These cards were letterpress printed on 220# arturo with Pantone match and matte metallic gold inks as a 1/1 business card for Phoebe. Phoebe is an excellent graphic designer and designed these cards for her branding collateral as an extension of her already awesome website.

I am a big fan of chevrons lately and am totally digging these wide set ones on the back of Phoebe’s card, how about you?

Edge painted with a custom mix strawberry ink, thanks Phoebe for being so excellent to work with! I loved how these turned out.

celadon | chocolate | buff

pool | plum | slate

almond | papaya | deep coral

]]> http://blog.dingbatpress.com/wedding/im-minted/feed/ 4 http://blog.dingbatpress.com/inspiration/smudge-of-ink-11/ http://blog.dingbatpress.com/inspiration/smudge-of-ink-11/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:58:56 +0000 Adrienne http://blog.dingbatpress.com/?p=4485

Don’t these buttons look absolutely delicious? I mean, they could totally pass for candy – WAIT, they are candy!  Which is why after deliciously drooling over these, I might just have to find some button molds and make “cute as a button” Valentine’s with the kids for their Valentine’s Day class parties. What do you think? Overly ambitious?

Found on: Pinterest

I’m going to pull the main expenses from last week’s post and dive into suggested ways of setting your budget based off of these elements.

Booth Fee This is, for me, the place to start with my budget. Whether you are sharing a booth or going with an 8×10 (first years) or maybe you feel daring and want to splurge on a corner booth or 10×12 – your booth size will help map out the rest of your pricing expenditures. The reason I use this as a gauge is because as your business and product offering grow, so will your booth size. By starting small, you should also be realistic in understanding that you don’t want to go overboard in other areas especially as a first year exhibitor. Put your DIY skills to work so the final bill isn’t sticker shock that you will be paying off in three-years time. In the budget worksheet I’m allotting 35% of my total expenses to my booth fee. The running total this year is roughly $2,600. I’m going with another 8×10′ booth but am upgrading to a corner booth which is a +$400 charge up from last year. This puts my estimated budget at $7,500. While this is an annual expense, it usually is one of the biggest expenses.

Booth Expense Booth walls, lighting and more have been designated 15% – $1125 – the reason this gets less than travel is because a lot of these expenses can either be cut after your first year because of the reusable nature of this Tradeshow expense, but also because you can continue to allot the same amount year after year and “improve on the booth” – like remodeling. Hopefully you can build a base booth and then make tweaks from year to year that will help keep this expense not one of your most expensive ones. This will need to include walls, lighting, electrical, flooring and installation hardware to start with.

Booth Furnishings While this may be the most exciting part of Tradeshow prep, it is also the easiest to break the budget on. Who doesn’t love decorating?! Again, like the booth expense above, this category can be built on year after year. So ultimately it gets a smaller budget – 6% or roughly $450. It should include shelving or product display, and seating. Desks, tables, consoles etc. are optional that you can use if you feel it necessary. This is a good place to rent equipment as well – specifically the big ticket items of you don’t want to spend a fortune shipping it out.

Shipping When shipping you will need to consider a few things – will you need a lift gate on the truck, will you require a forklift, will the pickup be at a residential location, will it be on ground level for easy access (it better be), do you live rural or close to a major city (or in one) so that you have access to a shipping terminal, have you calculated the weight of your booth correctly, and are you shipping one way or round trip? All of these things will add or subtract to your freight quote. Since I am very rural, need a forklift, have a residential pickup, and no close access to a shipping terminal I need to budget more for shipping. I’m putting in 9% or roughly $675 for shipping. Last year’s booth was estimated at $585 one way at 500 lbs. I shipped wood walls, it came out being 715 lbs. and a total of $900ish. For me it is more economical to ship and reuse, and store on site.

Travel Whether you live near or far from convention land there are ways to save on travel if you are smart. For me, I’ve allotted 20% of my budget to travel. I get my flights for free with cardmember miles and just need to pay for food and lodging. 20% = $1500 in my budget which hopefully will cover hotel/apt. and food. If you can stay with friends, more power to you! NYC is not cheap!

Unions The one advantage to being a small booth exhibitor is that you sort of get “forgotten” about – which means you can save here if you have a low-budget booth. I don’t want to get the union police all up in my hair so if you are looking to save in this department then email me and I’ll share some Tradeshow budget secrets with you that I learned last year! On another note, I highly recommend getting a PAR-CAN lamp (mega wattage) for your booth. This has to be done by union workers and is $320 if ordered by the April deadline. On-site ordering will cost you an extra $100 for the light PLUS an hourly installation fee. Don’t skimp out on a Parcan. I was in the low lighting area and still so glad I did it! Budget? 5% = $375.

