Grant Printing's e-mail newsletter, Printer@Work, is delivered directly to your inbox. Each issue is filled with tips, ideas, and a few laughs too. We think you'll love it!

Don't miss another issue...subscribe now! Enter your information below to subscribe to Printer@Work, or update your existing subscription.

Subscription information:

First Name
Last Name
Company
E-mail Address
Send graphic-formatted e-mail, as shown below
Send plain-text e-mail
Your e-mail address is safe and secure with us. We will treat it with respect and won’t release your e-mail address to any other parties.

Please take a few moments to enjoy the most recent issue of Printer@Work below before you
Return to grantprintinginc.com.

Grant Printing September 03, 2010


A delightfully absurd take on everything from superheroes to office humor, twisted relationships, huggable animals, and more.
Click to view...


An adroit mixture of everyday settings and extraordinary events.
Click to view...


The world of business and finance gets skewered, as Bottom Liners tackles subjects such as foreign takeovers, office policies, getting a raise, and the fast-paced world of Wall Street.
Click to view...


A wry look at the absurdities of every day life.
Click to view...


In today's complex world of family issues, learn from Dr. Dobson's lifetime of practical experience in dealing with family problems.
Click to view...







News From
Jim & Diane Grant
Idea of
the Week
Marketing
Tips
Tech Tips
Uncommon Product
of the Week





The connection between creativity and commerce.


A “Brand” New Start


Sunny Skies Ahead... Thanks to Photoshop!


Just the Fax, Ma’am
A Message From Jim & Diane Grant
The Way We See It

Even Visionaries Don’t Always See Everything Clearly

No one will argue that Orville and Wilbur Wright weren’t visionaries. After all, they were the first to fly. But even they didn’t get everything right. In his later years, Wilbur Wright once said, “I confess that in 1901, I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years.” Orville, too, made a flawed prediction years later, when he said, “No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris.”

Being a visionary is no guarantee that you’ll get every prediction right. After all, no one knows the future and the changes it has in store.

Here’s the way we see it: Even though you may not know what the future holds for your company, one thing you can be sure of is the reliability of our printing firm in meeting your deadlines and providing extraordinary results. From the day we opened, we’ve remained committed to our customers’ needs, and we will continue to strive to meet those needs whatever the future brings.


Jim & Diane Grant
Idea of the Week
What Is a Creative Solution?

The Creative Process
Graphic design brings together two different things: artistic creation and the practical world of commerce. Put simply, it is intelligence made visual. A designer is a creative artist who deals with the realities of planning, from assessing client needs and crafting a solution to selecting appropriate materials (papers, inks, glues, and varnishes), maintaining strict budgets, and understanding visual communication.

Creative Solutions
A designer must make connections in the mind between creativity and process in order to successfully communicate a message to an audience and answer a client’s needs.

What Is a Creative Solution?
At its core, a creative solution solves a client’s problem through the design medium/language. It is...
  • appropriate for the client’s product, spirit, and objectives.
  • communicated clearly.
  • functional. A package has to open. A pictogram has to identify. A map has to direct.
  • impactful.
  • memorable.
  • original.
  • fresh, stimulating, exciting, and stunning.
  • executed appropriately and well.


See more great ideas like this!
Click here to visit the Grant Printing Ideas Collection.

   Send this article to a friend
Marketing Tips
Building a Better Brand

In today’s marketplace, brand awareness and brand building are important keys to success for many companies. But how do you define a brand? Your brand is more than just your company logo. It’s a reflection of how people view your company and the products you create. As you work to improve your brand, here are some thoughts to keep in mind:

Plan ahead. Begin your branding efforts by defining the objectives you hope to achieve. Then determine the steps it will take to get you there.

Think value. In its early advertising, FedEx used the tagline, “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” The phrase was catchy, but more important, it created a perceived value about FedEx, based on reliability and speed that has carried over into everything the company has done since.

Deliver on your promises. By itself, FedEx’s marketing claim would have meant nothing if the company had missed deadlines and delivered its packages in an unreliable manner. To build a successful brand, you must put your money where your mouth is and deliver on your promises.

Give it time. Don’t expect too much too soon from your brand-building efforts. No brand was ever built overnight. Like most things in life, successful brand building takes time, patience, and persistence, so don’t give up too quickly.

   Send this article to a friend
Tech Tips
Adding Light (and Life) to a Photograph

You’ve found the perfect photo for an upcoming project. Well, the almost perfect photo. Unfortunately, the lighting is less than ideal. Dark conditions have robbed the image of some of its vivacity. Photoshop can help. Here are the steps you can take to add more life (and color) to a less-than-perfect photo:
  1. Open the photo in Adobe Photoshop and go to the layers palette.

  2. Click on the Adjustment Layer icon (the black-and-white circle at the bottom of the layers palette) and choose Hue/Saturation from the popup menu that appears.

  3. Adjust the saturation level by sliding the toolbar to the right. A setting of 25 or 30 should do nicely.

  4. Hit OK.

  5. Click on the Adjustment Layer icon again, but this time choose Brightness/Contrast from the popup menu.

  6. Adjust the contrast level, again by sliding the toolbar to the right. A setting of 10 or so should do.

  7. Hit OK, and your image should now look brighter, without losing any clarity.


   Send this article to a friend
Uncommon Product
Fax-Friendly Letterhead

Your company letterhead is an important component of your corporate identity. As such, it needs to look good in every medium. If your letterhead is printed on darker stock or contains multiple ink colors (especially lighter tones), consider having an inexpensive, black-and-white version created specifically for fax transmissions.

A fax-friendly letterhead will help ensure your faxed correspondence come through looking clean and sharp. To achieve this goal, have the letterhead printed on white bond paper (20#) with standard black ink. Eliminate any background images or watermarks, and keep a supply handy for use when the need arises.

   Send this article to a friend