Allegra Rolling Meadows - Design

Why Pictures and Words Got Separated

Michael Tarpinian — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:43:00 GMT

We had quite a few people call and stop by and comment on our post Words and Pictures. In light of that, this is backfilling—a brief history of printing and why images were downplayed.

Early on in the history of printing, pictures went away. Grown up books, serious books did not have...

Words and Pictures

Michael Tarpinian — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:55:00 GMT

Putting images with text is an ancient idea. First came the pictures—think hieroglyphics or cave drawings. Alphabets grew out of pictorial representations. Words came from pictures. Then pictures were used with words to explain or add meaning or context to the words.

Along came printing and pictures were still there, but

Five Reasons Allegra Likes Crocodoc

Michael Tarpinian — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 02:44:00 GMT

As a proofing application, nothing comes close to Crocodoc. Here are five reasons why:

1) Greater flexibility and speed—Sure there are dedicated systems printers can use, but they come at a high price, and require a printshop to conform to their canned web site solution, which would mean a major overhaul of our workflow. Crocodoc, on the other hand...

Make Sense of Business Card Masters

Michael Tarpinian — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:05:00 GMT

Here we will explain how to use business card masters, or shells, to save money, time and increase quality. As we see it, that is the big three for our customers.

How does printing masters save money?

Recent Business Card Trends

Michael Tarpinian — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:29:00 GMT

We have noticed a few changes in the way people are designing and using business cards. They seem to be less formal these days and a little bit more friendly. Now that full color printing is quite common for business cards, you’re more likely to see full-color graphics and logos or photos on them. Another interesting trend is round cornered business cards. While we used to just die cut the round corners we now have a new machine that can do this quicker in smaller batches. Rounding all four corners is the most common but some people round just two or even one. Something else that is a small but growing trend is more like old-fashioned calling cards. It’s hard to call them business cards when they just contain personal information. Couples and families are getting them with their personal contact information and e-mail addresses on them and sometimes even their blogs listed on them. People are even buying them for their high school and college-age children. Since people seem to be networking ...

4 Traits of Good Design

Michael Tarpinian — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:07:00 GMT

You don’t have to be a graphic designer to make a document more effective. There are four basic principles that can help any document have a bigger impact on your target audience. It doesn’t matter if you are making a flyer, newsletter, or poster, these principles apply.