Promotional Material As stated last week, your “throw-away” promo pieces should be budgeted every year, which includes promo material. I’ve allotted 8% or roughly $600 for this category. It will go fast once you price in postage so this should be an area where you not only showcase your creative genius but also utilize your paper resources to make the most out of the stuff you have on hand. Promo pieces to include in the budget should be direct-mail pre-show promos (and postage), press kits for the media that introduce your business to them, post-show mailers, catalogs, line sheets, giveaways, business cards and product samples.

Signage Even with the advent of home printers and vinyl lettering your business name needs to reflect quality and professionalism. You can either add this to your booth expense budget if you are doing pre-printed or MannyStone foam walls, or take care of this on your end. Just make sure it rocks. Since I had awesome signage made from Oslo Press last year, I’ll be reusing that and allotting less this year (2%) for just the small stuff – vinyl, totaling a budgeted amount of $150.

With all that said, start breaking down your budget and keep track in the attached budget Tradeshow worksheet. Keep it where it is visible so you don’t lose sight of the end goal (which hopefully is to make money)!

But in my opinion, if you want to knock it out of the park, spice up your life with the original recipe. The double whammy of chili peppers with their natural ability to stimulate nerve endings and release endorphins creating a natural high, perfect for Valentine’s Day.

Mayan Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients for crust:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs (or your favorite GF cookie crumbs to convert to gluten free)
3 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Ingredients for filling:

2 pounds (4 8-oz. packages) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
¼ cup heavy cream
4 large eggs, room temperature
¼ cup sour cream
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon allspice
Pinch salt
7 ounces dark semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled (I use Callebaut– If using bittersweet, add ¼ cup more sugar)

Directions for crust:
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Butter a 9 or 10-inch springform pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together the cracker crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Pour in the butter and mix.

Pour the crumbs into the pan and press evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly colored. Cool on a rack while making filling. (Leave the oven set at 325.)

Cut the cream cheese bars into pieces and put into a food processor
with the sugar and cream. Process, scraping down the bowl a few times.

Add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, cinnamon, peppers, allspice and salt and
pulse 3 or 4 times, then scrape down the bowl and pulse again.


Pour in the chocolate and pulse and scrape again until batter is smooth. Using a spatula, scrape batter into cooled crust and rap it on the counter a few times to bring up bubbles.

Wrap the entire cheesecake pan in two layers of heavy-duty foil that come to the top of the pan. Bake in a water-bath that comes half-way up the sides of the pan for 50 minutes. (See photo). The top should be puffed and set, but the center of the cake should still shake a little. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and allow the cheesecake to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 8 hours or for up to 3 days.

To serve: run a knife around the inside of the pan to loosen the crust, then release the spring and remove the ring. Slice and serve with whipped cream, and a hint of lemon zest or with an inverted chocolate chip for a more minimalist statement.

No one must expect perfection, either in the character of the person to be wedded or in the circumstances of wedded life. We are simply men and women after marriage as before; limited, faulty, liable to moods and tempers and depressions, but capable, also, with a little wisdom and patience, of living together in love that may be checkered, but should never be extinguished. Mere passion may die, but impassioned love not always, and calm love never. MAN & WOMAN : CHAPTERS ON HUMAN LIFE, PUBLISHED 1913.

You may remember these that we showed back as a sneak peek in October. And then of course I was slow to getting around to blogging the full set of photos! Fifi is from Australia and a recent grad and contacted us in hopes that 1) we shipped internationally, and 2) We accepted designed files for press.

Lucky for her, we do both and were super excited to print these cards for her. Letterpress printed on 220# Arturo as a 2/1 card, I love the softness of the blushy-pink pantone match paired with the sophisticated black ink/black edge paint.

Sized at 2×3.5″ and printed as an initial set of 250 (our minimum opening order for a set of custom or client submitted files) you can get an estimate for yourself here - we are already booking the press for March and April!

I love the subtlety of a matte metallic ink, it gives a perfect shimmer when caught in the right light but isn’t too blingy. While all things that glitter can be lovely, for an invitation suite, the subtle shimmer paired with a metallic envelope give a great gradation of texture and variation to a piece without having it be too matchy. I don’t even think blingy and matchy are words, my wordpress is wanting to autocorrect me. 

Often when translating metallic color schemes over to letterpress you have to find a matte hue that you can mix with silver or gold ink. The other options is to order a coated metallic custom pantone can of ink, and accept that on an uncoated, highly absorbent cotton paper, you will loose most of the high-gloss.

Moving on, all of the colors in this palette would be stunning mixed with a little silver to make a rainbow of golds and bronzes for a wedding suite. Thanks Helga for the wonderful inspiration photo! Photo Credit: Curved by Hkvam originally found on Flickr.

