finishing elements. 3.

Thermography -
I can’t say that I really enjoy the thermography theme that many business cards seem to carry. I was relieved to find something slightly more legitimate than a cheap business card as one of my examples. On the other hand, one of my examples is an old auto center business card that I found from Ohio. The design on it isn’t actually terrible, they have wisely kept it fairly simple. And they have also used thermography on tiny little images, which I also kind of like more than on big titles, like the First Tennessee business cards. Ugly. My second example of thermography is my high school diploma. It actually looks pretty professional and formal, and although I can think of ways I’d rather see my diploma, I have hardly ever actually looked at it since I graduated. Enough money is spent on high school graduations anyway, so I think that if thermography was a slightly cheaper option for the school, they rocked it. It works – there is a thin plastic sheet covering the paper, and so through the plastic it looks shimmery as well as holds a texture. It is legible, and looks completely official.

Perforation/Scoring -
My scored example actually also includes a little embossing as well as some shiny red foil stamping, but it contains an obvious score. It looks as if it has actually be cut part way through, which is understandable to me, because if i paper is thick enough, sometimes it just makes sense and makes a process easier. It is a an old Valentines day card from my aunt. It’s scored in two places, the center fold, and another fold that flips around to form a kind of pocket on the inside of the card. The folds stay in place much better than if they were just bent and folded. I also have an example of perforation in good use. It is kind of a business card/advertisement for an amazing coffee shop in Prague, called Ebel. It looks like a regularly sized business card, but on the bottom, there is an attached 15% off coupon that is held on by perforation. It’s an ingenious idea. People may not ever remember to use the discount, but they will pick up the card because people are always looking for a bargain. And then whether they use the discount or not, they most likely have the advertisement laying around.

perforation.

scores.

finishing elements. 2.

Emboss/Deboss -
My examples of embossing are a cigarillo box and a match box. The reason that I kept these and picked them up for this project are because they’re overall nice designs, and the embossing just accentuates that. The cigarillo box is a Montecristo box, and the “MONTECRISTO” and the logo are box embossed. They have metallic accents, too, which makes the box seem more “royal”. The entire box is well-designed. The second example that I brought in is a Dunhill matchbox, which I picked up in Germany just because I liked the design. It has a slide out for the matches, the scratchy part on just one side, and a little lift-up flap that has information inside. It has a simple design on the front, and it is embossed.

Foil Stamp -
Once I started looking, I actually found foil stamping to be fairly common on a few things – foreign currency and different types of tickets. So for my foil stamp examples, I have found a 5 pound note, as well as an older public transportation ticket from Prague. The 5 pound note uses foil stamping almost the same way that watermarks are used on American currency (even though British money also has a watermark in the center). It has a hologram in it, sometimes seeming like a “5″, and when moving it, seeming like a possible queen with sun rays shooting from behind her. The metro ticket from Prague uses the foil stamp for legitimacy as well, I think. It is just an eight-sided star in the upper right-hand corner. It is also a hologram, seeming empty at one point, and then “Praha” appears, and when turned in yet another direction, containing the Prague public transport logo.

passport photo folder.

foil stamp on prague metro pass.

finishing elements.

In Process and Materials, we have been visiting different printers around town, and have researched a short list of finishing elements that can be used in order to differentiate design from the majority. These are my findings.

Binding -
The two examples of binding techniques that I have chosen are fairly normal, but work well and look good. My first example is a paper book that someone brought me from China, with a typical looking Asian binding. It is completely visible, and can be seen on the front and back covers. It’s beautiful, and although it would not work for all types of books, it works well for this small type. My other example is a book that I made for a class two years ago, when I was attending university in London. I think that it is an example of something perfect bound (?), which is just a typical type of binding for novels and longer books. I’m glad that I learned how to create this technique, because I hope to use it quite a bit more in the future.

Fold -
It is pretty typical for me to use this small map as one of my fold examples at this point, since everyone is probably tired of seeing it, but I still am consistently impressed with it when I see it. It is a creative way of folding, and fits a lot of information in a relatively small space. We have talked about how innovative it is, and I still have not really seen anything like it. My second example of a creative fold is a small book that I acquired at some point while travelling through a London airport. I love that towards the end of the booklet, the pages transform into a fold-out map.

prague guide.

perfect bound.

interesting coil.

booklet and map.

color picker.

In Professional Practices on Thursday, the group that I am part of – the identity group – was able to help choose colors for our final logo and overall color scheme. We were lucky enough to at least be in on the decision-making process with Casey and Leslie, which was definitely a good experience. I have used and learned a little bit about Pantone colors before, mainly from Tricycle, but this was a pretty short and intense lesson about everything Pantone. Leslie has an amazing full set of Pantone swatch books that we learned how to use and how not to touch, and even though Casey had chosen some of the best color schemes for his logo already, it felt good to be there to agree on the finals.

Pantone swatch books are made to be an exact match to the colors that your final printed (if printed at a legitimate printer) piece will consist of. They mix the colors to the exact number and put a little touch of each in each different Pantone book. There is a few different options that will affect your final outcome, depending on the type of paper you use and what you are using it for. The most commonly used options are the Pantone solid coated and solid uncoated

Set of Pantone swatch books

.

Although this Pantone set wouldn’t be incredibly useful for most of the student project we put out right now – not to mention way to expensive for most of us – it was awesome to have the chance to learn about one more thing that we may not have gained very much information on until getting into the workplace. Thanks Leslie, for risking your swatches in our untrained company.

Times Free Press.

Frank Anthony at Times Free Press

On Thursday, February 26, our class was able to go on a guided tour of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Our tour guide was the infamous Frank Anthony, the VP of Operations at the Times Free Press. It was a priveledge to be informed by someone who is so full of knowledge and knows the newspaper so well.

The most interesting part of the tour was the very beginning, when Mr. Anthony showed us the history of printing, and we were able to see the antique equipment that the Times has in their possession. We were shown steps in years and years of history in just a few minutes, but it is consistenly mind-blowing to me to experience – for just a minute – what creating something like the news has consisted of in the past. Mr. Anthony showed us a Linotype machine and how it worked, and the time that was invested in creating just one or a few lines of type. The Linotype machine was made at the turn of the century and was used until the 1970’s or 1980’s. Unbelievable that in such a long period of time, nothing that worked more quickly than the Linotype machine was created. Compared this to the time we live in now, just a couple decades later, when it is expected that a brand new computer will last only a year or two before it is seen as “out-dated”.

I have also been on a tour of the Basler Zeitung, a newspaper in Basel, Switzerland, and was pleasantly surprised to notice the similarities in the two newspaper processes and the cleanliness of the plants. The people were also all very friendly, and although it seemed like a very high-stress working environment, it all seemed to be under control. I have to admit, it seemed a bit too intense for me, but it would, nonetheless, be an incredible experience for anyone to work in such a fast-paced company.

Thank you, Chattanooga Times Free Press and Frank Anthony, for our very interesting and educational experience.