This day isn’t just for promoting your business, it’s a time for bonding with people who matter. We’ve collected 30 images that we hope aren’t too cheesy, but still bring home the meaning of Father’s Day. If you’ve been stuck on ideas for your print materials, we hope that at least one of these makes it just a bit easier to work on that Father’s Day promotions idea.

UPrinting does not own the rights to any of these images. All images in this piece are property of their respective owners and are for educational and inspirational purposes only. If you like an image or want to contact the artist/owner, please click on the links below.

30) Just reading the sports section…

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29) “Wait… this book isn’t American!”

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28) Mom’s going to be annoyed when she sees half her lipstick missing.

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27) Dads are a leading source of super-strength.

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26) I’d have guessed late 70′s.

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25) Some of us have dads who aren’t near-sighted versions of the Pringles Guy.

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24) Number 1′s for Everyone!

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23) Dad sure is a charmer.

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22) Fred Flintstone’s still a much better dad that that Mad Men guy.

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21) For vegan dads everywhere! (Is beer vegan? Tell us!)

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20) You left Leia at the last stop, Dad!

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19) Technically, Supergirl’s his cousin and Superboy’s a younger version of himself. But don’t let us ruin that for you.

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18) Bat-Dad

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17) If you haven’t seen Hotel Transylvania yet, you probably should.

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16) This old Google Doodle still hits home for many.

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15) Found him!

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14) The book, the movie- both amazing. About more than just fatherhood.

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13)The bear looks as surprised as I do.

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12) They all are.

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11) I too, have drawn seagulls that way.

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10) These costumes aren’t just for Father’s Day.

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09) To be honest, Homer’s probably a terrible dad.

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08) Father’s Day can be a great time to go to the beach.

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07) Let’s not forget all the awesome adoptive dads out there

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06) Fist bump!

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05) You’re totally bearable, Dad!

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04) Sharing secrets.

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03) Great dads always save you that last turkey leg.

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02) Straight to the point.

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01) Pillage People.

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Depending on your line of business, Father’s Day can be a great time raising your public profile as well as for increasing sales and revenues. But in the end, Father’s Day should always be a day for reflecting about what fatherhood really means.

We hope you have a great one this year!

Disclaimer: Featured work is solely for inspiration and educational purposes and is  property of the artists and not UPrinting.com. Please click on the links to go to the artists’ personal pages 

A lot of our readers are experienced freelance graphic designers and software developers, and are probably no stranger to infographic résumés. For those who haven’t tried them on for size, they’re a fun and catchy way of displaying otherwise dry data into a form that’s easily understood. Infographic résumés not only tell potential employers about your experience- they also give a taste of what your work would be like.

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However to be effective, they need to follow a few general guidelines.

4) Proofread Everything!

This doesn’t just apply to spelling errors, but to logic and numerical errors as well. Few employers expect candidates for graphic design jobs to be great at everything, arguably grammar and math included. But your resume is one place where you should never slack off.

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If you need to put figures in your resume, make sure that not only do the numbers add up, but the visuals you use to represent them are proportional as well. Of course, it would also help if you didn’t lie on your résumé. Online portfolio sites such as Github (for developers) and Dribbble or Behance (for designers)  as well as a whole bunch of verification and background check services make it all too easy to find out who’s been fibbing.

3) Make it Understandable

This is perhaps the most challenging part. There are thousands of ways one can choose to visually present data, but not all of them make perfect sense in a résumé.  Some designers might be a bit too eager to show off their technical and artistic chops – at the expense of a reader-friendly presentation. Many recruiters for large companies spend only a few seconds on each resume – and if they can’t figure out what you’re all about, you’d be at a very severe disadvantage.

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If important data (like your name, experience, and contact details) can’t be figured out by a layperson right away, then it might be time to go over the next point:

2) Keep it Simple!

If you plan on submitting a printed infographic résumé, you might want to make sure that it’s no larger than would be reasonably expected from other ordinary résumés – your potential employer might need to file it with other more normal submissions. You should probably also keep it to one page, or a convenient multipage format (brochures are one option) for the convenience of whoever’s hiring.