There is no easy way around a tradeshow and the best protection you can have is to prepare with a budget for the show. Otherwise, before you know it you’ll be throwing money left and right at anything and everything.

In breaking down a tradeshow you have your major purchases, supporting purchases and minor purchases. The show you are exhibiting at will determine your focus and spending power for each area. By setting aside a total dollar amount and then breaking it down by importance and percentage you will be more confident in sticking to your budget and not feeling overwhelmed at the large amount of cash you are going to throw down. This post is going to outline a budget for attending the show. New product develemt and cost will be broken down in a second post that is more related with your business plan and marketing for the show.

Starting off with the big ticket items for NSS:
Booth Fee This is at the top of my list because while it might not be the most expensive thing on the list, it is the first thing you pay for, and you must pay via cash/check – no credit cards for this one. For a small business I find this important to note because cash on hand is more variable and you don’t want to be caught ready to launch new product and no booth space to show it at!

Booth Expense Your NSS booth fee pretty much covers your “land” on the tradeshow floor. Think of it like this: you buy the land then build the house. Your booth fee is “buying the land” and your booth expense is “building the house”. Everything budgeted in your booth expense will be the house building portion of your budget. Including but not limited to: walls, hardware, electrical, flooring and aesthetic.

Booth Furnishings Your booth, once the house is built, now needs to be filled. No one will walk into an empty booth. Have you ever toured a home show and thought “Wow, everything is so perfect!” that is because the homes are shown fully furnished. It makes them more buyable and more welcoming. Having a place to seat your buyers (even though they most likely won’t sit) is enticing to sore tradeshow feet. Don’t underestimate the power of a welcoming interior.

Shipping When building your booth consider transportation. Even if you store onsite from year to year you have to get it out there in the first place. You will be hating life if you don’t work that into the process. After all, a 130 lb. average woman is going to have a hard time hanging sheet metal by herself with chicken arms. Consider booth construction in your shipping. More compact shipments are cheaper to ship. Lighter weighted walls make for a less expensive freight quote. Broken backs cost money too. 

Travel Whether you live next to the convention center or on the opposite side of the country you will want to make sure that you have budgeted in gas/flights, hotel and food – eating out for every meal can get expensive!

Unions Like it or not, most tradeshows use them. It helps with liability and trying to coordinate and schedule a couple thousand booths in one convention center. I include this in the budget because depending on your contract, you will be most likely required to hire the union for some of your setup. NSS specific rules include no standing on chairs, hanging lighting in the amount of 7+ lights, electrical, hanging hard walls (most people can get around this) and anything that requires the use of power tools. If you want catered food, you are supposed to hire the union. If you wand special foam walls you are encouraged to hire the union. Be aware of Freeman’s cost (NSS’ official contracted labor union) when you start planning so you can be aware of the costs associated with it when deciding what to hire out.

Promotional Material While your product should be budgeted with your business plan, all your promo pieces pertaining to promoting your business at the show should be included in this budget. Chances are that you won’t get the exact same booth number year after year so this will be a “throw-away” expense that should be budgeted each time you do a tradeshow. Promo pieces to include in the budget should be direct-mail pre-show promos (and postage), press kits for the media that introduce your business to them, post-show mailers, catalogs, line sheets, giveaways, business cards and product samples.

Signage Even though this is at the bottom of the list, it gets it’s own mention because without great signage and a visable booth number, all that hard work promoting your business pre-show will have been fruitless. Don’t overlook the most important element of your booth – your business name should be front and center as well as easily recognizable.

With all that said, start thinking about these big ticket items first and then come back next week for the breakdown with a budget worksheet to help you get started!

]]> http://blog.dingbatpress.com/business/tradeshow-tuesday-1/feed/ 3 http://blog.dingbatpress.com/business/introducing-tradeshow-tuesday/ http://blog.dingbatpress.com/business/introducing-tradeshow-tuesday/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:44:27 +0000 Adrienne http://blog.dingbatpress.com/?p=4538 Hi guys and dolls! I am super excited to be unrolling Tradeshow Tuesday that will cover anything and everything you ever wanted to learn about exhibiting at a national tradeshow.

National Starionery Show was on the top of my lists since starting Dingbat Press back in 2006. I knew if I wanted to make something out of my love for stationery then this was the place I needed to be. The thing about tradeshows? Until you do one, not only are you most likely terrified about the investment but more so by the aftermath. Will I make an ROI (return on investment)? Will my product be well received? Will I land accounts? Will I bankrupt my business?

All of these questions are just the tipping point to making and jumping off the Tradeshow Cliff – in a free fall – with no parachute.

