PRINT &
DESIGN A magazine by conlin's print
Packaging
INTERIORS
Print Design
Draw inspiration from Read the interview Our ultimate guide this illustrated design with interior designer to designing in this project Kimberly Barr medium
ABOUT CONLIN'S From the beginning, Conlin’s was a
family affair, founded by husband and wife team Mike and Jane Conlin in 1980. Mike grew up in the printing business working for Philadelphia Blue Print Company, Teledyne Post, and the Xerox Corporation. With his extensive knowledge of the print and copy industry, Mike launched his own venture in 1980. Since the inception of Conlin’s, Mike had always pursued the latest in technological advances in his field, and he built a successful business by staying ahead of the curve while still maintaining a personal approach. Today, Conlin’s has expanded to two locations in King of Prussia and Malvern, and other family members have joined the business along the way. Bill Conlin, President, operates the business office with Bill Conlin, Jr. a Sales Executive. Businesses of all sizes trust Conlin’s to deliver quality printing and fast turnarounds. When other printers can’t meet your deadline, Conlin’s can! Our family approach to business has resulted in long-time loyal employees, some who have been with us for over 26 years.
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CONTENTS PRINT DESIGN 6 - The Ultimate Guide to Print Design 8 - How to Choose Fonts for Signage
INTERIOR DESIGN 10 - Interior Designer Kimberly Barr 14 - The Benefits of Custom Wallpaper
ILLUSTRATION 16 - Every Good Design Begins With a Sketch
PRINTSPIRATION 20- Direct Mail Inspiration
PHOTOGRAPHY 22 - Artistic Inspiration
ON THE COVER The illustration on our cover is printed with Gold & Silver Iridesse Ink, which lends a stunning sparkle and shine to any digital print project! 4
EDITOR LETTER We truly hope you have as much fun reading this magazine as we did creating it! For the content, we featured a curated collection of our favorite design-themed articles from Conlin's Press, our print blog located at www.ConlinsPress.com. For the design, we wanted to show off a few gorgeous paper stocks as well as showcase some of our best printing techniques. We opted for our Gold & Silver Iridesse Ink, which you see in use on the cover and in little splashes throughout the magazine. We chose Mohawk Options Smooth i-Tone 100% PC White for the inner pages and Mohawk 120# gloss cover for the cover. We tested several stocks to find one that looked best with our ink choice! As an added bonus, the endpages feature a gorgeous white ink graphic, printed on Mohawk Keaykolour in Lipstick. Best, The Staff at Conlin's Print
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PRINT DESIGN
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO
Print Design by Lauren D'Alessandro
Paying careful attention to design ensures that you put your best foot forward with every brochure, business card, or postcard. Here are our tips for ensuring that all of your print projects display top quality design for a great first impression.
Use good typography.
Use the information hierarchy.
The rule of thumb is to use no more than 2-3 fonts per project. To add variety, you can use different treatments within each family (bold, italic, etc.).
Design with the information hierarchy in mind. The more important information that you want the reader to remember should be larger, and clearly displayed (ie. business name, contact information, dates, title), while the remaining information can be smaller.
Kerning and leading are important as well. Kerning is the character-spacing, or the spacing between the individual letters of your typography. Leading is the spacing between each line. Setting these incorrectly will make your text less readable.
A variation of font sizes breaks the information up in “chunks,” making it easier to read and more attractive.
Use high-res CMYK photos.
Don’t forget to proofread.
Knowing the difference between RBG (red, green, blue) and CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) is critical when submitting your packaged files to any printer. For print, any graphics you use need to be converted to CMYK.
Forgetting to proofread and spell check could lead to major problems for your printed project. There’s nothing worse than designing a beautiful piece only to realize that there are grammatical errors undermining your work.
Setting the correct image resolution and dpi for any raster or vector artwork is very important as well. The minimum recommended resolution for printing is 300dpi.
Take a moment to proof your own work carefully. Then, get a second (or third) pair of eyes to look over and approve the piece before you send it to the printer.
Set up your document properly.
Always request a proof.
If your artwork is meant to print to the edge of the page, you need to setup your bleeds properly. If your document doesn’t bleed, you’ll need to give it enough margin to ensure that no important information gets cut off in the finishing process. Typically, your margin should be about 0.5 inches.
Always make sure to request an electronic or physical proof and have multiple people review it before giving the green light. It’s an important step to ensure that all of your materials are highquality and error-free. 6
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HOW TO CHOOSE
FONTS FOR SIGNAGE When planning the typefaces for your signs, there are two important considerations. Think about 1) the size of the sign and 2) the amount of time your reader will have to comprehend the information.
This Works
COUTURE Choose sans serif fonts with uniform thickness.
Select clean fonts with minimum embellishments.
For maximum readability, a bold sans serif font is the cleanest choice. It's the best option for signage that’s small or far away, or for when the reader will be driving past it at 60mph.
Avoid using fancy calligraphic fonts. With signage, you only have a few seconds to capture attention. When you choose a script font, pick one that’s simple and easy to read. 8
A Bit Too Fancy
Legible
If you choose a script font, use it strategically.
Increase character spacing for readability.
