At a recent networking meeting, amidst a flurry of business card exchanges, I found it interesting when one person proudly announced, "I don't have a business card, my office is paperless." Sure, I'd heard of these new paperless types, but I'd never met one before. And the topic got me wondering, how paperless can an office really be?

In the marketing world, we have already witnessed the paperless attitude of the new digital age, with newspaper readership in decline, Yellow Pages being a tool of the past, and let's not even talk about how getting letters in your mailbox are all but an ancient memory. But when I look around the office here, I wonder how much paper can we really do without?

Okay, I'll admit we don't need a phone book. But we need business cards to give out to our non-paperless clients. And proofs need to be marked up, how would we do that without paper? Clients need to send us sign off, and lets face it, not all of our clients have mastered the art of scanning their signatures. And, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I could ever live without sticky notes.

Paperless around here seems almost...well, wrong. I love seeing a printed sample of our designs. I love it when Caitlin and Dave bring me printouts of their concepts. I love it when we pick out cool new paper for a print project. I respect the paperless office, but, I confess, I am a paper lover. (don't send me hate mail, I recycle!)

"Make it more red." I've heard that request more than a few times in my design career, and everyone means something different. You could be looking at a colour comprised of 100% yellow and 100% magenta (the two colours that combine to produce red in process printing) and you'll still hear that request. "I can't," you plead, "it's as red as it can be!"

The problem lies in the fascinating (at least for designers) world of the colour spectrum, and different people's perception of colour. We each have an image in our head of what the ideal shade of red looks like, and that can lead to a lot of confusion when working on a design. Rob, our programmer, considers absolute red to be the RGB value FF0000, which is correct on an RGB backlit screen. I consider absolute red in printing terms - 100% yellow, 100% magenta. My old design director from a newspaper considered absolute red to be Pantone 186C. The average person would consider absolute red to be the same colour as an apple, a fire engine, etc.

Consider our language as well. A quick lookup of red in the thesaurus yields about 26 usable results, 11 of which could be considered primary shades: Falu Red, Scarlet, Carnelian, Venetian Red, Sangria, Maroon, Carmine, Vermillion, Burgundy, Persimmon and Magenta. A few years ago my wife bought a lovely red coat that was a wonderful scarlet. Now, a few years later, red coats are back in style, but in a slightly darker, understated Venetian red. Lucky for us, she cares more about literature than fashion or colour, so the (slightly) unfashionable red will continue to be worn for some time. Extra money will continue to be spent on books rather than the latest season's fashions.

Now add to this the fact that as many as 50% of women and 8% of men may have a genetic condition called Tetrachromacy, giving them four photopigments rather than three, and thus allowing them to see 99 million more colours than the average person.

Take a look at the two different reds above for a visual example. To many people they look exactly the same, however they're different by 4 dE (Delta-E) and specially trained or gifted eyes can perceive the difference.

Red is very seldom red.

It seems that the amount of printed material out there has been shrinking over the years, often with good reason: With an increasing focus on green practices, printed materials can be seen as wasteful and hazardous to the environment. Websites and other interactive media have eliminated the need for copious amounts of hard-copy sales material and, in a world where most information we need is obtained through a two minute search on our iPhone or Blackberry, brochures, catalogues and flyers are often consigned to the recycling bin as quickly as spam email.

So why write an article about 5 ways to get the most from your printed material? While it's true that the abundance of digital information has made a lot of printed material extraneous, it also provides new challenges and opportunities for companies when it comes time to produce an actual printed piece. Print is quickly becoming the exception rather than the rule, and there's never been a more important time to ensure your printed material is the best it can be.

With that in mind, here are our 5 tips:

1. HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY
Your printed piece must have a reason for being. Ensure you have a headline and that your message is clear, short and to-the-point. Ask yourself if this information is best communicated through print, online, or both? If your material would be easier to use online or in digital form, your customers will sense it and not bother with the hard-copy version.

2. STAND OUT
With many companies moving most of their material to digital format, print has become the path for the out-of-touch and the desperate in the mind of many consumers. Separate yourself from the junk mail and trashy flyers of others by investing a little more in your printing. Use an extra-thick stock, bonus points if it's recycled. Use a spot varnish, or an extra spot colour to make it more eye-catching. Explore the possibilities of embossing, blind embossing, die-cutting or non-standard sizes. Print has a tangible quality that is lacking in digital material – invest a few more dollars and invite your customer to touch, hold and feel the printed material, not just read it. You'll see a higher return on your investment.

