We know you are a busy corporate professional who takes the time to find the very best promotional products and services, such as custom signs and banners, book binding and graphic design services, to meet all of your advertising and marketing needs. River City Print & Imaging is an established, full-service Little Rock print shop that’s always prepared to help clients with all their printing needs for both commercial or personal use. You can trust us to provide you with fast, effective and cost-effective service with all of your needs considered from the design to the promotional item printing.
The first step to designing a custom sign or banner is to decide on the image or graphic to be used, whether it is a phrase or tag line, a symbol or saying. Next, choose the color or colors from a wide selection of colors and shades. The color of the text on the printed piece is decided by the client and the company’s color scheme. Once the colors have been selected, the layout of the promotional item is developed by filling out the required details, including size, shape and graphics, giving the printing company in-house designers an idea of the exact words, phrases or graphics that will be printed. As part of the graphic design process, colors are discussed and approved, if the client prefers more than one color or shades, and the type of paper to be used is chosen and discussed with the printing company.
Next, the layout of the printed piece is developed by the designer or copywriter and proofread by the printing staff. Any changes are posted to the printer for approval. The paper is then cut into the correct sizes, folded, inserted into the press and pressed for printing. The final product will be trimmed using a die cutting machine and any extra paper or binding that was not required is cut away.
Commercial printing has come a long way since the early days of a simple ink press and a stapler. Today, printing plates come in various types, from spiral to offset. The printing plate can be solid, embossed, matte, foil, silk or even printed with special effects to create the effect of glitter or sparkle. The type of binding that is chosen depends largely on the overall look and feel that the published material may lend itself too. Book printing inks are generally glazed or coated with wax or a resin, while catalogs, brochures and flyers can be stiffened with foil, foam or ribbed edges.
Commercial printers also incorporate the use of offset printing equipment which can produce thick, heavy brochures and pamphlets with high-resolution images that can be used for direct mail campaigns, business cards and fliers. The key to success is to find a balance between styles, shapes, textures and sizes. For example, a flyer must have a unique shape that will catch the attention of many people but might turn off someone who is looking for a different kind of publication. The same goes for a brochure or a piece of literature. If it is too busy, the reader may simply overlook it and return to the next brochure or book that uses a more simplistic style.
In addition to using several different colors of ink, the right printing company can provide the tools to add depth, shadow and texture to large pieces of text or artwork. These effects can be achieved through the various methods of drawing, tracing and molding. For example, if an artist wants to make a portrait of a person, he would need to first sketch the outline of that person on graph paper, with different colors corresponding to the different parts of the face. Then, with the help of a special computer program, he can choose from among the available digital paint colors and other colors and effects. After the painting is complete, it can then be reproduced on a large-scale print using ink rollers and printers that support sublimation technology.