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    As designers, it is our job to always make sure designs will work both technically and visually when printed on product. We know the ins and outs of what it takes to make this happen, whether it’s limitations in font size, stroke weight, imprint methods, or colors! When promoting your brand with fresh new swag, there is nothing worse than having the imprint illegible or unrecognizable because of technical problems.

    No need to fear, we are here to save you from this printing disaster! The limitations of printing on product is a topic that is not discussed enough within the world of promotional products but is something that is much more important than most people think. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as simply “shrinking” a logo or design to fit the imprint area of a product. You also have to consider the fact that when shrunk, small lines and words are likely to be completely filled in, therefore making a logo or design illegible. This is important to keep in mind when designing something to imprint onto your latest swag because we want to prioritize the quality of the imprint to be the best that it can.

    *In comes minimum font sizes*. Minimum font sizes exist for most printing factories with the goal of ensuring that an imprint comes out clear, readable, and visually pleasing. As mentioned before, when designs or logos are printed below the minimum suggested size, you risk losing the small details in your art. Let’s take our very own glass cleaner spray for example. This is an image of the label after it has been printed, giving a perfect portrayal of an imprint that could have gone wrong.


    If you take a look at the small text below our NorthPoint logo, you are just enough able to read what it says, but if that text was any smaller, the letters would start to blend together and become illegible. On average, the minimum font size to be imprinted legibly is 6 pt, however, this all depends on the material it is being printed on. For example, hard plastic or metal products have the best chance of having an imprint legible at 6 pt font, but if the product is something soft (something like a stress reliever, tote bag, or soft cover journal) the font size suggested is more towards 8 pt to avoid the risk of the ink spreading and blending into the other letters. On the other hand, when it comes to apparel and an embroidered design or logo, the average minimum font size is much higher at 20 pt because of the space needed for the stitching process of embroidery! Definitely something to keep in mind when submitting your next design to be imprinted!

    Just as font size makes all the difference in the outcome of a printed product, small details like stroke weight and lines are just as important for the same reasons. Let’s now take a look at another example using this pen and our 4 service logos below. As you can see, what the logos should look like in comparison to what they would look like when imprinted in such a small imprint area is much different. Because they were shrunk down so much, the details on the objects in each box are completely gone, and we have lost the design that we intended for in the first place.
    Example of what can happen when small gaps fill in.
    What the imprint was intended to look like.

    Keep in mind these tips and recommendations when designing your next promotional item, and your swag will come out looking the BEST that it possibly can!!
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    Device that cleans your phone using UV

    Price Point: $62.86 - $75.71

    Average Production Time: As low as 5 Business Days

    Available Colors: 
    White

    Perfect For: Employee Gifts, Client Gifts, Corporate Swag Stores, Raffle Prizes, New Hire Gifts, Speaker Gifts, Executive Gifts

    In a public restroom, we take just about every precaution available from using toilet seat covers to washing our hands in order to stay germ free in the bathroom. BUT, little did we know that according to scientific studies our cellphones actually have 18 times more bacteria than a public restroom. (#EW someone get us some Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer!!) Sorry to send shivers down your spine, but don't panic just yet, because we have a product that serves up a solution to our dirty problem - it's the PhoneSoap 3.0 UV Sanitizer. It uses the cleansing power of UV light designed to sanitize any phone and it charges it AT THE SAME TIME! It's created to fit any size phone, but it doesn't stop there! You can use it to sanitize smaller items as well such as keys, jewelry, or even credit cards. Take advantage of the large imprint area and full color imprint to share your message and not the germs! 
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    Two different shades of the color black

    Here's a thought-provoking question for designers: When you got to fill in your background with black in your design program of choice, how do you set the CMYK values to get that black? 

    Do you go right for the K value and set it to 100% and leave everything at 0%? Did you know you could print a richer-looking black by adding in the other values? Did you even know there was a richer looking black? 

    This "Rich Black" uses more pigment, producing a deeper and more saturated color. The True Black (just 100% K) and Rich Black (60% C, 40% M, 40% Y, 100% K) may look the same on-screen, but the difference is clearly apparent when printed. 


