'm currently awaiting his reply.
If in the end I don't get what I want I may just scrap all my t-shirts or maybe go elsewhere. I don't want to come off as saying I think their service sucks because it doesn't. They offer one off t-shirt printing a pretty low prices, that's pretty cool. I'm just not happy with the color reproduction of their printing.
T-shirt color problems
05/25/2007 @ 10:36 PM Filed in:
News
I recently received a t-shirt I
designed in the mail. The print quality actually seemed really
good. I was pleasantly surprised in that respect. However, the
color seemed too dark. The design is of a heavily scratched Seirra
Nevada beer bottle cap and I wanted it to keep its distanctive
green color but the t-shirt turned out way too dark. I plan on
talking to the owner of the print company and asking him how I can
help ensure I get accurate colors.