3. FOCUS
Too many companies make the mistake of trying to say too much in one piece. Don't overwhelm the reader with huge blocks of text, starbursts, or superfluous information. Keep it clean, simple, and to the point, with a carefully chosen headline, a small amount of text, and a lot of white space. If you have more to say, do so elsewhere in another printed work or in a digital companion piece.
What if you could engage users in a story for about half the time, yet have them remember about 34 percent more of the content? That’s exactly what one test showed. Spending less than two hours rewriting and reformatting a story about New York City restaurants really paid off according to a recent study: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070312ruel/

4. USE A GOOD PRINTER
Great design is only half the battle, and too many great designs have been squandered through the use of shoddy printers. Make sure that your printer is reputable, high quality, up to date, and cares about your business, and always get a proof! Ask the designer if they know a good printing service, and never settle for a printer just because they're the cheapest.

5. CALL TO ACTION
A proper call to action goes hand in hand with a good headline. Make sure your customer understands what the next step is, and make it easy for them to take it. Don't forget to put alternate means of communication as well. Want them to call? Make the phone number large and easy to find, but ensure your web address is also prominent. Don't forget a physical address either – it helps the reader feel more confident about your company and its services.

Often we come across companies who absolutely refuse to change their logo. Even if their cousin Fred scribbled the logo on a cocktail napkin in 1974, they feel deeply attached and committed to that logo. And rightly so, a logo is the frontman of marketing, it gets all the glory, and proudly shows itself on signage, letterhead, hats, cars and even the occasional tattoo (I'm still waiting for someone to get a Studiothink tattoo).

As a branding company, we sometimes cringe at the logos we get from clients. A client will want a brand new, cutting edge website that will bring them up to date, and yet want to keep their outdated logo. And really, I can't blame them. In a recent refresh of our own Studiothink logo, I found myself torn and deeply attached to a logo we have had for the past 12 years. I hesitated (for only a few agonizing seconds), pondering on whether it should be changed at all. In the end, my marketing brain got the best of me, and I knew without a doubt that we would be hypocrites not to move with the times.

We aren't the only ones that modify their logos to keep current, it's been done for years by the corporate giants. They too realize the importance of keeping a logo fresh and current. They may retain elements of their old logo to avoid confusing the consumer (as we did as well), but they don't bury their head in the sand and hope for the best, they are proactive in making sure their logo reflects the time period and what is popular in the marketplace.

So my challenge to you is—if Pepsi, Apple, Nike, Starbucks, and even Studiothink can do it, you can too. Discover the secret they have known all along—a logo update is a great way to show your customers that you embrace change, and will be able to adapt to consumer needs and trends. As I discovered, the decision to do it only hurts for the first few seconds—before excitement sets in.

On my recent trip to San Francisco there were a few places I knew I absolutely needed to visit: the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and 826 Valencia. Not many people have heard of that last one - heck, the people at our hotel just raised an eyebrow when I asked if they knew how I could get to what's billed as San Francisco's only independent pirate supply shop.

Yep, you read right. And if piracy paraphernalia wasn't enough, the story of 826 Valencia made it a must-see for me. Founded by Dave Eggers (author and McSweeney's editor), 826 Valencia is a nonprofit tutoring centre with a twist. The team found the perfect location for their writing workshops but were told that, due to zoning, they were required to also have a storefront. The team decided that a pirate supply store would be best, and all proceeds from the sales would go directly to funding the free student programs!

To clarify, this is not a store that sells pirate toys. This is a store that sells supplies to pirates, like glass eyes, "scurvy begone", eye patches and leeches that cure gangrene. What's more, a local SF-based design agency was given the enviable task of designing the packaging for each product! Pirate supplies, literacy AND great packaging design? Now you can see why 826 Valencia HAD to be on my itinerary.

The shop has been so successful in raising money for the kids, they've since opened other centres in cities across America including Seattle (space travel supply) and New York (super hero supply).

You can learn more and even buy your own pirate supplies at their website: www.826valencia.org

We thought we'd try offering a promotion (for the first time ever), and for a limited time we are including all of the copywriting when you purchase the graphic design of a brochure. Or, if you purchase a logo design, we are throwing in free design of the business card, letterhead and envelope.

If you are interested in taking advantage of either of these two promotions, just let us know by contacting Debbie at debbie@studiothink.com. As with all good things, this is a limited time offer, so get in on it while you can!