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If you can submit a purely electronic résumé, great! But while you may have more creative freedom (you can make ‘em as long a you want) if you’re allowed to submit an résumé online, point #3 (Make it Understandable!) is still in effect. Don’t get too carried away!

Stick to a unified theme and be extra careful with how you use colors – more colors doesn’t always make for a better infographic. When in doubt, remember that even monochrome infographics can be effective at getting your point across.

Like in other résumés, your infographic generally should not contain your entire curriculum vitae (CV). It should only contain data that your employer might be interested in. If you’re applying as software developer or a graphic designer and did a stint as a lifeguard or as a mechanic, details and skills related to these won’t have to be fleshed out as much as other more relevant kinds of experience.

1) Know When NOT to Use Infographic Résumés

Infographic résumés are not appropriate for all settings, and some good judgement is needed. You should in any case, always have a traditional master CV or résumé ready for editing into a specialized résumé when it’s time to snag a specific contract. A business card might also be handy in these situations.

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Another alternative is to submit an infographic résumé anyway- but as part of your portfolio or as a cover to a traditional résumé. The plus side of this is that your potential employer can readily see how well you are able to transform data into something interesting and simple to understand, which should always be a good thing. If your potential employer doesn’t really care about that, perhaps it’s time to keep looking.

We hope you enjoyed these practical tips. Do any of these spark an idea?

Follow us on   for additional tips and up-to-the-minute updates.

Love/Hate this article? Questions? Insights? Just head over to the comment section below. We’d love to hear from you!

Requirements

• Product specifications for your products. (Folding, Size, and Color, etc.)
• Images (the bigger the better)
• Text
• Logo
• Detailed Instructions

Images

• JPG
• PNG
• GIF
• TIF
• EPS
• PSD
• AI
• Adobe PDF

Note: We do not provide image files. You may only submit your own images or legally licensed images from third party sources (such as Shutterstock) and Creative Commons.

Text

• DOC
• PPT
• RTF
• TXT

Note: We do not provide copywriting and editorial services as of this time.

Spreadsheets

• XLS
• CSV

The infographic also lists the Top 10 US cities for creative jobs as of iStockphoto’s last survey, as well as tips for how to create a successful photographic portfolio.

What do you think?

 The future of the creative jobs industry in the US seems safe, at least for the foreseeable future. Play your cards right and have enough determination, and your dream job in the creative industry is closer to reality than its ever been.

Sources cited:

United States Department of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics

Indeed.com

Love/Hate this article? Questions? Insights? Just head over to the comment section below. We’d love to hear from you!

As these catalogs are short runs (25-150 copies) they are printed digitally for faster printing turnaround times (2-3 business days) compared to larger orders, which are run on offset printers for better cost-efficiency.

Picking the right options for multipage print products such as catalogs involves a bit more input than a flyer or a poster, but is still simple enough for any novice to master. We put together this how-to guide to help you choose the right options for your Short-run catalogs.

Stocks

Not all catalogs are made for the same purpose. catalogs intended for regular use (such as manuals, for example), should be designed differently catalogs that will only see occasional use, such as catalogs intended as direct sales materials.

For most intents, thicker stocks might be not be at all necessary. Choosing thinner stocks  will allow more catalogs to be printed for the same price. Another advantage of thinner stocks is that you may be able to carry more catalogs for a given space, which can be a consideration for some businesses.

Thicker stock however, will feel nicer and may be a better choice for things such as reports and presentations.

Size

Smaller sizes tend to be easier to take around. Now this might not seem to be a huge deal, but in certain situations, smaller sizes may work better. Catalogs intended for some kinds of promotional use for instance, might work better in smaller sizes, so that they will be less of a hassle to carry around.

Larger sizes however, allow for more visual variety. To use other types of print products as an example, vinyl record album covers tend to have more of a visual impact over CD or (if you remember them) cassette covers. However, you will be able to print fewer copies with larger sizes.

Stitching/Binding

Saddle Stitching and Wire-O both allow for a cost-effective yet durable way to bind your pages together. The price difference between saddle-stitching and Wire-O is minimal. However, saddle stitching makes for  a permanent, neater-looking catalogs, while Wire-O allows pages to be detached more easily. This makes Wire-O preferable for manuals or other applications where you might want want to detach pages occasionally.

