Prinovis, Liverpool is part of the largest printing group in Europe; the company prints catalogues, magazines and brochures for many of the leading high street names. We have worked with Prinovis on a number of projects in the past, such as motion graphics videos and on a similar brochure design project titled ‘The Catalogue’.
The purpose of this project was to design a brochure/magazine publication to use as a promotional tool. The aim was to communicate every aspect of the printing process such as technical specifications and new processes, to a diverse range of customers. The publication also needed to provide statistics, facts and figures to highlight that printed media is still part of everyday life, within a consumers daily routine.
Prinovis came to us with a creative design brief that would aim to re-affirm to their customers the importance of using print – printed company brochures are still very much a great marketing channel, and if used in the right way can educate and inspire customers in ways that most digital communications cannot.
Challenges
The main objective of the publication was to promote the power and relevance of print. This would be achieved by educating the market and reminding our clients’ customers of the benefits of using print as part of a multi-channel approach to marketing.
The overall remit was to design and layout a 60-68 page piece. In order for it to be an effective marketing promotion within the printing industry, we had to ensure that it was visually stunning and also very different to what was already being produced. The biggest challenge on this project was to produce a publication that was engaging enough to retain the interest of the reader all of the way through.
A lot of the emphasis on producing a truly unique brochure was placed on the creative element. Prinovis approached a number of design agencies in liverpool, Studiowide being one of them. We were asked to submit creative ideas around potential magalogue themes. The challenge was to come up with a unique approach in order to address the brief and hence win the project.
Creativity without strategy is called art,
creativity with strategy is called marketing.
Solution
We jumped right in and got to work on some great ideas, two of which stood out as contenders. Our favourite idea, and the one which secured us the project was to create a children’s themed book which would be laid out in chapters, each chapter determining the various subjects that needed to be covered, such as sustainability, innovation and general technical aspects.
As soon as we started on the project, our first job was to match potential chapters with aspirational adult job roles. This allowed us enough scope and variety to be creative without tying us down to a single ‘theme’ (within a theme).
The project was then aptly titled “When I grow up I want to be a….” In the first section, we focused on the role of a baker and included information on print colours, control, credibility and personalisation. There were six sections in total, including baker, athlete, doctor, farmer, being famous and fashion designer.
The final piece of work was to create the front and back covers. We proposed the idea of approaching a primary school and getting pupils involved in the project. Our client immediately loved the idea so we set about finding a suitable school that could turn the project around in 3 days.
Hill View Primary School in Runcorn agreed to participate with 2 of their classes; year 3 and year 4 pupils. The School very kindly agreed to work with us on this project and submitted 60 designs in 3 days!
The brief which was passed onto the pupils was to create a colour drawing that depicted someone they each would like to be when they grow up. We then selected 26 final designs to use on the front and back cover design. Prinovis kindly made a donation to the school for books, as well as a truckload of chocolate, as a thank you for all their help.
Results
Creating a children theme styled brochure/magazine, with the front and back cover utilising real drawings by children, helped to offset the business to business nature of the publication. 200,000 copies were then printed by Prinovis on their gravure presses and are currently being used in all of the company’s promotions.
Out of the 200,000 copies that were printed, an additional 1,000 had special teacup inserts in-between pages 2 and 3. The idea behind the folding cup inserts is that the cup would carry a tea bag and have the message, “Relax, make a brew and read-on at your leisure”. This helped to reinforce the point of difference between print and online publications.
All of the design and layout work on this project was completed by Studiowide in Liverpool, including post product and manipulation of images, and also the design and production of the teacup cutter guide. The total design time was approximately 3 weeks, including client review and briefing meetings. We thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and creative diversity which it brought us, however, the most important outcome of all… our customer loved it!
