Create the perfect Christmas Card print this Xmas

Posted on September 9, 2011 by We Print Group

To celebrate the launch of our new section of We Print Group Christmas Cards, our design team offer these tips for creating a card that will look perfect on mantlepieces this christmas:

  1. Choose your subject

    This is the most important step for you new christmas card as it’s the first thing people will see when they pull your card out of it’s envelope upon opening.

    Here’s some ideas to get you started:

    • A funny picture of all the family!
    • Some christmas scene characters like father christmas and rudolph in a snowy scene
    • A comic scene with penguins and other fuzzy characters.

  2. Add a border

    Adding a red or green border adds colour and makes it more festive, you could even put some extra snowflakes around it too! This really helps to frame your picture.

  3. Add some clipart

    Stick some santa hats on your friends and family and your christmas card print will come to life! You could even put some reindeer flying over the sky just to add that festive touch.

  4. Think of a message

    Whether you go for a traditional message like “Thinking of you this christmas time” or a joke such as “What did one angel say to another at christmas? Halo there!”, you’ll want to tie the message in with the theme of the card. People often overlook this step, but it’ll make your card look a lot more professional and save you writing a lot of different messages into each one!

  5. Complete the back

    This step is often overlooked, but is a great opportunity to add that extra touch like a little joke or a short message from your family.

  6. Send it off to your printer!

    Once you’re finally happy with your card, send it off for print to your online printer.

Although it might seem early to be thinking about christmas in September, it’s always good to keep ahead of the game. If you do end up short on time though, We Print Group offers 48 hour turn around on all it’s christmas card printing, right up to Christmas itself. Head over to our website at www.weprintgroup.com for further details.

Remember to keep up to date with all the goings on at We Print Group on our twitter, facebook and linked in profiles, it’s a great place to pick up tips on printing too!

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We Print Group extends it’s order cut off time

Posted on September 5, 2011 by We Print Group

We Print Group have extended it’s order cut off time! You can now order up to 4pm and get your order delivered within 48 hours on the majority of our products.

This is great news for busy people and people on the go, allowing you to get your order sooner, while still at the same quality.

Visit us today at www.weprintgroup.com to see our selection of products and order yours today!

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5 Ways We Print Group Can Help Artists/Photographers

Posted on September 4, 2011 by We Print Group

Making a living as a freelance Artist or Photographer can be challenging, and many who are in this profession have learned that the art of self-promotion and marketing their work is just as important as the creative product itself.

Luckily for the freelance artist or photographer, weprintgroup.com offer many services that they can use to help grow their business and promote their work. If you are a freelance artist or photographer, read on to find out how online printers such as We Print Group can help you succeed in your creative business.

  1. Business Cards

    Having a well-designed and eye catching business card is absolutely crucial to promoting yourself as an artist or photographer. You will need to be able to pull out this handy card in any situation where someone is interested in your services and give them an easy way to get a hold of you. Business cards are great for networking and the more attractive and memorable they are the more impact they will have.

    We Print Group sources the best quality paper for your business cards, allowing you to create an attractive card to promote yourself with at the highest quality – putting you a cut above the rest.

  2. Art Calendars

    Have you ever thought about selling a calendar featuring your portfolio of artwork or photography? You can get calendars printed up for an inexpensive rate by an online printer such as www.weprintgroup.com, and they can provide fans of your artwork another option if they cannot afford to buy one of your originals but still want to display your art on their wall. Contact us for more information and prices on our Art Calendars

  3. Postcards

    Postcards are very cheap and simple to print, and can be a great way to promote your art. Beautiful colour postcards with one of your paintings or photographs can be given away for free at your art shows or mailed out to promote an upcoming gallery opening.

  4. Posters

    If you print out high quality limited edition poster prints of your art work, you can sell them for less than an original painting or photo and yet still make a profit because of the low printing costs offered by online printers. You might just find that you tap into a whole new market of smaller-budget art fans.

  5. Brochures

    Are you a photographer with your own studio that offers portrait sessions and other services, or a painter who gives art classes? Why not print up a brochure that gives your customers more information about who you are, where you are located, and what you provide? You can use your beautiful artwork to illustrate the brochure, so that it promotes your work as well as the other special services that you provide.