Now granted my experience thus far is one show, and it is all things stationery so this is more of a continuation on what I’ve learned through out the process as well as more info that shares what was successful for my first year and where improvements could be made. If you have a topic you want me to cover then let me know in the comments and I’ll make sure I address it in the following weeks! So without further rambling I’m kicking off our first topic, Budget. Enjoy!

The idea of celebrating Valentine’s Day by baking something wonderful for those you love, is an idea that is as old as the celebration itself and sometimes it isn’t worth reinventing the wheel when professing love. Thus, a return to baking a favorite creates a two-fold pleasure: the ease of the tried and true, and a gentle nudge to memories past.

C H O C O L A T E shortbread heart cookies
by Martha Moench

2 Sticks (1/2 lb.) unsalted butter
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon hazelnut extract (or vanilla or almond)
2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/4 cup almond flour (a regular staple in Adrienne’s GF kitchen)
1 teaspoon salt 

In a standard kitchen mixer cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in hazelnut extract (or vanilla or almond).

In another small bowl sift together your favorite cocoa powder
(I LOVE the Dutch Process cocoa), white flour, almond flour and salt
………………………..
Slowly beat in flour to butter mixture. 

Dough will be a lovely rich, dark color and SOFT. Divide the dough in half and shape into disks about 1″ thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes.
………………………
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Remove dough from fridge and working one disk at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8″ thick. Stamp out cookies and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for about 13-15 minutes or until firm. Let cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes and then transfer to a metal cooling sheet until fully cooled. Continue to roll and cut out batches (cooling the scraps between batches) until you are all finished!

When cooled, frost with a strawberry glaze or chocolate ganache and serve with coffee or hot cocoa. 

 The mere suggestion of chocolate, which increases the amount of serotonin in the body and is full of anti-oxidants, begins the feel good process. Add to that Amy Winehouse on the stereo singing “Our day will come and we’ll have everything…. We’ll share the joy…falling in love can bring…”with its subtle reggae beat, and you’ve arrived.

The other Martha is my mom, she is not only my biggest cheerleader (with my Dad of course) but she is the one that lovingly passed on the creative gene along with all its OCD traits. Join us Mondays for a delicious kickstart to your week as we share our favorite recipes from home.

This photo on Flickr made my morning and so I thought I’d share a smudge of ink with you today, because next week is going to be awesome! Martha (my mama) is coming back to blog on Monday’s about all things delicious, followed by the launch of Tradeshow Tuesday. Have a fabulous weekend, I know I will once this cold is kicked!

Having said that, there are a few things I’ve realized with this NSS shipping and rural living. It is NOT cheap to ship from a rural location. The farther you are from a main freight terminal, to more that adds to your cost.

Jay was also kind enough to break down my invoice for me, as I think I didn’t fully understand how the quote worked out in the end. So no one makes the same mistake as I do (and end up with a much larger bill than expected) I’m going to share a piece of Jay’s email with you so you can understand the billing process for freight shipping too.

For an estimated 500 lbs, we quoted you $588.98, plus 14% fuel ($82.46), totaling $671.44, which was $1.34 per pound.  All of that price included the liftgate we needed at your pick-up location and the additional insurance you took out valued at $6,000.  Again, that rate was based upon your estimate of 500 lbs (plus liftgate and insurance).  After your material was reweighed (we do have an official weight certificate for your material) it came out to be 715 lbs.  Had we taken your originally quoted per pound rate, your final price would have come out to be $960.16. 

From that, I just want to stress that whoever you ship with for your freight needs, understand that every pound counts. So does distance and size of freight. Thanks Jay for giving me the opportunity to correct my errors and learn more about the shipping break-down.

Above and below are two pre-press proofs that we pulled for Lindsey so she could compare the color of the gradient, the value of the line screen clouds (which were hard to photograph but looked awesome in person) as well as the value of the silver. Above we have a more peachy hue, and below more pink with a lighter silver.

Upon sending images over to the client for final sign off we hit the presses and shipped these babies out!

Another letterpress technique to note is the reverse typography in Elliott’s flood. When reversing type out it shows a much better reverse impression is the image area to be knocked out is larger or more marginal. While there is a dominant and subordinate print side to all double-sided cards, you can still feel the impression because this typography is not too small.

We’ve also noticed that with the use of the alpha-cellulose composition of the Arturo paper, it gets a MUCH better flood coverage than the lettra. I’m not sure the exact scientific reasoning behind this but I imagine it has something to do with the porous nature of the cotton lettra vs. the arturo and the fiber content of the lettra. From what I believe, the lettra has more “glue” making it not as responsive to rubberbase inks, thus the transparency and “salty” look are more prominent in comparison to the same flood on an Arturo paper.

With that all taken into consideration, we still love printing on both the lettra as well as the Arturo but depending on the paper selection, you can come out with variables no matter how the process is tackled.