    Give it a try on your next print and compare the difference! 
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    The Privacy 3 Pack

    Price Point: $3.29 - $3.78

    Available Colors: 
    Black, White

    Perfect For: Employee Desk Drops, Client Handouts, Corporate Swag Stores, Tradeshow Giveaways, Travel Items, New Hire Giveaways

    Technology is like a weed - it keeps growing and growing and taking over the garden of life. With technology continuing to blossom in our day to day, it becomes more important for us to protect ourselves against the peeping toms and the hackers of the world with the help of The Privacy 3 Pack. As you may have guessed, The Privacy 3 Pack has THREE items to protect your technology from the unwanted eavesdroppers, scammers, and "sight seers" (the nice way of putting it!). This pack comes with a data blocker that protects your phone from any unwanted data transfer, and a mic blocker and a webcam cover to help your computers, laptops, smart TVs, monitors and other tech items that have a webcam or microphone port from the peeping tom scammers of the world. The opportunity to get your message across is endless with a custom card designed to show people you really mean business when it comes to security.  
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    Illusions in Design


    In some rare yet fascinating occurrences, when strategic design is combined with a confused and deceived perceptual system, something called an illusion is born.

    Many of you may be thinking of the most famous goblet illusion, where in one second your brain processes the silhouette of a white goblet on a black background, but when looking back in the next second you instead see two black silhouetted faces facing each other on a white background . This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what our brains can perceive.  Why does this happen, though?  Before I go into an in-depth blog post on the functionality of the brain when perceiving illusions, I’ll instead give you a quick recap, along with some of the most common examples of illusions in design that we come across more often than we think. 

    Illusions in the simplest of forms are when what we actually see with our own eyes clashes with what our brain is making us think we’re seeing.  Our brain is perceiving an image in a way that differs from objective reality in an attempt to make sense of the world around us. Essentially, our brains are constantly tricking us into seeing things that are not really there. Crazy, right?!

    Here are just a few examples of illusions that can occur in the world of design:

    1) Hermann Grid Illusion


    What color do you see at the intersecting dots – white or black? Or both? While the dots are actually all white, our brain perceives them as black when we look at them with our peripheral vision because of something called lateral inhibition, which is a result of the differing amount of light falling on the smaller and larger receptive fields of the background and dots. 


    Keep in mind the Hermann Grid illusion when designing a grid for your website or collateral!



    2) Jastrow Illusion



    Which shape is longer, number 1 or 2?

    Trick question!! They are indeed the SAME size! Don’t believe me? Measure it out yourself, and you will see that when placed on top of each other, these two shapes are identical.  This illusion typically occurs with curved objects, such as these two, that are aligned vertically, leading to the illusion of the bottom shape appearing longer!



    3) Muller-Lyer Illusion



    If you have noticed this illusion before, you are one of very few.  When crafting a font, typographers almost always rely more heavily on what looks good rather logical thinking when it comes to character sizes.  When each character is created to the same height, the overall word will look disproportionate, as you can see in these two commonly known logos above.  Instead, typographers and designers use the process of “overshooting” to resize individual characters to achieve a balance in type that is the most visually pleasing.  Chances are you haven’t noticed the difference in size of the characters, though, as your brain has successfully tricked you into thinking that they looked the same!


    4) Illusion of Motion






    Stare at these images for long enough and the shapes will start moving! Why does this happen? The operating principle here is called apparent motion. It happens because there's so much geometric repetition and other data impacting varying portions of our retina all at once that our brain is fooled into believing there is movement!

    Illusory movement is a great way to engage your audience in both a physical and mental way, grabbing their attention in no time!


    5) Simultaneous Contrast Illusion 



    At first glance, the inner rectangle on the right looks like it is a darker shade of purple than that on the left, right?  However, if you move them next to each other, you will see that they are actually the same color! Placing two objects of the same color on different contrasted backgrounds can make both objects appear as if they are in fact different colors.

    This illusion is seen even more dramatically with text, as you can see in the example below, using our brand’s logo!



    The logo color is the same in both, even if the left might appear lighter to the naked eye. 