Resolution

As catalogs are read at arm’s length, we recommend a PPI/DPI value of around 300 or better. This is especially important for foreground text and images. This will allow most images to come out without pixelation.

For less important details such as background images, you may be able to get by fine on 250 PPI/DPI, so long as important elements have better resolution. UPrinting’s offset and digital printers are capable of photo quality resolution values of  up to 600 PPI/DPI, so having better than 300 PPI/DPI won’t hurt at all.

Readability

Catalogs are of course, meant to be read. Make sure to use appropriate background images and colors to contrast your text appropriately. It would be important to keep to only one or two colors for your main text to maintain unity.

Serifed fonts (font styles with small lines trailing from the edges of letters and other characters, such as Georgia, Palatino, and Times New Roman) tend to be more comfortable to read as small text. Sans serif fonts (without those lines we mentioned, such a as Arial, Futura, and Helvetica) tend to look better as headers. Please note however, that this isn’t a hard and fast rule.

Proofing

Regardless of design and regardless of who you print with, it’s best to have your design manually proofed before actual printing. Compared to other print products, catalogs are a bit more complex since you’ll need the pages and their content aligned properly for a better-looking end-result.

Automated proofing may sometimes lead to important parts of images going over page borders, and critical text being trimmed off during the cutting process. We offer manual proofing as standard for all our products to ensure better fewer avoidable errors.

Catalogs representing a fairly large investment for most people, so it makes sense to take extra precautions to ensure that your catalog designs come out the way you intend. Take all the time you need  and match your designs with  what you intend to acheive, and you’re well on your way to better, more effective catalogs.

Image Credits

All images from UPrinting.com, Behance, and PhotoPin

PatrickS via photopin cc

brendan wilkinson via photopin cc

tanakawho via photopin cc

Pete Fletch via photopin cc

Additional Reading

7 Amazing Full Color Catalog Design Ideas

UPrinting.com – Short-run Catalog Printing -For a more in-depth look at available short-run catalog specs

Other Posts In The UPrinting Design How-To Series:

Making Better Stickers and Labels

Effective Promotional Door Hangers 

Designing USPS-Friendly Postcards

Vinyl Banner Design Checklist

Choosing Booklet Design Options

Choosing Poster Sizes, Stocks, and Finishes

Run a Better Marketing Campaign With Flyers

Love/Hate this article? Questions? Insights? Just head over to the comment section below. We’d love to hear from you!

Whether you hate or love this movie, it’s hard to argue that Star Wars as an epic would disappear from collective memory, even if society were to collapse. It’s really such an ingrained part of world culture.

Whatever you might think of the upcoming Disney-helmed Star Wars sequel, the impact George Lucas’s universe has had on popular culture is difficult to exaggerate. You’ll have a hard time finding a graphic designer anywhere in the world who is not at least a bit familiar with the visual aesthetics of the Star Wars universe or find an entrepreneur that wouldn’t be able to learn something behind  how the world’ most popular space epic franchise started.

While Disney now owns the official rights to the Star Wars, the way countless artists have adapted the saga’s characters and visual aesthetics prove that the franchise is truly  a part of our collective consciousness. To celebrate May the Fourth- and in case you’re in a creative rut- we’ve compiled a few Star Wars and May the Fourth images to help inspire you.

50 Star Wars-inspired Images To Brighten Up Your May The Fourth!

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May the Force be with you. Always!

Additional reading:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_4
starwars.wikia.com/wiki/May_4
May The Fourth Be With You! – Entrepreneurial Lessons Behind Star Wars (That You’d Probably Want To Rip Off!)

Standard or Roll?

Standard sheet stickers and labels are a more economical choice for a variety of applications, especially where fewer or larger prints are required. However, they may be tedious to dispense when a large quantity are needed. Roll stickers and labels can be far more convenient in these cases.

Location (e.g. what you’re sticking them on)

You don’t want to spend unnecessary hours designing a sticker or a product label only to find out that it’s a poor match for whatever you’re sticking them to. For instance, beer bottles may come in brown, green, or clear varieties, and you’ll want your label’s colors and materials to match them appropriately.

