Think smart. Work smart. Print smart.

Finding ‘smarter’ ways to work is an ongoing quest for anyone in business. Generating revenue is hard enough, so anything that can help you bring down your costs has to be worth taking seriously. With sales and marketing budgets under pressure for many businesses, adopting a smart approach to print buying makes sound sense. 

So what does printing smart actually mean? We are not going to pretend that its rocket science, it’s really just common sense, a case of you and your printer working closely together with one another to make sure the route you take is the best one. Sharing information is vital. Whether the job you are requesting a price for is part of a campaign, a regular project, or a one-off, let your printer know how your brief fits into the ‘bigger picture’ and if there’s a smart way of doing it, they should tell you.

Your printer should be a partner as well as a supplier. Here at Holywell, we understand the challenges our clients face, and we work with them to help them print smart whenever we can. We’ll always consider a print job from every angle to make sure we are recommending the most cost-effective solution. Here are a few recent examples that demonstrate how we can apply print smart thinking to save money for our clients:

• A number of our clients use business cards which feature different full colour images on the reverse. To print these cards in short runs each time a new employee joins the business is expensive. Instead, we print sheets of the cards, coloured side only, and hold these ‘stock blanks’ at our premises. The client can call these off whenever they need to; we simply overprint the personalised side in one or two colours, an inexpensive process. This way each new member of staff gets their cards, complete with images on the reverse for a fraction of the cost of printing afresh each time.

• Applying the same principle, we can print different covers for booklets. One of our clients is a private school, and each term, pupils are given an academic planner.  While the content of the planners is 2 colours, the covers are full colour, and different for each term. By printing the full colour covers together, at the start of the school year, holding them in stock until we print the planner content at the beginning of each new term, we’re able to provide the diaries at a price substantially less expensive than the school’s previous printer.
• When a client asked us to print a 12 page A4 brochure and told us it was going to be used for marketing in the USA, we suggested that producing the brochure in US A4 format rather than European A4 would not only make it more suited to the market, it would also make it cheaper. Because US A4 is smaller than UK A4, we were able to get more pages up on our printing press. Fewer plates and less make-ready time meant we were able to pass on substantial savings.

So, next time you have a print brief, don’t just give your printer the basic specifications, share as much as you can with them and tell them you want to print smart!

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Client Spotlight: Helping ADMIRALTY keep everything ship shape!

One of the best things about the print business is the diverse range of industry sectors we get to work with. Our client, CT-Live, an Oxfordshire-based agency specialising in managing international events, works with the ADMIRALTY brand, a world leader in the production of charts, publications and other navigational products for customers in the commercial shipping industry and defence sector.

CT-Live have been engaged by ADMIRALTY to run workshop events around the world, promoting the launch of a new navigational software product. For previous events we have printed workshop notes as high-quality inserts, ready to go into ring binders, but for this launch, the client decided to give delegates the information they needed on a USB drive instead. But they still needed a smart, stylish way to present delegates with their USB - and a selection of other material including an event agenda, note pad, pen, brochure and CD.

Holywell proposed a solution in the form of a stylish, bespoke folder with pockets, slots and fold out areas. We created a mock up to show the client, and they really liked our concept. All workshop elements fit snugly into the folder which is kept securely closed with magnetic strips.

Not unusually in our industry, there was a tight turnaround on the project, and we found ourselves working to a tight deadline. Our intrepid MD gave up his bank holiday and drove the finished folders to our client to make sure they got them in time for a flight to Singapore – venue for the first workshop!

Our client tells us that the folders were well received by delegates - given the profile of the audience, we’ll resist saying they went down a storm - and we were delighted to receive this lovely testimonial from the client: 

"Holywell provided an end-to-end solution, working closely with us to develop the concept, adapt our ideas and turn them into a quality piece which exceeded expectations. They worked tirelessly against tight deadlines and have since won further business based on their excellent results." Shirley Chick, Managing Director, CT-Live.

Artweeks 2013 (& the art of making your print budget go further)

For 3 weeks during May, Oxfordshire is transformed into one giant art gallery as it provides the backdrop for Artweeks, the county’s most important arts festival.  Between  the 4^th and 27^th  May, artists and craftspeople all around Oxfordshire open their studios to the public, giving visitors the opportunity to view spectacular art in a huge variety of different locations, from barns and halls in Cotswold villages, to city studios, galleries, open spaces, schools, homes and even a castle. All in all, there are more than 500 exhibitions – and they are all completely free!

Holywell is delighted to support Artweeks and do our little bit to help promote the wealth of creative talent in Oxfordshire. Our relationship with Artweeks goes back a long way, and we have printed the Artweeks Festival Guide for many years.  As well as being the essential reference document for the event - detailing all exhibition locations and opening times - it also showcases works by the artists participating. On display is an eclectic range of styles and work in a variety of media; including painting, photography, textiles, sculpture, ceramics, furniture, glass, mosaics and jewellery. In fact, at 116 full colour pages, the guide is something of a work of art itself!

Because Artweeks is a non profit-making business, its organisers are continually looking for ways to make their budget work as hard as possible. The print and production of 50,000 guides is a significant cost, so we work closely with our client to make sure this element of the project is as cost-effective as it can be. For many years, the Festival Guide was produced in an A5 format, but seven years ago we suggested that if the guide were to be designed a little smaller, we could make a considerable saving on the cost of production – so it came to be the size it is today.

Reducing it from A5 (210 x 148mm) to 185 x 140mm, means we’re able to produce 32 page sections on our Sakurai printing press (rather than just 16 when it was A5). You don’t need to follow the technical stuff too closely here – the important bit is that by taking just a little off the size of the guide, we’re able to take a lot off the cost of production. Those few millimetres enable us to save Artweeks around 50% on their print bill. What’s more, not only does this new size make the guide far more cost-effective, the compact format means it is now even more pocket-friendly for art goers to carry as they browse the venues!

Our MD Ben was lucky enough to be invited to the Artweeks launch party held at the Riverly Club in Abingdon, and was extremely flattered that Holywell got a special mention from Festival Chairman, David Pollock, who thanked us for our work on the guide.

This spring, take a little time out to enjoy wonderful art in beautiful and unusual settings. Whatever your taste in art, there will be something in Artweeks to inspire you – you might even find the perfect piece to fill that space on your wall! Visit www.artweeks.org to find out about Artweeks events taking place close by to you. 

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