    After learning more about illusions in design and how they can affect our perception, you may start to become more aware of what effects these types of instances have on your brain. Perhaps you might even try implementing a hidden illusion into your own work to engage your audience in a new and intriguing way!


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    Top 10 of 2019

    Just in case you were knee deep in work and missed what could've been a slammin' promotional giveaway or gift - NorthPoint is recapping the top 10 spiciest items from our blog. So sit back, relax, and enjoy that cup of coffee while we refresh your memory (and marketing closet) with some products and apparel that your clients, customers, family and friends will love! 

    Moleskin Smart Writing Set
    Moleskin Smart Writing Set
    A notebook and pen that allows your ideas to travel off page and on screen!

    PopSockets 
    PopSockets
    All new products from PopSockets!

    Roots73 Apparel
    Roots73 Apparel
    The perfect apparel for those New England winters! 

    Blue Light Glasses
    Blue Light Glasses
    Filter out that harmful blue light!

    The Power Pen 
    The Power Pen
    This pen is definitely mightier than the sword!

    Custom Converse
    Custom Converse
    Unleash your creativity with Custom Converse!

    Kiss Cut Stickers
    Kiss Cut Stickers
    Kiss Cut Stickers are a unique way to showcase your brand's design. 

    Double Chuck Mini Cornhole 
    Double Chuck Mini Cornhole
    Beers sold separately.

    RuMe All Tote Bag
    RuMe All Tote Bag
    Be the envy of the check-out line with this reusable tote.

    Two Way Tracker
    Two Way Tracker
    Never lose your phone again.

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    Pixels to Print was born in 2019 and every week NorthPoint’s design team aims to educate and inspire everyone from Sales to Marketeers to other Designers. We don’t want any of these valuable posts to go unnoticed in case you missed it, so here are the top 10 posts of 2019!


    Raster vs Vector

    Understand the difference between raster and vector images and logos.

    Imprint Types
    Discover the different imprint methods NorthPoint has to offer.

    Variable Data
    Learn more about Variable Data and how to incorporate it into your next project.

    Anatomy of a Logo
    Learn about the different parts of a logo and how they can be set up.

    Crops and Bleeds
    Learn the importance of crop marks and bleed for print files. Adobe Illustrator and InDesign instruction included.

    Creative Business Cards
    Some interesting tips and examples of how to make your business card more creative.

    5 Tips for Brochure Design
    Things to consider when going to create a brochure or other collateral.

    5 Online Typography Exercises
    Become a typography master with these fun online exercises.

    8 Useful Plug-ins for Designers
    Here are some useful add-ons to make your workflow more efficient!

    Minimalism
    Discover the world of minimalism within design.

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    Segway Ninebot Electric Kick Scooter

    Price Point: $806.67

    Available Colors: 
    Black

    Perfect For: Employee Gifts / Corporate Swag Stores / Executive Gifts 

    Move over and scoot on out of the way 2019 because 2020 has arrived with big energy, positive vibes and it's cruising your way at approximately 12.4 mph! The revolutionary Segway Ninebot Electric Kick Scooter will quickly become your loyal partner on the move and have you arriving on time and in style. Wherever you go make your drive easier with adjustable cruise control, maintenance-free air-less wheels, and a combination of electronic and locking mechanical brakes for easy stopping. It's lightweight and foldable with a push of a button so that you can take it anywhere and everywhere you need to go. The build in LED lights on the front make it easy for you to light up your path to a better future (...and also your destination). 
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    Do you have a signature color that represents who you are so much that it should be named after you? Or ever think how nice it would be to become sole owner of your brand colors? Kolormark can help make your dreams come true! 


    The Kolormark project wants to name every color in the world – all 16,777,216 colors! This platform allows you to purchase a color for $1 to give it it’s own name for others to see. Once one is named, it’s no long available, so better get there quick (as of this write-up there are currently 14,493,732 available but going fast). The great thing is you also get a direct link to the color you name so it’s easy to access and share. Also, you can order a 12x16 framed certificate of your named color to hang up.


    We shared this around the NorthPoint office and here are some colors we named!





    And of course we named our iconic NorthPoint blues!

    Act fast to grab your colors! Get your first one free by using promo code PRODUCTHUNT at checkout at Kolormark

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