Ideas For Designing Your Company Annual Report

The company annual report design process is subject to a number of strategic, conceptual, annual, temporal, and regulatory constraints. The success and acceptability often lies in the designer’s ability to feed all channels of information into a suitable aesthetically pleasing graphic masterpiece. Having the fortitude to connect all phases of the project in the appropriate areas of design is what separates the ordinary from the extraordinaire.

Artistic Design

A professional graphic designer will also carry the knowledge of what is attainable in print and litho. This is a critical part of annual report design…not going outside of the realm of what can be illustrated from design to production. Designers should be allowed to think and process there own thoughts first, then a wiser person who knows a-thousand-and-one things not to do may be called upon if needed. Usually that is the team leader that is called upon. In the production planning stage, the printer assumes a significant role.

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A few years ago, it was uncommon for people to have email signatures in their business branding strategies. Making sure that you have a simple email signature when you are starting your business or trying to expand can help your cause. In the next few posts I am going to offer tips on using your email signature to draw more attention to your business.

Most people know a little something about email since it is the most popular form of business communication. Few people know about using your email to brand yourself in depth. If you think you may be interested in a simple branding method for your business, here are some basic ideas on emailing and email signatures that you need to know.

What is an Email Signature?

Your email signature (sig block) appears on the bottom (footer) of your emails that you send out. It can include raw text, html with images, banners, rss feeds and style sheets. It usually includes important contact information in plain or html text. With minor coding knowledge your signature can also include images, RSS feeds, and even advertising.

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How I Scaled The Printing Industry

Having been in the print and litho business for 29 years I have had the joy of witnessing the revolution of digital evolution.

I have climbed the ropes in this industry

In 1978 I started as a clean-up man which involved sweeping floors, tables, toilets, sinks, you name it I kept it clean. At the same time I found myself obsessed with the entire printing process. I loved to interact with graphic designers, pre-press experts and pressmen. My interest was quickly noticed by management and I was offer a job as a guillotine cutter in the finishing department. This is a process where I would prepare paper, pre-press by back trimming stock if required or cut finished press sheets after they were printed. This was a great opportunity for me and I gladly accepted. I won’t bore you with all the details but over the next decade here are the positions that I became accomplished in:

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Glossary of Offset Printing and Finishing Terms

A gift for my printing friends. Below I have prepared a list of the commonly used printing terms in commercial printing.

	ACCORDION FOLD Having folds like the bellows of an accordion, created by the paper being folded two or more times in a parallel direction.
	BACKING UP Printing the opposite side of a sheet, after the first has already been printed.
	BARREL FOLD When paper is folded two or more times in the same direction (sometimes called a wrap-around fold).
	BASIS WEIGHT The weight of a ream of paper (500 sheets) based on a standard size for each type of paper, which is: Book paper”25 x 38″, Cover”20 x 26″, Bristol”22 1/2 X 28 1/2″ or 221/2 x 35″, Index ” 25 1/2 x 30 1/2″, Business paper (including bond, ledger, mimeograph, duplicator and manifold) “17 x 22″, and Tag”24 x 36″. One ream of 25 x 38″, 80 lb. book paper will weigh 80 lbs. (Based on US paper Mills. In Eurpope a far better system is used…grms/ square centimeter)
	BLEED When the printed image extends to the trim edge of a sheet or page.

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The Paper Paper Making Process

The paper making process starts with logs that are debarked. Once they have had the tree bark thoroughly removed they are turned into wood chips and then placed in digesters. The best way to describe a digester is like a huge pressure cooker. This cooking process separates cellulose fiber (number 1 paper-making ingredient) from the gums, resins and other impure materials that bind them together. These impurities are then disposed of, the cellulose is filtered out, and chemical wood pulp is created to be used for paper-making.

Many stages of bleaching are next, which is done to create whiter the pulp. Typically ultra-bright white papers are sold at premium prices. This is why paper mills strive for whiteness through bleaching. Constant quality checks are mandatory along the way to insure maximum brightness without damage to fiber strength. Over-bleaching can weaken paper in much the same way that it can ruin clothing.

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What Makes Us See Colors Differently

An Explanation of Color

Color is light. Light is a form of energy and, according to theory, travels in waves. Light waves emanate from a source such as the sun, a light bulb, a white candle, etc. In any of these sources of light, there are many different wavelengths. Wavelength is measured from crest to crest in nanometers (billionths of a meter) or in mill microns (millionths of a millimeter). The visible spectrum range is usually considered to be between 380 mill microns and 770 mill microns and is part of the much larger electromagnetic spectrum.

In the seventeenth century, Sir Isaac Newton established that a beam of “colorless” light passing through a prism is refracted or bent into separate bands of colors. (Figure 1)

These are called the colors of the visible spectrum. Each color has its own wavelength. When all the wavelengths are combined in suitable proportions, they produce “white” light. All individual and combinations of colors are inherent in white light. We occasionally see this spectrum in nature in the form of a rainbow. (more…)

Light Transmission and Reflection

What is Color and How it is Seen?

Light waves reach our eyes in a number of ways: directly (when we stare into the sun or a light bulb), or indirectly (when light waves pass through a transparent object held between the source of light and our eyes (called transmission) or when light bounces from an object to our eyes (called reflection).

The red of an apple is an illustration of color perceived by light reflection. Why do we see it as red? The apple absorbs all wavelengths but red, which is reflected from the surface of the apple to the eye. The receptor susceptible to stimulation by this particular wavelength sends a signal to the brain. The brain upon receiving the signal says- “red”. (Figure 3)

In other words, an opaque substance like an apple appears to be a particular color because it reflects the wavelengths corresponding to that color and absorbs those that don’t. If it reflected all wavelengths without any one wavelength dominating the other, the substance would be perceived as white.

The principle remains the same for a transparent substance, such as colored glass or film. The transparent substance absorbs some wavelengths and transmits others. The transparent object such as the green bottle is seen as green by the same principle that the apple is seen as red. All wave lengths but green are absorbed. The green wavelength is transmitted rather than reflected to the eye. See Figure 4. And that is how we see color.

Aqueous Coatings and FM Line Screen

It used to be next to impossible for people to be able to get a decent color printing order produced. These days the world is your oyster. As a consumer of fine design and commercial printing you can really supercharge your finished product at little to no extra cost. In your homes and businesses you can leverage this knowledge in many ways. What I am going to share with you is a secret I stumbled across a few years ago. It is a sweet combination of two printing techniques that go together like peanut butter and chocolate. One technique occurs at the beginning of the printing process while the other happens at the end. The two processes are known as Aqueous Coating and Frequency Modulated (FM) Line screen. Below I will explain each one and why they work so well together.

FM Line Screen

It's all in the frequency modulated dot structure.

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The Paper Surface

The Characteristics And Absorptivity Of  The Paper Surface

Besides whiteness and brightness, the degree of smoothness of the printing surface influences the appearance of ink placed on it. A rough fibrous paper surface is composed of a multitude of non-uniform reflecting surfaces. When light strikes them, they scatter it randomly and, thus, adulterate the print with white light. A black solid or halftone for example, is grayed because of this addition of uncontrolled and unwanted white light. A colored solid or halftone is not only grayed but also tends to change its hue.

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