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Eight More Votes for Print (or against email)

design trends

During a recent focus group that art270 coordinated to gather information about branding and recognition for a local, just-accredited University, the discussion moved to how the attendees receive and respond to various means of communication. There were eight focus group participants, all of them teachers or in the education field. During our talk it started to become clear that these education professionals (and I'm assuming many of their colleagues as well) prefer to get information about programs and events (in this case continuing education class offerings and seminars) as physical pieces of traditional mail in their workplace mailboxes — printed flyers, brochures, catalogs, postcards and letters. Each person in the room agreed that they were overwhelmed by electronic communications (especially email) and tended to ignore or delete most of what flowed into their inboxes without ever opening it. If they didn't recognize the sender then it was very likely they would never look at the message. With printed communications they said they were very likely to at least scan the content then choose to save it for later reading or discard it. The key point here is that they had to, at the very least, look at the brochure or flyer before they could make a decision whether it was of interest.

For the past year I've been writing about the value of balancing your communications efforts between electronic and print media. Because of cheaper costs and the ease of execution we've been too quick to abandon proven methods of reaching our audiences through print, yet we wonder why our business growth has slowed to a snail's pace. I know many of you are reading headlines that say "print is dead," but for these eight, well-educated people that ranged in age from their mid-twenties to early sixties, print is very much an important part of their lives.

Travel without ever leaving your seat

design trends

Have you ever wanted to take a trip to a faraway landmark, maybe the Eiffel Tower in France or the Court of Great Harmony in the Forbidden City in China, but weren't sure you could swing it? Well now you can visit locations throughout the world and not actually leave your seat. These are panophotographies – immersive and interactive panoramic images. Choose your destination, then click your mouse and move it around in 360°+ to make it seem like you are standing in that actual location. Look up, look down and spin all around. Amazing...

Power and Print

design trends

Let's try an experiment. For one day, try to do without electronic devices of any kind. No phones, no television, no radio, no MP3 and no computer. Keep your lights on and microwave your dinner, but no e-communications. So, what are you going to do with yourself (after you go through withdrawal that is....shaking and twitching, too restless to sit still, more alert than you've felt in...well forever)?

My guess is that you're going to do one of two things. You'll either find something to do with your hands—gardening, cooking, or tinkering in the garage, or you'll plop down on the couch with something to read, and you're really going to enjoy it.

What are you going to read? We'd suggest something from our extensive library. For twenty-five years art270 has been tasked with developing quality printed communications for great clients. Books, magazines, newsletters, brochures and ephemera of all kinds. And for twenty-five years people have been grabbing those sources of information and entertainment to take on that plane ride, read on the train or carry to the beach. We can design great websites and e-communications to fit any need but don't be so quick to discount the power of print. E-news is here and gone in an instant. Print has shelf life and it keeps on working …unlike that computer that just went dead in a windstorm.