Useful

You may have noticed we’ve been developing many of our own products lately. We’ve always been thinking along these lines, and we’ve certainly had our share of items we’ve brought to market. I’m thinking it’s about time to put our design philosophy into words. (Although “design philosophy” sounds like more than it really is, to us. We just think it’s common sense.)

As human beings, we see places in our own lives as opportunities to have useful items. So, any item we develop would need to be useful to a real group of real people. Since the business of imprinted promotional items is very dear to us, we want to make items with an imprint area in mind. If an item is actually useful, all the more likely that the imprint on it will be seen, right?

That doesn’t mean we just slap an imprint area onto something. It’s gotta all work together. The imprint area needs to genuinely be a part of the item, without compromising that item’s utility.

With the focus on utility, there are things we come up with that probably only fit a very narrow demographic of people. That’s OK. Numo is in a unique position to be able to provide items for our customers’ clients that would be pretty tough for other industry suppliers to handle. The upside is that the end recipients can get a uniquely memorable item that they’ll use repeatedly (or continually), so utility will further solidify the imprinted message.

But probably the biggest reason we do this is because we like to. We dig it. Numo is a manufacturer at heart, so we like to make stuff.

The Loudest Whisper

I thought I’d take a few minutes to share some ideas for some imprints we’ve tried lately. Some internal projects we’ve done, and some customer work we’ve handled has produced some nice results.

If you have clients looking for something a little different than the standard fare, maybe these ideas will get your brainstorming started?

One thing I’ve seen working well is a tone-on-tone imprint. In this, the imprint color is the same as the material color, except just a little lighter or darker. In other words, you might print forest green ink onto a kelly green item. Or perhaps a charcoal gray ink onto our aluminum or stainless steel items. This can work as a primary imprint, or as a sort of background pattern where logos or icons are repeated like a wallpaper pattern. Then, over the pattern, the main imprint could shown in a more contrasting color from the background. Or not. Maybe the pattern is all you need?

Pocket Coolie with Step & Repeat Logo Pattern

Pocket Coolie with Step & Repeat Logo Pattern + Large Logo

If you’ve seen the Coolies we’ve been giving away at some of the industry trade shows this year, you’ve seen an example of this.

Also, black ceramic mugs look pretty classy with a charcoal gray one-color imprint.

Black Ceramic Bistro Mug with Charcoal Gray Imprint

In a similar groove, we’ve long offered a “mock-etch” print. This is a satin-finish, semi-clear ink we print onto glass drinkware, making it look like the logo has been etched into the glass – at a fraction of the cost of actual etching.

Glass Tumbler with Mock-Etch Imprint

This same concept can be applied to our Four-Color Process Sublimation items. One advantage here, though, is that the imprint can go all the way to the edges of the item, and into the seams as well. You can try “ghosting” a large version of your client’s logo behind the main imprint. Consider making it so large that some of it gets cropped off by the physical boundaries of the item. This can add some perceived depth to the art, and even make the main imprint jump out that much more. To make things a little more dynamic, try tilting the ghosted logo a bit.

Four-Color Process Coolie with Ghost Logo Background

It may sound odd that reducing the contrast of your client’s logo so that it almost blends in the background is something that can actually enhance the overall message, but in many cases, it does. While all the “normal” stuff has become just noise, sometimes subtlety can be the best way to get noticed. The loudest whisper.

A Tale of Two Car Dealers

Last week I had to take my car in for service. There are two Ford dealers I’ve used lately. One is one of the largest in the area, the other is probably one of the smallest. The smaller one is closer to where I work, so that one got the nod this time. What really struck me about the different attitudes each has toward their business came when the repair got delayed (for reasons neither the dealer nor I had any control over). I needed a loaner car to get me by for the extra day.

 

The service manager just handed me the keys for the loaner.

 

That’s it.

 

I didn’t have to sign forms in triplicate, or have them make a copy of my driver’s license or anything like that.

 

I half-jokingly asked the service manager about the lack of formality, and he quickly said, “We have your info… and your car. We’re not worried that you’ll bring the loaner back.”

 

The big dealer would have had me wade through all kinds of red tape… if they even got as far as providing a loaner in the first place. They’d be mostly concerned about protecting themselves up one side and down the other. (Not to mention a pushy up-sell for-more-service pitch I’d have to tolerate.) It would never occur to them to attempt to relieve a portion of my inconvenience of having my car in for service longer than either of us expected. Their “customer service” is really more like “self-service”. Or maybe their real “customers” are their legal department? (Hat tip to Seth Godin’s recent post.)

