FLASH REPRODUCTIONS Design & Branding THE ART OF DETAIL by Up

Category: Publications

Advertiser: FLASH REPRODUCTIONS

Product/Service: PRINTING COMPANY

Agency: UP

Date of First Appearance: Aug 24 2009 12:00AM

Entrant Company: UP, Toronto, CANADA

Creative Director: Carey George (Up Inc)

Associate Creative Director: Karen Oikonen (Up Inc)

Writer: Sue Mccluskey (Up Inc)

Photographer: Craig Samuel (Craig Samuel Photography)

Writer: Lisa Devries (Up Inc)

Editor: Craig Konyu (Up Inc)

Production Designer: Ben Harris (Up Inc)

Media placement: Brochure - At Flash's anniversary event, the DesignThinkers conference, by paper reps and b - September 24, 2009 / ongoing

Describe the challenges and key objectives

The biggest challenge was that printing is generally seen as a pure commodity: The job goes to the company that puts ink on paper at the most competitive price. While the client truly offered advantages in the areas of expertise, craft and service, these claims are ubiquitous in their industry. The key objective was to find an innovative way to communicate the promise of 'service', and to assure readers that the specific techniques and equipment are state of the art, in an industry where everyone makes essentially the same claims.

Describe the brief from the client

The client, Flash Reproductions, is a family-run printing company that had grown over 40 years from a small shop to a major competitor for large, publicly owned printing companies. For large corporate accounts, they were very competitive. However, these jobs are high volume with narrow margins. They were particularly interested in increasing their business with the local graphic design community, which would allow them to work on projects that were more challenging, creative and profitable. Our task was to create a non-typical corporate brochure, with a particular goal of appealing to the graphic design community.

Describe how you arrived at the final design

Our solution was to bring these claims to life through the words of loyal customers and the images of dedicated craftspeople. The editorial content consists primarily of customer testimonials. The design acts as a photo-essay, with intimate images foregrounding the skill of the company’s people and the detailed processes, equipment and craft of printing. The photography adds an element of timelessness; this is contrasted with the bold use of solid red pages for text (the colour is Flash’s main identity colour). We designed the book specifically to showcase the FM printing technique, embossing and bindery services of the company.

Give some indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The client has told us that the response has been the best one they’ve ever had for a promotional piece. They have met and quoted for six new, large accounts, directly as a result of this project. They tell us they are being seen as a more serious contender in the eyes of high-profile clients. In the words of the company president: “It’s been amazing, overwhelmingly successful.”