There just five of the ways that artists and photographers can use the wide variety of online printing services from weprintgroup.com to promote their businesses and increase sales of their artwork. Of course, there are many other ways to get your art out there, so go ahead and be creative!

Visit our website at www.weprintgroup.com for a full range of our products and to buy online.

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About Us – www.weprintgroup.com – we print group .com

Posted on September 2, 2011 by We Print Group

Wanted to know more about core values?

Our about us page at www.weprintgroup.com/we-print-group has loads of information about our values and ethics!

We’re passionate about people, printing and our customers, ensuring that your experience from start to finish is a smooth, enjoyable one. Infact, we’re so confident you’ll love your print that if you’re not completely happy we’ll give you £10 back! That’s the www.weprintgroup.com promise.

As well as our customers, we love the environment too. All our jobs are printed with vegetable inks, so they biodegrade nicely when their job is done.

Transparent, reliable printing from www.weprintgroup.com

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WePrintGroup.com Welcomes PayPal

Posted on September 1, 2011 by We Print Group

Due to popular demand, we’ve brought in PayPal to the checkout of www.weprintgroup.com !

Customers now have a choice of using Google Checkout or PayPal when ordering their print work online. Speaking on the subject, a spokesperson from We Print Group said:

“We Print Group are committed to making your shopping experience as easy and stress-free as possible.

“This is a great advance in supplying our customers with more choice and flexibility, and is only the beginning of weprintgroup.com’s future plan to roll out further payment systems.”

If you’d like to keep up to date with the current going’s on at We Print Group, and even more exciting updates about future plans, why not sign up to our Facebook, Twitter or Linked In profiles!

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We Print Group – A bit about our printing at We Print Group

Posted on August 30, 2011 by We Print Group

We Print Group are an energetic company with a passion for printing.

At We Print Group we love printing, and we hope you love what we print for you! Each and every product we produce from business cards to letterheads, posters or leaflets, are all given that extra care in production to ensure that you receive the perfect product.

We live by 3 main rules:

  • Source only the highest quality materials
  • Give the best customer experience possible
  • Delivering your product on time, every time

We’re so confident that you’ll love our products, that if your not completely happy with them we’ll correct it for you and give you £10 back! That’s the We Print Group guarantee.

We’re aiming to become 100% carbon neutral too, so we have a lot of plans in the pipeline! Currently all of our products come with a recycled alternative, but there’s still a lot more we can do.. Why not check us out today at weprintgroup.com

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How to create business cards using Adobe Illustrator

Posted on August 30, 2011 by We Print Group

For graphic designers who are just starting out, creating your own business cards might be easy from a visual perspective, but when getting technical and learning about Bleed Marks, Crop Marks, Trim Marks and other jargon, it can be quite difficult to find the right resources on helping you do so. At We Print Group, we have a design team who have put together this quick tutorial for you, so you can rest assured your business cards will be outputted to perfection.

Step One – Document Type

There are many types of documents that Illustrator can open and render, so keep things simple and create a brand new .ai file (usually the default).

Step Two – Correct Colours

For printing, it’s best to use CMYK. Your document may already default to this, as Illustrator is usually a print-creation program. If your settings are selected to RGB, make sure you change it to CYMK or you could end up with discolored prints. Make sure your Dpi is set to 300 for print, and use 72 for web based design.

Step Three – Card Size and Bleed Marks

We Print Group business cards are at a set size of 85mm X 55mm so be sure to add this in when starting your designs. You’ll also want to create two ‘Artboards’ too as these will stand for each face of the card.

You can create Bleeds before or after you’ve created a document, for ease of use it’s best to select them before if you know your Bleed sizes. These tend to range between 3mm and 5mm depending on which printers you’re using, it’s best to contact them to find out before starting your document. At We Print Group, we use 3mm Bleeds, so if you’re preparing artwork for us – you’ve got the answer!

You can use the image below to align your settings with ours.

Step Four – Add Your Design

Import or create a new design onto your business card artboards you’ve now created. Any colour that reaches the edges of your business cards needs to overflow into the Bleed area like the image below.