 

It’s all indicative of attitude. The small-town business just focused on what needed to be done and did it. It would probably cost them more to worry about the what-ifs than to just take the almost nonexistent risk of loaning a car out.

 

That kind of attitude toward me would make me drive past the other dealer to get to the little guy.

Much to the Chagrin of My Parents

Much to the chagrin of my parents, I joined a fraternity while I was in college.   I worked summers to pay my dues.  In return, I was afforded a house at which I lived with some of my best friends.  My fraternity experience was fairly typical.  Lots of parties.  I have many stories that get re-told every time I get together with my buddies from school.  Good times. 

After reminiscing with my buddies, I always am thankful for those good times, and I’m even more thankful that I don’t have to re-live them again.  Those stories are best served as memories.  

This leads me to question the party atmosphere that surrounds one of our “industry’s” organizational leaders.  It seems that after each of a series of trade shows, we see blog posts showing parties at exclusive restaurants and tales of limos and late nights.  I’m not sure if all of this is meant to inspire dues paying members to aspire to these invites or what.   It seems it’s the same cast of characters at the same restaurants in the same cities.  Groundhog Day. 

I know I’m a colossal stick in the mud, but there’s a reason I don’t pay dues to my fraternity any longer.  There is a time and a place for revelry.   The, now international, face of our “industry” evidently disagrees with me. 

All of this reminds me of a Chuck Klosterman essay about time travel and eating dinosaurs.  The playing field is being leveled.   Ask Best Buy and Barnes and Noble.  Caligula knew how to party.

The Backstory on BudBear

You may have seen or heard that we’ve recently announced our new BudBear™ earbuds holder. We really want to make items that solve real problems in the simplest way possible… with a genuine bias for the promotional products world. (After all, if an item is useful to the end-recipient, she will use it more, and maximize the brand impression, right?)

Nearly everyone at Numo uses a smartphone in some way, and many of us like music. We noticed that we hadn’t seen any really good solutions to neatly store our earbuds. Most were so fussy to use, it was just as frustrating to use those winders & cases as it was to just detangle the wad of earbuds cords from simply just stuffing the ‘buds in a backpack pocket.

We sketched out a few ideas to solve the problem, and made a few cardboard mock-ups. The bear shape wasn’t really intentional, but it worked out to be the shape that worked easily. After moving our prototyping to aluminum, we tested out several thicknesses as well as different finishes, and as a result, BudBear was born.

#9950 BudBear

Culture Company

Having used Macs exclusively as long as I’ve been using computers, I’ve kept pretty close tabs on Apple as a brand and as a company for a couple decades now.

I really wasn’t going to write anything on the resignation of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. After all, a bizillion other writers have pretty much said it all in the past 22 hours or so, right?

But there is something I haven’t seen penned yet. *

I think the biggest thing Mr. Jobs has done for Apple is the culture that has been engrained into that organization. I constantly hear and read about how much respect Apple employees have for one another, and there is creativity and innovation at every desk in the company. In my opinion, it’s this culture that has had the most impact on the design of Apple’s many consumer electronics goodies – the ones that instantly become the standards by which all others are judged.

I’m somewhat fascinated by corporate culture in general, as I’ve seen the positive and negative effects that different cultural styles can have. Apple’s internal culture has blurred (or possibly eliminated) the lines between company and brand.

I suppose part of my own vision for Numo is that we can do the same.

*Since typing this up, I ran across an article that mentions that Jobs’ successor, Tim Cook, acknowledged in a letter to Apple employees the value of the culture that the former CEO brought to Apple.

Licensed Camo

I’ve recently been working on updating some info and photos on our licensed camo items (also known as “trademark camo”) on the Numo website. Although the timing wasn’t really intentional, I do think it was fairly timely with hunting season coming up pretty soon.

If you’re not familiar with our licensed camo items, we offer four camouflage patterns that are some of the most popular in outdoor sports-related retail. These patterns are well-recognized by folks ranging from “mildly interested” to “eat-sleep-and-breathe” outdoor sports. This means that a very large percentage of the adult male population of the US, and many of their households.

So camo products can really appeal to just about any primarily-male-focused markets. This includes more than just hunting and sporting goods shops. Anything to do with pickup trucks, auto parts/repair, construction, plumbing, electricians, truck drivers, motorcycling, and more are perfect demographics for camo.

