5 reasons why manufacturers provide expert design and prototype services for your packaging and promotional print.

Design is critical to most businesses, they need great branding, iconography, marketing and sales collateral and, critically, product development.

There is a vast array of brilliant agencies out there to help and guide you through the process and make your vision a reality.

However, when it comes to the design of packaging and promotional print, there is a strong and consistent message from the market that this area of design often falls outside of the parameters of what would constitute more traditional 'creative services'.

1) They understand how products are actually made.

Many of us have had the experience of working with a fantastic agency and enjoying every minute. Great ideas, boundless energy and the buzz of creativity as we bring our business to life. Yet .... this can get in the way when it comes to our packaging design. Yes, we all want awesome! We all want innovation, incredible multi-layered graphic impact, delight in customer experience. However, we have to ensure that what is designed can be made and what can be made can be afforded within our budget...

This is the great advantage of engaging and employing an expert manufacturer to join the party at this point. Their skill in the actual process of making something, their understanding of how machinery works to create end product and their ability to marry this to your commercial requirements makes them invaluable to you at this critical juncture. They can make your dreams come true, not just on paper, in actual product.

2) Print! Print! Print!

Just as packaging comes in a myriad of different forms so does print. Flexographic, screen print, lithography ... digital. All have their unique requirements when it comes to achieving what you want. Each needs expert assistance to ensure that the print detail is provided to production in a way that can go straight to machine. Each process tackles the huge complexity of colour in a different way. We know it should be intuitive but so many businesses don't engage with manufacturing when it comes to print. Bring the manufacturers to the table and employ them to work with you to get the results you want. It can avoid a huge amount of disappointment and issues further down the line.

3) Prototyping Services.

One of the key ways to assess our new/amended/updated products and their packaging is through high quality prototyping; the closer we can get a prototype to an actual finished product, the better for our sales and marketing teams. Prototypes also allow us to engage with future suppliers to show exactly what we want and how we want it made. An expert manufacturer with the correct prototyping equipment is well placed to work with you on bringing your vision into being a reality and, furthermore, ensuring that the final product is what you want.

4) Cost Effectiveness.

There is no more finely tuned supply chain than that which supplies the manufacturing sector. Regionalised, nationalised and global procurement expertise has driven efficiency and cost management through the supply chain for several decades. Manufacturers are acutely aware of this and will ensure that cost effectiveness is a key component of the creative and design solution. Expertise in the understanding of substrate, print methodology and manufacturing process being a significant factor as to why we should engage and employ manufacturers for our packaging and promotional print design.

5) Sustainability

As with cost effectiveness, manufacturing has led the way in sustainable sourcing and in using its expertise and innovation to look towards alternatives in designing and creating greener options for packaging. There are a vast array of initiatives already either implemented or underway for cardboard alternatives to plastic product and in reducing the amount of unnecessary packaging used throughout the supply chain. If we want to explore and create more sustainable packaging then it's critical to engage and employ the companies that can guide us through the process and who understand the viability of implementing these alternatives into our own process.

For more information on how manufacturers can work with you for expert design and prototype services for packaging and promotional print, please contact : info@garthwest.com the team will be happy to help you.

In today’s fast-paced digital age, technological advancements continue to reshape various industries, and the printing industry is no exception. Web-to-Print technology has emerged as a game-changer, revolutionizing the way customers interact with print services. This innovative approach offers a plethora of advantages that cater to the convenience and customization needs of modern customers.

• Technology has bought revolutionary changes in the way people shop today. Tech-savvy people prefer to shop from their homes rather than drive to physical stores to place an order for services or products. Even businesses are opting for online solutions which give them the flexibility to place orders from their offices. One such service that people prefer to be available at their fingertips is web-to-print.
• Web-to-print is effectively the use of websites in the print business. It allows people to submit, preview and print their own material online via easy-to-use interfaces on the website.
• The explosive adoption of the Internet and technology by people has enticed printing business owners to leverage the full potential of this medium to increase their revenues. As per reports, the global market for web-to-print software is projected to reach $869 million by the year 2017.
• Web-to-print offers various advantages for print service providers such as enhancing customer relationships, reducing costs, and fast production of marketing materials, just to name a few.