Materials and Finishes

Different materials are more suited for certain applications. For example, white Biaxially-Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) film may be great for promotional stickers, but may not be the best material to use for wine bottles. Likewise, paper labels might not be the best choice in outdoor applications or situations where they would be constantly exposed to water.

Transparent BOPP might also be a better choice for situations where you’d want some part of your design to be transparent. It’s also an appropriate material when you want to better show the contents in transparent vessels such as beverage bottles.

Standard stickers and labels  use 70 lb label stock in your choice of matte or UV (high gloss) finishes. Some customers prefer matte for a classier look that doesn’t easily show fingerprints. Others prefer a high gloss finish for making text and images look brighter and sharper, making for a potentially more eye-catching sticker.

Resolution

Stickers and labels are meant to be read at a relatively close distance. We recommend a PPI/DPI value of around 300 or better, for this reason. This helps keep your stickers and label’s images and text clear and legibile.

Less important details such as background images, may look fine at 250 PPI/DPI, so long as important foreground elements have better resolution. UPrinting’s offset and digital printers are capable of photo quality resolution values of  up to 600 PPI/DPI, so having better than 300 PPI/DPI won’t hurt at all.

Shape

Square or rectangle? Oval or circle? There’s no right or wrong answer -it all really depends on the type of application you’d want your stickers for. Circle and oval shapes however, are much less common than square or rectangle stickers, and you might want to go with these and sacrifice just a small bit of available space for a more memorable sticker or label.

However, if you want to go with a rectangular or square-shaped design, you may want it to have rounded corners to avoid unsightly fraying as usually happens with stickers with sharp points. UPrinting offers rounded corners for both square and rectangle stickers as a standard option for roll labels.

Colors

It goes without saying that you’ll want to match colors with your brand, among other things. However, it’s important to consider the type of material you’ll be using for your stickers. Colors for stickers on clear BOPP for instance, may have to be handled differently from paper wine labels.

It also helps to properly calibrate your monitor settings to ensure better color fidelity and to give our prepress specialists a better idea of the colors you need.

Proofing

Regardless of design and regardless of who you print with, it’s best to have your design manually proofed before actual printing. Automated proofing may sometimes lead to important parts of images going over borders, and critical text being trimmed off during the cutting process. We offer manual proofing as standard for all our products to ensure better fewer avoidable errors.

Stickers and labels are versatile tools that in many cases, may be at the very forefront of your branding and promotions efforts. Taking a little time to look over what needs to be done before submitting a design for printing can go a long way towards creating a more coherent and effective brand.

Other Posts In The UPrinting Design How-To Series:

Effective Promotional Door Hangers 

Designing USPS-Friendly Postcards

Vinyl Banner Design Checklist

Choosing Booklet Design Options

Choosing Poster Sizes, Stocks, and Finishes

Run a Better Marketing Campaign With Flyers

Love/Hate this article? Questions? Insights? Just head over to the comment section below. We’d love to hear from you!

I personally feel giving well-designed business cards to clients not only assures them, but makes it simpler for them to get in touch with you. Plus they save everyone the trouble of fiddling around with their smart phones, allowing them to contact you at their leisure.

Personally I love minimal style. It gives an impression of stylish, modern, and classic approach that lets people know exactly what you mean.

Here are 30 Minimalist Business Cards for your inspiration:

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*All images are from Behance and Deviantart

Additional resources

How to Design Your Business Card With Psychology in Mind-[Infographic]

Is Your Business Card Social Media Friendly? [Infographic]

Business Card Design Video Tutorials The Basics

The Psychology Of Business Cards

26 Sample Business Card Designs With Awesome Typography

30 Pretty-and Wicked Square Business Card Designs

Love/Hate this article? Questions? Insights? Just head over to the comment section below. We’d love to hear from you!

11 Tips for Designing Effective Promotional Brochures

11.) Design for a specific purpose

As the saying goes, “a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none”. Trying to do everything all at once will only muddle the focus of your brochures. At best, they would be mildly confusing. At worst, they could negatively affect your return on investment. Fonts, choice of content, colors, and all design elements should ideally follow the intended purpose.