If you have a promo in mind that you’re thinking camo would work for, here are a couple things to think about regarding the licensed camo patterns:

1. Patterns are regional. There are patterns for different times of the year and for different regions or environments. Patterns for early autumn in the southern US will have a little more green in them than the mostly-brownish patterns for later in the season or northern areas where all the leaves have already fallen.
2. Patterns are designed for specific environments. There might be a lot of tree bark texture and dried leaves in a pattern intended for use in heavily-wooded areas. These are particularly-suited for deer and turkey and some big-game hunting. Waterfowl hunters generally prefer predominantly yellowish patterns that look more like grass or dried cornstalks, as they typically hunt from open fields or marshy areas close to lakes.
3. There is some brand-loyalty among some of the most avid outdoor enthusiasts. This brand-loyalty isn’t nearly as fierce as it is with their preferred brand of pickup truck or rifle, but it might be something to consider. Most Realtree guys would still use a promotional item with a Mossy Oak pattern, and vice-versa. However, sometimes certain organizations and manufacturers do align themselves with one of the camo brands via sponsorships, etc., so using the wrong licensed camo could step on some toes if you’re not careful.

Licensed Camo promotional items rarely actually get used in the field, but they appeal to the recipients’ love for the outdoors. They make a great way to connect with anyone who gets into getting outside.

So, contrary to the original purpose of camo, using these patterns will actually help your promotion be more visible!

Advantage Max-4 HD Pattern

Realtree Hardwoods Green HD Pattern

Mossy Oak Break-Up Infinity Pattern

Mossy Oak Duck Blind Pattern

History

I recently returned from a really great vacation during which I had the opportunity to take my family to visit The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan. (I highly recommend a visit if you have any interest in American history — not just automotive.)

One thing that caught my eye was adjacent to the display of a full-scale operational replica of Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis aircraft. (The real one is in the Smithsonian.) There was a cabinet of promotional products commemorating the flight and advertising for some businesses who saw the historic flight across the ocean as a marketing opportunity.

It was hard to get a decent photo of the items in the glass case, but hopefully you can get the gist.

It was very interesting to see how much promotional products have changed, and how much they have stayed the same.

Product Photography: Part 2

In the last post, I covered some basic tips on capturing better images of products you need for photos. This time, things are going to get a little more advanced.

A Little Space

You don’t need a pro photo studio to get very usable results, but if you’re going to be shooting more than a handful of images, a homemade “table top studio” can make some very noticeable improvements in your images.

For most promotional items, you’ll want to have a table you can place items onto. This can be simply an available table or desk from around your office, a small piece of plywood spanning a pair of collapsible sawhorses, or a cart of some sort.

The background needs to be something that won’t distract from your subject. This can be pretty much anything solid-colored. Stiff paper or pasteboard works well, or some people prefer fabric. You can lay it on the table (with the subject on it), then bend it up onto the wall behind the table so it looks like a continuous background with no definition of where the horizontal table surface meets the vertical wall.

Lighting

Good lighting makes a huge difference. You can use a pair of regular desk lamps and get surprisingly good results. Use the “curly” CFL fluorescent bulbs, since you can usually get a lot more light without overstepping the listed wattage limit of a cheap desk lamp. I highly recommend getting the “daylight” version of these bulbs, as the color of the light they put out looks much more natural in photography. Another nice benefit of the CFL bulbs is that they don’t get nearly as hot as the traditional incandescents.

Once you have light sources, you’ll need to diffuse them. Some of the best diffusing I’ve found is some white nylon fabric that allows a lot of the light to shine through, but cuts way back on the harshness. In a pinch, I’ve even used some nylon screenprinting mesh, but it can take a couple layers of that, depending on what grade of mesh you have. This material gets draped over or clamped to the lamp so it covers the bulb and reflector. The result you want to get is to soften shadows. You can test this easily by holding your open hand in the lit area and then holding a finger from your other hand about 3″ above it (between your open hand and the light source). If you see a distinct shadow of your finger cast onto your open hand, then the light is not diffuse enough. If the shadow is very soft, fuzzy, or blurry, you’re good-to-go.

This photo, taken in bright sunlight shows a very distinct, sharp-edged shadow cast. This is a very good indicator of harsh lighting.

