This month we have a lot of really great, practical articles to get the “school year” started! Diana Varma concludes her two-part series about ways you can get needed training and learn new skills without breaking the bank. We also feature Bonny Koabel’s article about saving money by addressing your plant’s utility needs. From changing out light bulbs, to complete energy audits, there are many ways to save. Olivia Parker’s article this month is a great refresher about navigating common preflight issues. Preflighting is so critical for ensuring that prepress departments do not become bottlenecks. Ideally you have tools set up that allow you to accept and inspect files promptly. From my CSR days, one of the tasks I hated most was calling a client 3-5 days after we received files to let them know I need all new files. The response was almost always “why didn’t you tell me right away?” Today we have the tools that allow you to do that before the client sends anything your way. From simple solutions like sending over Acrobat Preflight Profiles, to something more complex like developing custom prepress portals, the key is to not do nothing!
This month I am also excited to contribute a major article, which explores how we can use print to respond to all the senses for better engagement. The article is loaded with great ideas for campaigns that engage taste, smell, touch, sight and sound! This is a topic that was inspired by several years of student webinar projects (PRINT5ENSES and SenseSerif to name a few of the groups). As you can imagine print is pretty well engineered to respond to the sense of sight. However, with our attention being fleeting you will be glad to learn that when great ideas use today’s technology it is possible to better engage your audience using other senses. This is powerful stuff because while you can easily avert your eyes, it is much harder to deny a smell or sound!
Lastly, in this issue I’m thrilled to share some of the thesis work that Scott Morgan has been doing during his Masters of Digital Media at Ryerson. In his article, Scott describes the NFC-enabled coaster campaign he had the opportunity to develop with Corby Distilleries. It is amazing to watch new grads come up with great solutions.
Happy highlighter shopping!