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GSM Blog - read more about print on paper.

  2. GSM Blog – read more about print on paper. (Page 2)

2024 Student Design Contest – Visions of the Future

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2024 student design contest Visions of the Future

Once again, the BJ Ball/Ball & Doggett Student Design Contest for 2024 was a great success and the resulting calendar showcases some of our fantastic emerging talent. The contest theme for 2024 was Visions of the Future—an expression of the future through type and colour. Students were tasked with creating a short saying about how the world may change for the better, and then to create a visual expression of this using type, colour, graphics and/or photography. Students were also required to match their design to a BJ Ball/Ball & Doggett paper stock from a provided swatch of samples. Judging...

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Label Printing

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Label printing

In this Education article, GSM takes a close look at label printing. And, cover how to get the most from your project... There are four main areas of consideration when it comes to label printing. The label stock, the adhesive, the print method, and the print specials & embellishments. Let’s look at each in turn: Label Stocks At a commercial level, most labelling stocks are supplied to label companies as bulk rolls. There are three main processes for label printing. Flexography, offset lithography (referred to in the print industry as ‘conventional’ methods) and digital printing (see print methods). At the...

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‘Find my Flavour’ Wausau Label Promotion

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find my flavour

In 2024, Ball & Doggett collaborated with a group of specialists to produce 'Find My Flavour' - a special promotion showcasing Wausau Coated Labels. The results were simply breathtaking. Find My Flavour Promotion ’Find My Flavour’ was conceived to promote Wausau Coated labels. Wausau is a range of premium tactile stocks specifically produced for high-end bespoke alcohol and beverage brands, available from Ball & Doggett and BJ Ball. The aim of the promotion was to show fantastic creative design, combined with high-quality print, matched to bespoke bottles and closures (caps & corks). Involved in the project were: Melbourne-based specialists in...

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Mr Logo – Ian Kidd

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GSM23 Mr Logo

Dubbed ‘Mr Logo’, Australian Ian Kidd (1941—2022) was one of an early batch of home-grown designers to venture yonder. He returned brimming with ideas and seeing the potential for our industry downunder. Ian Kidd began his professional career in the late 50s. He started with a stint within the in-house advertising team at the Adelaide branch of department store giant, Myer. And, proving that designers not proofreading their work is not a new phenomenon—his first advertisement for the Myer Food Hall included the headline, ‘2 pounds of mice’ instead of ‘mince’. Ian soon attracted the interest of the Clem Taylor...

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Paper Sustainability – Environmental Certifications

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reforestation sustainable

Sustainability and looking after the environment are important considerations when selecting a paper grade for your print project. The environmental credibility of paper is expressed through a series of Credentials covering various aspects of paper manufacturing, such as where the raw material originates from, how these materials have been grown and harvested, the manufacturing process itself, and the general impact of papermaking on the environment. Environmental Certifications can be split into different levels of accreditation as follows: Chain-of-Custody Certifications Mill-level Certifications Product-level Certifications Chain-Of-Custody Certifications Chain of Custody Certifications are applied to paper from end-to-end―meaning; from origin to printing press....

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Paper: The Suitability of the Stock for your Print Project

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BJ Ball Swatch Books

Paper is to print, what canvas is to painting—you cannot have one without the other. As a designer, it is important to know that your choices around paper will impact the final output. The suitability of the stock when selecting paper for your print project includes a number of considerations. Let’s take a look: Types of Paper Paper, how it looks and feels, is going to have a big impact on the final printed result. And as such—should be an important design consideration early on in any project. Paper can be classified into six basic categories as follows: Uncoated Papers:...

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Artwork: Photographic Images

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photographic images

The use of photographic images in artwork creates a few important considerations that should always be checked. GSM investigates; Correct Colour Mode Photographic images should always be set to the correct Colour Mode—CMYK. RGB images used in CMYK-based printing can potentially create problems (including unexpected colour results). The best professional practice is to open any RGB images in an editing app (such as Adobe Photoshop) and change the Colour Mode—go to: Image > Mode > CMYK Colour. Image Resolution Image resolution, as measured in Pixels Per Inch (PPI), is critical to ensuring photos print correctly. If the resolution is too...

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Artwork: Colour

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CMY colour wheel

Colour is one of the areas that causes the most problems in print. Here are some things to be mindful of: Using The Correct Colour Model Regardless of the intended print process—artwork for print should always use the CMYK colour space—not RGB. This means: Artwork source files (e.g. Adobe Illustrator or InDesign) should be set up using the CMYK (Print) Colour Mode. All linked photographic images should also be converted from RGB to CMYK mode, resaved and relinked into your artwork. When you are adding colours into your artwork, make sure these are CMYK based colours. The only exception to this is...

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Artwork – Document Set-up

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Artworking (sometimes called mac’ing) is the process of taking a final design, and turning this into output ready artwork. Document set-up should be the final step before a file is dispatched to a printery. Being a competent artworker not only helps avoid potentially time consuming or costly mistakes. But also enables maximum benefit from print as you simply understand the medium better. Let’s look at some technical considerations to help you navigate this: Document Set-up Correct document set up is the first component for creating good artwork. For this topic, we will be using the below example project. This is...

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Beyond Print – Binding

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binding

Commercially printed multi-page documents can be bound in several ways. But by far, the most common are soft-cover Saddle-Stitching, squared spine Binding and hardback Case-binding. GSM takes a look... Saddle-Stitching (Soft-Cover) Saddle-stitching is the most common form of ‘soft-cover’ commercial binding. This process uses two or more staples inserted along the spine to hold the document together. Saddle-stitching is a machine process with little manual input, apart from the initial collating of the printed sheets, making this the most costeffective way to bind multi-page documents. As mentioned in our article "Folding" some digital print systems have saddle-stitching capabilities running off the...

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