In this photo, taken in our tabletop studio, the cast shadow is nearly indistinguishable. This will allow much better highlight and shadow tones for the kinds of images we're trying to create.

If you find yourself doing more than a couple dozen photos a week, you might consider something like this tabletop studio we purchased a few years ago. We’ve gotten loads of use out of ours, and it stays semi-permanently on a rolling cart. This solves the “space” and the “lighting” issues very nicely.

Here is our Table Top Studio set up.

Aperture

Setting the aperture (“f-stop”) to a very high number (like f/22) will keep more of your subject in focus. If you’ve ever dealt with having the front part of your subject in sharp focus, but the back corners are getting blurry, this is how to fix that.

The trade-off is that this tight aperture needs more time to let enough light in to be able to expose the image. So the shutter will need to stay open longer. This might mean your shutter will need to be open for a half-second or more. That’s plenty of time to allow for all kinds of camera shake if you’re not using a tripod!

For this item, a DSLR camera makes things much easier to use. You can still do this with a point & shoot camera, but those weren’t really made for this. It’ll be a much less-than-ideal situation. I’ve personally had more success with doing this in full-manual mode on the DSLR camera I use here at Numo, but setting it to Aperture Priority works ok. It took some time trying out different shutter speeds when I first got it all set up, but since I always use the same lighting and “table top studio”, I can  use the same settings nearly all the time.

I suppose there are probably some other things we could discuss on this subject, but at this point it would come down to things more specific to what you would do compared to someone else. I mentioned before that I’m certainly no expert, but feel free to ask questions in the comments below or email me. I’ll be glad to share what little I do know.

Product Photography: Part 1

Good product photography can make a really big difference in the professionalism of any presentation. I certainly don’t consider myself a pro photographer, but there are a few things I’ve learned shooting photos of Numo product over the past decade or so. Perhaps some of this will be helpful in getting you better images, whether those images are destined for a website, a sales presentation, a printed flyer or catalog or just an email.

Most of this doesn’t require a fancy digital SLR camera, but there are some real advantages to having one of those. I might talk about that in a future post.

Turn Off the Flash.

The main thing that has helped me is to make sure I have a camera that I can turn off the flash, and use a sturdy tripod. The flash puts harsh highlights on the subject, and it typically casts nasty shadows of the product onto the surface behind the product.

Most cameras use an icon similar to this when the flash is turned "off".

Use a Tripod.

Since you’re not using the flash, the camera has to keep the shutter open longer to properly expose the image. Unless you are taking photos outdoors during the daytime, you probably can’t hold the camera steady enough to keep it from shaking while the picture is being captured. Using a tripod steadies the camera to allow for a very long exposure time.

Another benefit of the tripod is that you can keep the camera in the same position for many photos. This allows for consistency in your images, and allows you to take several photos of the same item by only changing the position or rotation of the item. If you’re shooting several items, you can place them all in the same spot and keep the same relative position of the camera. Leave the tripod in place for weeks on end if you’re having to shoot many items. Just detach the camera when you need to use it for something else.

Zoom In, Then Back Up.

Here’s one that a lot of people scratch their heads about when I tell them, but the few that get it really find it useful. Set the zoom on your camera to where the least amount of the image is showing in the view. For small “point & shoot” cameras, this will mean holding down the “T” (telephoto) button until it stops. For an SLR camera, you’d turn the zoom ring on the lens until it stops. A couple quick points, though:

• Make sure that “digital zoom” is turned off. (This will be in the menus of a point & shoot camera; check your user manual for your specific camera. This is irrelevant on a digital SLR.)
• If your camera has an “ultra zoom” or similar feature (more than about 7x), you might need to back off on the zoom if you’re running out of space.

Once you’ve zoomed in, back up until the item you’re shooting fills about 80% of the view in the larger direction.

This photo was taken with the camera's zoom set to a wide angle, and the camera relatively close to the subject.

This photo has the water bottle taking up a similar amount of the image, but the camera was zoomed in ("tele"), and the camera was further from the subject. The proportions of the bottle look much more natural.

What this does is to minimize the distortion of the image due to perspective. I won’t get into a technical discussion of this, but on a practical level, the vertical sides of a cylindrical or rectangular object will be almost parallel rather than tapering toward one another as they get farther away from the camera. If you are planning to use your photos for virtual samples where you’ll be digitally adding an imprint later, this makes things much easier to do so.

So those are the basics. Next post will be about some more advanced tips.