1.  Why use Promotional Products?

Promotional Products carry your message to a well-defined audience.  Because most of the products are useful, they are appreciated by the recipients, retained and used, repeating the imprinted message many times.

2.  Is this really advertising?

Yes! The name of the game is exposure. Most promotional products are viewed constantly, be it a calendar, coffee mug, pen, shirt, label, etc. The results are thousands of exposures without having to place an ad or shoot a commercial.

3.  How can I find the product that will work for my business needs?

Call us! Tell us about your company and the people you are trying to reach. We will research the industry for items that will have the most impact for you.

4.  What are the artwork requirements?

Vector Art is preferred. It provides the best quality and allows images to be resized without loss of sharpness and detail. Adobe Illustrator vector artwork is preferred. Please save as an EPS or AI file. Be sure to convert all text to outlines. Note: A scanned image (e.g. .jpg, .gif, .bmp, .tiff, .psd, .pdf) or art created in a photo/paint program is not vector art. In addition, placing, linking, embedding, or copying these images into a drawing program does not convert them into vector art and will not meet our art requirements. Microsoft Office programs (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power Point, Excel, etc.) are not graphics programs and will not be recognized through art acceptance process. Please call to determine if your artwork will work. We also offer basic artwork services at no charge.

 HELPFUL INFORMATION TO KNOW:

This acronym stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. CMYK is also known as process color, full color, 4 color, and 4c. The colors are versions of the primary colors, blue, red, yellow and black. They create full color images like you would see in a magazine. Choose CMYK when you need life-like; realistic color; more than two colors; or have a large press run.

The Pantone Matching System® (PMS) produces a specific color. It contains hundreds of colors, light to dark, bright to pastel; each designated by a number. PMS colors are typically used in one and two color printing and are also called spot color or flat color. The PMS model delivers reliable color whenever you print it. It is an excellent choice for giving the impact of color and maintaining consistent use of corporate colors. What you need to know: • Inkjet and color laser printers are not able to produce PMS colors accurately, however some colors work better than others. • There is no accurate proofing system for PMS color. The closest match can be shown on a high quality digital proofing system, available from your printer. When choosing PMS colors, have your designer show you a swatch from a PMS book to approve the color choice. • PMS colors can be "screened," printed as a lighter value of the color, in effect creating many colors from a single ink.

RGB stands for red, green and blue and makes up onscreen color. The RGB model is used for projects that will only be seen on a screen and not printed. RGB is the right choice for projects like websites, PowerPoint presentations and Acrobat .pdf files. Be advised that different monitors have different screen resolution and that can affect color display. What you need to know: • RGB produces vivid colors that look fabulous on-screen, but are difficult to reproduce in other color models. When converted to CMYK, many RGB colors look muddy and dull, and many have no Pantone equivalent at all. If your project will ever be used offline, be sure to select colors in the printing method it will be used in the most.

Have you ever wondered why the proof you are emailed looks different from the color mock-up from your designer, and different still from the printed piece? What you need to know: • Nothing ever matches exactly. The PMS or process color swatch book is the closest representation of the color you will get on press. • Learn to think of your proofs as an approximation, and clearly explain to your designer what you are looking for. Trust your creative team to get the best match possible. • If you must see exactly what a color will look like "final" you’ll need to display it on the monitor it will be shown, print to the desktop printer you will use, or order a sample printing of the PMS color you want. For process printing, you should be present during printing to approve the final output. When using color, choosing the wrong format for your project can produce unexpected or unusable results, costing you both in lost time and money. Mastering the terms that specify color will provide valuable savings in every way.

Sublimation is a specialized process that prints special heat activated inks on an advanced "transfer" paper. Heat and pressure are applied to the transfer, causing the ink to turn into a gas dye, which then sublimates into the fabric. Once the image is transferred, it is permanent and washable. This heat activated ink transfer process produces a 100% to 400% dot gain, which impacts all reversed or "knocked out" art. When reversed elements are too small, the dot gain may fill in the reversed area or eliminate it completely. For this reason, we recommend all reversed type be set to bold. Serif fonts such as Times should be set at 18 point or greater and sans serif fonts like Helvetica should be set at 12 point or greater. All reversed lines should be 1.5 points or greater. Image resolution should be 300ppi. During the sublimation printing process, a color target is used as a reference only. The sublimation process is designed to produce a "pleasing" representation – not an exact match – of the original. Some color variation from a color target is normal and expected. Any time color is critical, we recommend a production proof. (Sublimation info taken from a Mouse Pad imprinter)