Offset Printing
“Creativity in Print” put the spotlight on enhancement
Thursday 14. May 2009 - Print enhancement - a success factor
Brochures, financial reports or customer magazines – skillfully enhanced they gain companies a lot of attention. But which form of enhancement goes down best? Which pays off and is suitable for the product and target group? This is what the “Creativity in Print” event held in Offenbach on 29 April 2009 dealt with.
The third event jointly staged by manroland and f:mp was dedicated to enhancement of corporate literature. It was attended by 85 visitors from the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland who, through theoretical and practical presentations, learned about the creative potential of enhancement with coatings, special substrates and cold foil transfer.
“Its not a matter of enhancement for enhancements sake. Its a matter of choosing the right form to make print products more relevant and expressive,” was the message from the organizers Heiko Stock of manroland and Rüdiger Maaß of f:mp. They had arranged a highly informative program with high-calibre speakers in order to provide the audience with suggestions and guidance and to emphasize the value of enhanced corporate literature.
Print appeals to all the senses
“Print enhancement – luxury or a success factor?” This was the rhetorical question posed by Joachim Bretschneider, General Manager of Richard Bretschneider GmbH. The print expert showed some impressive examples from what his company produces regularly and made it clear that not only well-known brands have recognized the value of print enhancement; an increasing number of discount stores are following suit. Design consultant Professor Michael Hardt urged the audience to take greater advantage of the inadequacies of online media in order to promote printing. Only print appeals to all the senses. Alexander Herz explained how this can be done: the trend consultant at the trade magazine versio presented the many possibilities that print enhancement offers – from substrates to coatings to foil embossing to spot colors, right through to the use of different screens or an expanded color space. Michael Höflich, General Manager of Forum Corporate Publishing, pointed out that customer magazines also benefit from digitization and are an example of how electronic media can be a driver for print: “In the present crisis, creative customer magazines that understand how to link all media forms are proving to be a valuable instrument in the marketing mix.” Knud Schlaudraff, Managing Director of RedWorks GmbH, regretted to report that: “Creative people often come up against a brick wall because process partners have insufficient knowledge.” He pleaded for getting all process partners together at an early stage in order to achieve good results.
In the practical part of the event, a highlight of the day was a demonstration of cold foil transfer with the ROLAND InlineFoiler Prindor. In manrolands Print Technology Center, the guests were able to see this new printing process live and make a direct comparison of the effect and impact of enhanced and non-enhanced print samples. They were impressed by the effects achieved and also by the simplicity of the cold foil transfer process and were happy to have the opportunity to take away a poster as well as a print sample box.
Besides knowledge transfer, the series of events also aims at fostering the exchange of ideas between the process partners. Apart from the presentations and the print demonstration, a showroom was provided for the first time in which the associates – f:mp, versio, Bretschneider, Forum Corporate Publishing, Ogilvy One and PrintCity – as well as the event sponsors UPM, Kurz and reproflex, presented and explained exhibits. This aroused great interest and many guests took the opportunity to receive individualized advice from the exhibitors.