Best Practices

In my previous article, I discussed the tolerances that the tools used in print quality control have. At least: in theory. To check this in practice, I launched a survey: ‘Your color guide and You’. The goal was to get an idea of how people use color guides in daily…

Color is probably the main quality criterium when dealing with print. And lower deviations are better, leading to some people demanding, defending a delta E 2000 of 2 for brand colors. But this raises a few questions, among which what the reference is and how reliable that reference is. And…

Would you like to be part of an interesting, crowdsourced color research? Then I have a few questions for you. I would like to get a better understanding of the use of Pantone guides. With a dominant position, you can’t neglect these guides. But usage can differ: some only use…

The previous article about color memory started some discussion on LinkedIn, with a number of people strongly defending very tight tolerances. Packages should always look exactly the same, also with reorders, with e-commerce in mind. Let’s put it to test and do a few real-life checks of the visual appearance…

A few months ago, I published an article about color memory, including a short test. The test was to check whether you could remember an iconic color, Coca-Cola red, correctly. Although the number of respondents is still limited, my statement seems to be confirmed: you can’t correctly remember an iconic…

With a color printer close to every desktop, the question arises: “Why should we spend all that money on preprinted letterheads if we can print the logo together with the rest of the letter?” Although this looks a valid proposition, not all logos are created equal and with some ‘unique’…

It’s annoying, really annoying. Especially when you are on the receiving side. And it’s definitely reflecting on the brand image of the sender: errors in mailing lists. And I know: I see them on a regular basis. Two mailing pieces at the same moment, wrong use of capitals, wrong language,…

Iconic brands come with an iconic brand color. A color we will never forget. Well, that’s the intention of the designer, of the company. But how good is your color memory? Can you accurately recall that iconic brand color? Let’s do a short test to find out… CONTENTS: Short-term memory…

Your logo, your brand colors are important to you, especially when you’re a designer or a marketer. You care about how it is being reproduced, whether it is on a website, on a printed piece of paper, or any other kind of reproduction. And you should take all those kinds…

Designers know black. Especially when it comes to fashion. When looking at print, it might be a bit more complicated and sometimes strange things can happen to black, unintentionally. Last week I got two different mail pieces that contained a ‘weird’ black. Let’s take a closer look at black and…

Probably you are not going to like this article, but you should read it anyway. Because the new privacy regulation (GDPR) will impact your business, if you are active in the EU. Especially from a marketing and personalization point of view – also think direct mail – the changes have…

Last week John Seymour (aka ‘John The Math Guy’) published a very technical, but very good article on color differences and more precisely on 1,0 delta E and a ‘just noticeable difference’. An important topic in the printing industry. As usual, John’s article is very well documented. But when talking…

QR codes are dead, just ask any marketer or technology watcher. However: I’ve scanned more QR codes the last 6 months than ever before. And some of them were really clever. And they made it easier for me to do business with companies. And that’s where the benefits of QR…

There is only one first impression. As a company you want to be sure that you catch your potential customers attention during that first moment. But why, oh why, are vendors making really stupid mistakes when they launch new products, when they exhibit at trade show? Why, oh why do…