Step Five – Outputting to PDF

Navigate to File > Save As.. and choose Adobe PDF from the drop-down. In the left hand column you’ll see ‘Marks and Bleeds’ – click this to switch views. From here you’ll see marks available for you to include on your PDF, so they’re ready for print.

Sometimes a printer may require more marks than others, so it’s also best to check with them first. For anything else, feel free to contact the We Print Group team and we’ll help you out.

Once you’re done creating your designs, why not call over to the business cards section on weprintgroup.com for a great product selection. You can even buy online!

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The Five Most Famous Logos in the World

Posted on August 29, 2011 by We Print Group

Whether you’re designing a logo for use on business cards, letterheads, flyers or more, at We Print Group we understand that first impressions count. Our skilled team of graphic designers can guide you through the creation process. However, if you choose to design a logo from scratch yourself why not look to the major successes in the business world with the most recognizable logos around?

Don’t take this task of designing too lightly, because an effective logo can really make a huge difference in the success of your business.

These five major brands have logos that are so powerful that the mere mention of their names will undoubtedly make their logos pop immediately into your mind’s eye. So take a look before sending your design to the online printers, and see what you can learn from their success:

  1. Coca Cola: Although the Coca Cola bottle has changed shape over the years, the distinctive red font with its seductive curls has stayed the same. This famous logo was designed back in 1885 by Frank Mason Robinson, and still captures the refreshing, youthful and sexy style of Coke.
  2. Apple Computers:  The Apple with a bite out of it was created in 1976 by Rob Janoff. It was the first time that a computer firm did not use its name as a corporate identity. You might not have realized, but the Apple logo is intended as a metaphor for the bible story of Adam and Eve with the bitten apple representing the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
  3. Nike:  Although the Nike logo is nothing more than one simple swoosh shape, it is immediately recognizable without ever having to state its name. The design for this elegantly sparse logo was created by Carolyn Davidson in 1971. The name Nike is borrowed from the Greek Goddess of victory, who is a perfect classical reference for a company that sells high performance sports gear. The design of the “swoosh” is meant to represent an abstract version of Nike’s wings.
  4. Mc Donald’s:  The world’s largest chain of fast-food restaurants has become one of the most recognizable brands on the planet, all within a simple letter “M”. The “Golden Arches” have been ingrained in our consciousness so much that whenever we see them they evoke a Pavlovian craving for a Big Mac, large Coke and a packet of greasy fries.
  5. Google:  The internet’s most popular search engine’s logo might seem simple and basic, but the amateur style gives the impression that Google is user friendly and non-threatening. Look closer at the two O’s in the middle, and you could almost imagine them as an “infinity” symbol, evoking the enormous amount of almost infinite information the web has to offer. The Google logo has been known to morph into different “doodles” according to different world wide events, a great way to keep the brand fresh.

These big name famous logos all have a few things in common. One of these is their simplicity. They are able to sum up the entire image of their brand in as little information as possible. This not only makes them simpler to reproduce, it also makes them easier for the customer to remember. Too much information in a logo confuses a customer, but a simple and succinct image sticks in the mind.

Another thing that these incredibly successful logos have is their distinctiveness. They are totally unique, and don’t resemble anything else that is on the market. They cannot be confused with anything else, because they have established their distinct brand.

Next time you are designing a logo before sending your materials to the online printers, think about these major players as well as other famously recognizable logos. What can you learn from them to make your logo more successful? If you need a hand or simply have a question about printing, why not head over to the We Print Group website at weprintgroup.com for more tips and a full range of our products.

 

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How Online Printers Save Businesses Money

Posted on August 28, 2011 by We Print Group

Many businesses are discovering that they can get their essential materials printed for a fraction of what the task used to cost them, thanks to the recent advent of online printing.

Online printers have totally changed the printing industry, and are making printing easier, faster and more affordable than ever before.