For maximum readability, keep the use of script to a minimum. Don’t make your reader look at an entire sentence (or paragraph) in a script font. Use it strategically for short headlines or logos.
If the letters are too crowded together, it might affect the legibility of your signage – especially if it’s a serif font. Increasing the character spacing can make your signage easier on the eyes. 9
"I come from a family of artists, so I've always been around the arts."
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INTERIOR DESIGN
Interior Designer Kimberly Barr Gives Her Rooms An Artist’s Touch Interview by Lauren D'Alessandro Kimberly Barr has been a professional interior designer since 2001, but she’s been passionate about design since childhood. After graduating from the Art Institute of Philadelphia, Kimberly has enjoyed an award-winning career and plenty of satisfied clients. I had the pleasure of interviewing Kimberly to learn about her work ethic and her tricks for keeping the creativity flowing.
most up-to-date trends and what’s new and hot out there. I like Pinterest of course, but I feel more inspired by pieces I’ve never seen before in Design Trade showrooms. L: Do you have any habits or rituals that help you to keep your creativity flowing?
K: I do! Going to tradeshows and showrooms gets me very excited. I love seeing new products and fabrics. It can be stressful sometimes trying to be creative all day long, and of course you get creative blocks. I’m very big into making sure I’m hiking and taking a “brain break” of being outside and being in the world. Between this LAUREN: Besides design expertise, and the creative inspiration, there’s a balwhat qualities make you effective at ance. Taking a full break from everything and then being fully immersed is how I designing for clients? keep a good creative balance. KIMBERLY: I’m a very social people person, and I listen very well to my clients. L: What would you say is the driving I think that’s one of the things I hear the motivation behind the work that you most from them. They’ve worked with de- do? signers who just decide to create their own vision without listening to what the client K: I’m completely obsessed with design. really wants. A designer needs to listen, I have been since I was really little. My not just create what they have in their grandmother was a decorator. I come from a whole family of artists, so I’ve always head. been around the arts. I was born to do this L: What are some of your favorite places — I never wanted to be anything else. Everything inspires me from paintings, to arto draw design inspiration from? chitecture, to poems. To me, creating the K: I like trade shows and visiting show- design [for each home] is like creating a rooms. That’s where I’m going to get the piece of art.
"A designer needs to listen, not just create what they have in their head."
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"Taking a full break from everything and then being fully immersed is how I keep a good creative balance."
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THREE BENEFITS OF CUSTOM WALLPAPER by Lauren D'Alessandro Wallpaper – also known as wall wraps – is a great way to transform a plain wall into a work of art. Whether you’re an interior decorator looking for a unique design solution or a retail store looking to advertise on your store walls, wall wraps have benefits that put them a notch above paint or standard store-bought wallpaper. Here are three reasons why you should give this product a try:
UNLIMITED DESIGN OPTIONS Standard wallpaper usually comes in a repeating pattern – anything else wouldn’t necessarily fit your space. Custom printed paper is made to fit the unique size and shape of your walls, which opens up a world of unlimited design possibilities. From a giant cityscape for the office, to a gorgeous wall mural in a home, you can literally create any design that you want, perfectly suited to your space.
MORE DURABLE THAN PAINT We typically use Dreamscape Caviar Wall Wrap for our wallpaper. This material is durable and lasts a long time. If removed properly, it won’t damage the walls when you’re ready to try something new. It’s also a great way to disguise existing blemishes or imperfections in your walls, and it withstands wear better than paint does.
GREAT FOR ADVERTISING OR BRAND MESSAGING For a retail, restaurant, or office space, custom wallpaper is a great tool for brand reinforcement. Turn your walls into an advertising space, display tantalizing food photography, or remind your employees of your company values. 14
Custom WALLpaper opens up a world of unlimited design possibilities.
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Illustration
Every Good Design Begins With a Sketch by Lauren D'Alessandro and Sabrina Brittain
The design for our "Powered by Print" t-shirts started with a sketch and developed into a colorful packaging project. We choose bright blue and lime green for the colors. Our talented designer Sabrina created the illustrations for both the t-shirts and the fruity packaging. The shirts were distributed at several events hosted by King of Prussia District, including Food Truck Tuesdays and their summer Rock Your Lunch event. Conlin's is a proud sponsor of King of Prussia District's non-profit activities, which are geared toward making King of Prussia a great place to live and work.
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The Packaging PRINTED ON
Vutek QS2 Pro FINISHING
Zund Precision Digital Cutter STOCK
E Flute
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PRINTSPIRATION
Direct Mail Inspiration This 4-panel mailer had a simple but bold design that stood out in the mail for it's bright colors.
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ARTISTIC
Inspiration Photographs by Lauren D'Alessandro
ABOVE
RIGHT
National Memorial Arch located
Cherry Blossoms in Haddonfield, NJ
in Valley Forge National Park
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PHOTOGRAPHY
“Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities in the world.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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CLOCK WISE FROM TOP Brooklyn Bridge, New World Trade Center, Closeup of Brooklyn Bridge
Credits Kimberly Barr Design Photography
Jon Friedrich Photography Leave It To Me Photography Magazine Layout
Lauren D'Alessandro cover art
Sabrina Brittain
CONTENT & DESIGN BY