5 Ways Your Customer Can Benefit From Web to Print

Web-to-Print technology offers customers a range of valuable benefits that streamline and enhance their printing experiences

It is Fast

Traditional print workflow, irrespective of the amount of work (250 business cards or 10,000 flyers),is time-consuming, whereas web-to-print workflow requires only a few stages. Thus, the time a customer waits from order submission to final delivery is greatly reduced with web-to-print, making it ideal for tight deadlines. The client is not required to meet face-to-face with the printer either.He is presented with different templates, from which he can choose the one that suits his needs and business goals, fill in the details, and download print proof in an instant. By creating pre-approved print-on-demand pieces, the normal approval process is eliminated, and turnaround times considerably reduced.Moreover, it gives them instant online quotes for different templates. It also automates the estimated cost of printing material by including the cost of elaborate finishing, shipping and other personal requirement by the client, thereby giving the client instant quotes. The delivery of the printed material is likewise automated.

It Offers Printed Products at Competitive Rates

In a traditional printer-customer relationship, the printer is in charge of the printing process in general, but web-to-print technology ensures that the printer takes a back seat and is only in charge of processing the print order and shipping the prints to the customer’s address. The customer is in charge of every other activity. It reduces the in-house cost and thus delivers customer’s orders at very competitive rates. Web-to-print stores allow businesses to allocate marketing collateral without the need for bulk buying, warehouse storage, and other costly overheads, thereby, reducing inventory and administrative costs. By designing and approving a product in advance it also drives down production costs for the order. Self-service orders, thus, save you money.

It is Convenient and Flexible

Digital printing stores present potential customers with an online catalog of products, thereby giving them the facility to order from their homes. A customer can choose the design as per their interest from a wide variety of designs available and easily place the order online specifying the delivery time as per the urgency.If you have setup a new business and are looking for professional business cards, all you have to do is visit one of the online stores, browse through the catalog that is divided into several categories to make it easy for you to locate designs of your interest, place the order online, specify the delivery date and you are done!The greatest benefit of web-to-print is the ease with which documents can be changed and altered, even at the last minute.

Traditionally, this would require another trip to the print house, but with web-to-print, the entire process can be done online. If future revisions are needed, such as an updated business logo, it is easy and very convenient for the end-user. They only have to change the template and place the new order.

A web-to-print store also offers the feature of easily monitoring the progress of one’s order. These storefronts also provide the flexibility to adjust quantity, shipping locations and delivery dates.

Ability to Order and Design from Smartphones

Smartphones and tablets have quickly become the standard form of computing and connecting in the last few years. Web-to-print stores give customers the benefit of designing and ordering marketing materials from their mobile devices.With Internet-enabled mobile devices in their hand, customers can place orders as per their convenience. This facility by web-to-print stores is the biggest advantage for those with busy schedules.With this feature users can:

• Utilize one-click order approval
• Search, shop and ship on-the-go
• View order status and package tracking

It Empowers Customers to Have Customized Designs

With the proliferation of social media and online publishing, styles and trends change faster than ever. Web-to-print stores permit customers to create and edit customized designs as per their requirements.Some stores allow users to design a unique product that can be built with a range of new features added to a standard template. Others offer minor customization options.Some web-to-print stores also allow customers to upload their own designs and include it in business cards, flyers or any other marketing collateral they need for their business, thereby offering personalized experience to their customers.Product customization gives customers the satisfaction of creating, editing and approving their printing projects themselves.

These are just some of the many benefits that customers can experience from web-to-print technology. As technology evolves, there will be perceptible improvements in this technology, thereby offering more advantages to you.