Print
Solutions November 2005
case
study
Spirited
Posters
Nestled
on the edge of Lake Erie, St.
Joseph Christian Life Center in
Cleveland is “a 12-acre
oasis in an urban setting,”
says Alan Dahart, assistant director.
As the retreat facility for the
Cleveland Catholic Diocese, the
center offers a variety of spiritual
programs, from silent retreats
to dinners for couples. So Dahart
wondered why more people from
the diocese’s 250 parishes
weren’t signing up for great
programs in an idyllic setting.
Frank
O’Connell provided the answer:
poor marketing materials. The
center mailed press releases and
program information printed in
black and white on rag paper to
churches and schools. “The
center felt things were just getting
pitched out at the parishes,”
says O’Connell, owner of
OC Productions, an advertising
firm. So St. Joseph Christian
Life Center hired O’Connell
as communication director to add
spark to its marketing pieces.
The
first project O’Connell
tackled was revamping promotions
for the center’s top six
programs. He created 81Ú2 x 14-inch,
2-color posters for churches to
hang to advertise the programs.
The posters use similar graphic
elements for consistency: Each
features the name of the center
and the program title at the top,
simple hand-drawn artwork in the
center and details about the program
at the bottom.
O’Connell
selected coated stock in bright
colors for each of the program
posters. For instance, the poster
advertising a marriage preparation
program is purple, and the one
on Eucharistic ministries is red.
Others are teal, pink, aqua and
yellow. “The whole idea
was to be visual in a different
way, to bring people over to read
the posters,” Dahart says.
Because
O’Connell was hired by St.
Joseph Christian Life Center shortly
before its summer programs began,
he worked under tight deadlines.
“I designed those six posters
within 15 hours, got the files
together and sent them to the
printer,” he says. O’Connell
turned to Great Lakes Integrated
Inc., a commercial printer in
Cleveland, for production. To
meet the center’s need for
fast turnaround and good quality,
Great Lakes ran the job on its
Kodak NexPress digital color press.
Great Lakes printed approximately
800 of each of the six posters
on C2S stock.
O’Connell
also created 4 x 7-inch cards,
using the same text, artwork and
paper as the posters, for churches
to hand out to parishioners or
place in racks. The center was
thrilled with the pieces: O’Connell
says sign-ups for most of the
programs doubled or tripled. He’s
now working on other marketing
pieces, including an 81Ú2 x 11-inch
program guide with inserted posters
promoting all of the center’s
programs. “The posters are
just one part of a mass communication
effort,” Dahart says. The
center also is redesigning its
web site and starting an electronic
newsletter.
“It’s
introducing a new image to people,”
says O’Connell. And color
commercial printing will play
a big role in the center’s
new look. “They’re
going to raise the image of the
center by using technology,”
says Jim Schultz, president, CEO
and chairman of Great Lakes Integrated.
“Where they previously used
black and white, now they can
output color to get the attention
of their market.”
—Susan
Keen Flynn
Ask
for education from manufacturers.
“Spend time with your vendors,
understand their capabilities
and learn from them,” says
Jim Schultz, president, CEO and
chairman of Great Lakes Integrated
Inc., a commercial printer in
Cleveland. “Every printer
worth their weight in gold will
train their customers. If they
don’t, find another printer.”
Many
headaches associated with commercial
printing—from preflighting
to glitches with the final product—could
be avoided if print buyers and
distributors were educated. “The
only way to make projects hassle-free
is to understand the process,”
says Schultz. “Then you
can control your budget and the
outcome.”
Keep
designs simple.
“Many pieces get so complicated,”
says Frank O’Connell, owner
of OC Productions and communication
director at St. Joseph Christian
Life Center. Novice designers
often add too many design elements
or styles that distract from the
piece. “Stick with a simple,
bright, colorful format, keep
the copy down and grab the audience
with headlines and highlights,”
recommends O’Connell.
Don’t
make paper an afterthought.
Sometimes designers get so caught
up in the layout of a project
that they ignore the importance
of paper selection. “You
need to understand the mission
of the project to know what paper
to use,” says Schultz. Choosing
a 100# C2S paper instead of an
80# recycled stock with 30 percent
post-consumer waste, for example,
will give very different results:
Neither is a “better”
paper, but rather better suited
to different printed pieces.