Online printers can save businesses money in a lot of different ways. Here are a few examples:

  • Online printers have very low operating costs compared to a traditional printer because they don’t have to pay large overheads for a physical shop front somewhere, they use a website instead. From one location they can serve customers from all over the world and will be able to pass on the savings to their customers in the form of lower prices.
  • Many online printing companies allow businesses to create their design from a template online and simply send it to the printer. This eliminates the need for businesses to purchase design software for creating their printed materials, or pay a designer to create the template for them. This feature saves the business both effort and money.
  • Online printers also save companies money because they save them time. Because a business no longer needs to create a design, visit the printer multiple times to check the samples, and travel across town to pick them up, this means that employees can be spending that time on productive work instead.
  • One online printer can produce everything from letterheads to business cards to brochures to t-shirts. Having all of your printing needs served by one provider means that you save time as well because you don’t have to look around for a different provider for each of these services.
  • If you are ordering a large batch of printed materials, you will save a lot of money. Usually, online printing companies offer lower prices per item for large quantity printing jobs, because once they have the printing plates set up it is just as easy for them to make 500 or 1000. Take advantage of these deals if you need a large amount of items printed.
  • Some online printers will offer other services, which will save you time and money. For example, if you are ordering mailing items an online printer can also stamp them and mail them out for you.

However just because online printers can save businesses money, it doesn’t mean that you should settle for cheap and shoddily produced results. A good online printing company should be able to produce a finished product that looks high quality and professional.

Be sure to choose your online printing company carefully, and when you find a good one that produces work of a high standard you can build an on-going relationship with them and rely on them for all of your future printing needs. Not only will your business be saving money, it will also be represented professionally by the beautiful printed products you order such as business cards, brochures, letterheads, posters, leaflets and more.

At We Print Group we strive to provide high quality, well produced products for you, the customer. Visit us at www.weprintgroup.com and consider us as one of your options, today.

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The Best Online Free Graphic Design Tutorial Resources

Posted on August 27, 2011 by We Print Group

Where to Find Free Online Graphic Design Tutorials

The internet is a great resource for graphic designers. Online, they can find anything from inspiration, education, and community with the simple click of a mouse. With the advent of online printers, they can find a cheap and easily solution for printing their designs. The internet and computers make almost every part of a graphic designer’s job easier.

The world-wide web is also a great resource for graphic designers to improve their skills and learn new techniques. There are several websites that offer free information and tutorials designed to teach beginner graphic designers the tricks of the trade, or help advanced designers perfect their techniques.

These materials are all free online, and offered in easy to understand steps with photos and illustrations to explain the process. It is amazing how much a graphic designer can learn about their trade from these absolutely free materials!

Here are a few of the websites that offer free graphic design tutorials:

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials – http://psd.tutsplus.com/

Photoshop is one of the essential tools of the graphic designer, and this website houses some of the best Photoshop tutorials on the web. Photoshop is one of the most versatile pieces of software that you will use as a graphic designer, and it really allows you to do anything to an image that you can imagine! Here you will be able to learn how to create beautiful graphics and effects with these helpful, friendly and easy to follow tutorials.

Ideabook – http://www.ideabook.com/

This easy to read website contains great how-to guides for designing logos, brochures, direct mail, and all other types of marketing materials as well as presentations and web design. It also includes a blog that will inspire you with its examples of top-quality design.

Creative Pro – http://www.creativepro.com/

Although this site focuses on many different creative pursuits and not just graphic design, it is a fantastic resource. It offers a wide variety of free tutorials for many creative projects. You can learn anything from amazing Photoshop tricks to how to design a custom Twitter background.

Tutorial Man – http://tutorialman.com/

This website is a wonderful resource for free Photoshop tutorials. It has an extensive database which you can search to find what you are looking for, and also has links to other sides with free graphic design courses and online tutorials.

Absolute Cross – http://www.absolutecross.com

This website is a one stop resource for all graphic designers, whether you are a professional or just starting out. It has an abundance of free tutorials, graphics and website templates. The website also offers free downloads and links to other helpful sites.

Whether you are a designer who is brand new to the business, or a professional with many years of experience, you will likely find a tutorial that will teach you something new on these websites. Next time you are designing a project, why not check these online learning resources before you send your design to the online printer, to see if you can pick up any free tips to improve your work?

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