Design Crafters

We discussed last time about putting your company logo
inside your Christmas cards to add some class to your presentation. That still
is a great way to go, but becoming even more popular - probably because it add
some uniqueness is having your logo printed on the front of your Christmas cards . More and more businesses are having their logo printed on the front
rather than on the inside of their Christmas cards.

If you don’t have a logo, you can still stand out with one of our "Front
Imprint" Christmas cards in that you can have your company name printed on
the front of these cards. You can say something like, "From all of us at
Design Crafters" in a pretty script of something like that. Of course not
all cards are conducive to printing on the front. There would have to be room
where there is no other printing or embossing.

Another thing you can do if you don’t have a logo and you want to show off your
company name, is to choose one of our "Die Cut" Christmas cards in
which your company name is printed on the inside of the cards but it is
positioned such that is shows through the rectangular die cut opening much like
the logo cards shows the logo through the (usually) round opening in the front
of the card.

It’s rather amazing how sophisticated Christmas cards are
getting. We notice every year that more and more businesses are jumping on
the wagon to create something special with their Christmas cards. It almost
seems to be competitive, not only to outdo their competitors but to outdo
themselves from the previous year.

One way that businesses are doing that is to include their company logo inside
their Christmas cards. We have some special "Logo Christmas Cards" that are
specially designed for this purpose. They have a die cut opening where the logo
shows through from inside the card. That way, the logo is seen before the cards
are even open and then again after they are opened.

To print a single solid color logo can be done for a very reasonable price.
Adding another standard color of course adds to the price, but it doesn’t stop
there. If a special (PMS) ink mix is necessary, that adds to the price. Some
companies have logos that are actually full color.  Of course that beefs
the price up even more but that doesn’t seem to stand in the way of a lot of
businesses who realize that sending out "Season’s Greetings" with a
beautiful Christmas card with a thoughtful sentiment including their attractive
logo, is really a very cheap form of advertising and sends good will to all
their clients.

Christmas is one time of year that businesses can get away with sending
something like that to remind all their customers and clients of who they are
that they are available to serve.

It seems that most businesses are getting really fancy when
it comes to Christmas cards. I would say that among the business orders we receive,
at least one fourth of them have a request for us to print their logo or custom
verse or both. We love special orders because we know that when the time and
care is taken to create such a masterpiece, it will be unique and will stand
out in a crowd. It may even be a show stopper.

Unfortunately, to do something so special does involve an extra expense. All of
this is explained on our website in great detail, but I will try to address
some of the major issues here. First of all, a single solid color logo with no
shading is a flat $40 to burn a plate with your special image to be printed. By
the way, we always email you a .pdf proof for your approval before anything custom is
printed. We usually can get that back to you within a day or two of your
submitted order.

If your logo has some shading which would require screening, there is an
additonal $60 for that. If your logo is two colors, there is an additional $60
for the second color run. If there is tight registration (where the colors are
touching or even almost touching) there may be an additional fee. The best thing
to do is to submit your Christmas card order and logo to us for us to evaluate
and we will get back to you with the cost to print your order.

We sometimes can print multiple colors inside your Christmas cards, but each order would have to be evaluated
on a case by case basis. If you would like to do something rather special, just
let us know what you have in mind and we can let you know if it is feasible and
if so, the cost, so you can decide. If you would like to read all about our
special instructions on our Christmas card logo info page here.

We get so many questions about putting company logos in Business Christmas Cards that I thought I would try to explain the ins and outs of logos at this time. There are so many variations of what is possible and the pricing, while consistent with each feature can vary greatly depending on just what you need to have done.

The least expensive way to have your logo added to your Christmas card order is to submit a single color logo and have it printed in the same (standard) color as your verse and/or personalization. There is a printer’s charge of $40 whenever the printer has to burn a plate with your special image in order to print.

The word "standard" is important here as we offer standard ink colors such as red, blue, hunter green, burgundy, black, brown and in some cases gold and silver foil. Any color diffenent from our standard color results in a PMS charge which is $60 per color because it has to be specially mixed and then the press has to be washed up before anyting else can be printed on it.

If your logo has any shading in it as in from light to dark so that it isn’t a solid color but contains gradients of a color, that involves screening and your image has to be output to film. That results in a screening charge of $60. That is in addition to the $40 logo fee.

If your logo contains two colors, there is an additional $65 for the second press run. These cards are run on a single color press so a second color involves having to send the cards through a press a second time, resulting in more opportunity for waste and of course there is extra labor involved in running these through a second time.

If you have a large order, these charges may not seem so bad when your amortize them over the whole order, but if you have a small order,  you might want to reconsider and just have your company name printed after your verse, or if you can have you logo printed in just one of the standard colors, $40 is reasonable.

Any way you look at this, sending Christmas cards to all your customers and clients, even if you invest quite a bit in their production, is a very inexpensive form of advertising. It puts your company name in front of them with a special greeting of good will and appreciation.

You want to pur forth a great company image. The quality of our cards will give that great first impression, then when the cards are opened you have an opportunity to show great taste in how you present your company though the presentation of your message and your name and/or logo.

If you want to get real fancy, and if you have a really sharp logo you like to show off, we actually have "Logo Cards" in which your logo is printed on the inside of the card and there is a "die cut opening" in which your logo shows through to the front of the card. The are especially great if your logo is circular in shape as most of the openings are a circle. Check them out here.