Producing a new range of corporate stationery. One for the print nerds.

The challenges behind the production of Tulchan’s suite of stationery items.

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Background

• You can read the full story about re-branding Tulchan Managing the delivery of all brand assets for Tulchan Communications when a new company strategy meant a new brand identity.

• I show this case study as it is the most recent story to tell, but I have been involved in the production of corporate stationery many times. Each company has its own challenges and solutions.

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My role

• I was responsible for taking the top-level design solution crafted by Jon and S-T Design (see rebranding story mentioned above) and delivery all print and digital assets.

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Challenges and solutions

1. Challenge: Limited storage space, multiple assets to produce.
   Solution: Print whatever ever we can digitally – shorter print runs

2. Challenge: The old Conqueror paper stock wasn’t suitable for digitally printing, and at the time at least there were supply issues from a paper mill closure.
   Solution: Mohawk Superfine Ultrawhite Eggshell was an excellent choice. It honour the look and feel of the original Conqueror stock: off-white, heavy weight, natural texture, was suitable for digital print and came with 3 different sized envelopes.

3. Challenge: The Tulchan look and feel is that of a creative, boutique, high-end agency, just using off-white paper stock is not enough
   Solution: GF Smith Colorplan Amythest, plum was a brilliant match for Tulchan’s dark purple brand colour. A Copper Foil used lightly gave a correct nod to luxury

4. Challenge: Great printers that have high sustainability credentials partly due to Tulchan’s recent B-Corp accreditation
   Solution: Pure Print

5. Challenge: Not everything could be digitally printed, the presentation covers, folders and tabbed dividers had to printed on board. And I hit a problem printing the Plum colour: Pantone 518C as a special on this uncoated board. As digital print is CMYK, when I printed the spot colour on the uncoated board the match was awful… it did not look like a cohesive suite of stationery.
   Solution: I worked with the printers to create wet proofs of a range of CMYK swatches printed on to the board stock and then chose the best match. The printer I worked with to do this sadly went bust, which is when I went to Pureprint. The end result was great.