Since we take on client work less every year we have to use our own projects to fulfill the need of creating stuff. Our Brand New Conference, that took place on November 5 in New York, was the perfect opportunity to generate a number of stuffs. We are not ones to let the tail wag the dog but, in this case, the website for the conference dictated most of the look of the printed projects and we basically translated RGB colors to CMYK and PMS colors to get things done. Here is some insight into producing some of the items.
But before that: We have leftovers from the conference and figured someone out there might be interested in acquiring this ephemera so we are making available a package that consists of the items featured here (tote, t-shirt, sketchbook, and program) for $25. The price includes shipping within the U.S. (Priority), to Canada, and Mexico; a $5 shipping charge applies to the rest of the world.
Tote
Once we selected a vendor as there are too many, we went through three rounds of having them ship sample bags to find the right size and color. We never thought it would be so hard to choose a tote, but it is. Ironically, once we chose the perfect size and color, they told us they were out of stock after we had sent files for production. We ended up with the color we wanted but with a much bigger bag. We had originally intended to do all of our materials in two spot colors and have those colors overprint at different tint percentages so that when they overlap they create a third color. But in order to print on the heavily textured tote, the silkscreening has to be done with very opaque ink, so it's impossible to do halftones. We
went with just a single color.
T-shirt
The overprinting wasn't possible on the t-shirt either, especially not on a colored stock. So we switched to a single color execution too. Instead of the typical American Apparel product we chose Gildan SoftStyle, which is half the price and is actually really really nice.
Sketchbook
Here we were able to finally pull off the overprinting as it's the more typical offset printing. Should have probably given it a hit of white underneath to make it pop more but, in the end, we really like the earthy feel. The sketchbooks are the basic offering from Scout Books and you can see some additional pictures of it on their blog.
Program
Since Neenah was one of our sponsors we had access to a great library of paper selections and we wanted to print on something we hadn't before. For the cover we chose Neenah Esse, which comes in a delicious 'Arancio' (orange) color and a rough textured finish. We hit that paper with a purple metallic. Everyone knows that metallics work best on white coated paper, so we knew it was a stretch to think we would get any kind of shimmer and, in essence, there isn't any, but if the sun hits the program just so it has a tiny bit of that metallic shine. We are white-paper-kind-of-folks when it comes to printing design work, but we opted for an Ivory-hued stock that eats up some of the color of the images but, in return, it gives the images a lovely homegrown, vintage look. The body stock is made with 100% post-consumer waste, so that made us feel good. We would have liked to make the program perfect-bound but we ran out of time to be able to have the printed sheets go out to bindery and back. Unlike most conference programs that go in-depth about speaker bios and sessions we wanted it to be more of a catalog and feature the speakers' current work.
All the items are purposely designed without big, bold 'BRAND NEW CONFERENCE' branding and instead have the more vague inclusion of the words Brand New so that the tote and t-shirt can be used a little more loosely and so that we don't use people as walking billboards.
Project Overview
DESCRIPTION
Brand New Conference Materials
CLIENT
Self-promotion
DATE
July – November 2010
DESIGN CREDITS
UnderConsideration LLC
PRINT CREDITS
Tote: Custom Earth Promos
T-shirt: Standard Deluxe
Sketchbook: Scout Books
Program: Enterprise Press
TYPE CREDITS
Klimax by Ondrej Jób
Mercury by Hoefler & Frere-Jones
AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE
$25
(Free shipping to U.S., Canada, and Mexico; $5 to rest of the world)
Look for Buy button below
Production Details
QUANTITY PRODUCED
Tote: 650
T-shirt: 660
Sketchbook: 750
Program: 750
PRODUCTION COST
Tote: $1,056
T-shirt: $2,680 (sponsor price)
Sketchbook: $236 (sponsor price)
Program: $1,931.02 (cost of paper, printing fully donated)
PRODUCTION TIME
3 Weeks Average on all Items
DIMENSIONS: WIDTH × HEIGHT × DEPTH
Tote: 16 in × 12 in × 6 in
T-shirt: S – XL (8-in-wide imprint area)
Sketchbook: 3.5 in × 5 in
Program: 5 in × 7 in
PAGE COUNT
Sketchbook: 32 Pages + Cover
Program: 36 Pages + Cover
PRINT METHOD
Tote: Silkscreen
T-shirt: Silkscreen
Sketchbook: Offset
Program: Offset
PAPER STOCK
T-shirt: Gildan SoftStyle, Orange
Sketchbook
Cover: Chipboard
Interior: Basic uncoated text
Program
Cover: Neenah Esse, Arancio, Texture, 80 lb Cover
Interior: Neenah Environment, Quest Ivory, Vellum, 80 lb Text
NUMBER OF COLORS
Tote: 1 Spot
T-shirt: 1 Spot
Sketchbook: 2 Spot (Cover only)
Program
Cover: 1 Spot
Interior: CMYK
BINDING
Sketchbook and Program: Saddle-stitched
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