10.) Use images least 300 DPI/PPI or better

Brochures will be read at arm’s length. This makes it important to use image files that won’t look fuzzy upon printing. Using better quality image files ensures you have better looking images, but also helps your brand look better as well.

9.) Include content that adds value

Take-out Menu Brochures 11 x 17″ Accordion Fold (4 Panels)

As a rule of thumb, you’ll want to have images and copy that people will be willing to share. What that is depends on the context. Perhaps your promos or discounts are enough to make your brochure share-worthy. Other things you may want to add include graphs, simple comics, maps, relevant images, how-to’s or other kinds of exclusive content to make them interesting.

Valuable content not only keeps your brochures from being thrown away, you also increase the chances they will be shared with another reader.

8.) Avoid mass distribution

While brochures can be affordable, they are best suited for very specific audiences. Make sure that when you only distribute brochures to audiences who are likely to be interested in what you might offer. Flyers and other single-page prints are a more economical medium for mass distribution.

7.) Use brochures with other promotional approaches

Rarely will a brochure alone be enough to close a sale. They can however, be an important tool for helping educate an audience. Brochures for example, can help a sales force better illustrate points to potential customers. They can also be bundled with business cards at events and trade shows to help delineate a pitch and to encourage prospects to call or message back.

You can also try drawing people in with a vinyl banner or a booth, and hand out brochures to people who signal interest. Be careful though – if you bother people and they ask for a brochure, they might ask for them as a polite way out. Make sure to only give them away to people you feel are strong leads.

6.) Integrate social media channels

If you have a website, or a related blog, the URL should always be on your brochures. Depending on the situation, you may also want to include your Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or G+ pages as well. QR Codes are another thing to look at if you want to add a level of exclusivity to an offer.

It costs nothing to include these, and you might be missing out on opportunities to interact with your audience if you skip this part.

5.) Do not change business or org policies too soon after printing

If important info on your brochures becomes outdated, you might risk confusing or even alienating customers. Let an acceptable amount of time pass after a promotional campaign before making major changes to policies if you can help it. To avoid problems, place disclaimers in your brochures and specify campaign periods when applicable.

4.) Avoid walls of text

Use bullets, images, and smaller paragraphs to make your brochure easier to read.

3.) PROOFREAD!

Realistically, it will be impossible to remove each and every error you’ll find on copy. However, try to reread everything before you distribute. Don’t just focus on typos either. Look out for fact and logic errors, as these can totally ruin your brochure’s credibility.

2.) Always choose manual print proofing

Brochures are folded multi-page products printed back to back. This means alignment issues can be more obvious and are compounded as folds are applied. Improper proofing can result in brochures with completely misaligned pages.

Complex designs with specific color combinations will also benefit from being proofed by an experienced prepress expert, as this keeps colors truer to how they appear on a properly calibrated monitor. For any print product that requires precision folding and color fidelity, manual proofing is still the way to go.

1.) Design for typical brochure racks

The top third of your brochure – the part visible on a brochure rack – should have your tagline or whatever information you think your target audience will be interested in. Of course, this isn’t as important for direct mail brochures.

Brochures are an indispensable part of many promotions strategies. Their many uses has made them a favorite of salesforces and promoters all over the world. However, despite their versatility, it pays to know how to effectively design and use them for a given purpose.

The First of This Series:

5 Popular Brochure Applications (Part 1)

Sources:

ianrpubs.unl.edu/live/g2028/build/g2028.pdf
cerqa.com/blog/index.php/2012/12/3-advantages-brochure-marketing-offers-business/
morningstarmultimedia.com/benefits-of-brochures/
outsource.net.au/blog/expert-tips-brochure-marketing/
allencrawley.com/how-to-use-brochures-to-grow-your-business-part1/
powerhomebiz.com/marketing-tips/direct-marketing/use-brochures-effectively.html
outsource.net.au/blog/expert-tips-brochure-marketing/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brochure
allencrawley.com/how-to-use-brochures-to-grow-your-business-part1/
cerqa.com/blog/index.php/2012/12/3-advantages-brochure-marketing-offers-business/
morningstarmultimedia.com/benefits-of-brochures/

Images taken from UPrinting.com and UPrinting’s Facebook Page

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