Be proud of your printing

The print industry can be tough on the environment, which is why we have taken steps to greatly reduce our ecological footprint. Anything printed by us is printing you can be proud of.

  

Recycling
We recycle everything from our paper and plastic production waste to beverage cans and bottles. All employees follow a strict in-office recycling program which means we recycle at the office the same way you should at home. In the office or in the shop, anything that can be recycled is.

Low Volatile Organic Compounds
All of our press chemicals are low Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) which do not require special treatment prior to disposal. Not only are our press chemicals safe for the environment, they do not jeopardize the health of our employees.

Plant-based inks
All of our offset press inks are canola and soy-based, as well as low VOCs.

Reuse
Our digital press toner cartridges are refilled and whenever possible press parts are sent back to be refurbished instead of replaced.

Every day at Mountain View Printing & Graphics is Earth Day. Because we do everything we can to lessen our ecological footprint and provide a high-quality product, anything printed by us is printing you can be proud of.

 

Direct mail into the right hands

Direct mail is still one of the most effective ways to reach your current and potential clients. As our email inboxes and social media feeds become inundated, we believe it’s worth spending a few dollars on tangible, direct mail marketing in order to get your message into the right hands and not just deleted or swiped by.

Rosebud Centre for the Arts, a quaint performing arts theatre 100 km northeast of Calgary, has had continued success with direct mail. Every year, the organization mails 12,000 season programs in the fall and 20,000 individual show postcards a few weeks before each of their seven productions.

Despite having the season’s schedule posted on their website and Facebook, “We see a significant increase in our season ticket sales once our program hits mailboxes, which makes it well worth the investment,” says Adam Furfaro, Executive Director at Rosebud Centre for the Arts.

Direct mail is also a great way to stay top of mind. Another reason Adam continues to distribute the program by mail is because “We want it [the program] to stay in the home all year long as a reference guide to what we have going on,” he says. “While the follow-up postcards act as a reminder to buy tickets if they [the recipients] haven’t already, and if they have it’s a bit of a teaser getting them excited for the upcoming show.”

For whatever your company wants to promote, from a theatre production or event to a new product or service, we’ll work with you to bring it to life in print, and get it into the right hands through direct mail.

Visit us online or call 403.236.8558 to find out how we can help you get noticed.

Want FREE tips on how to create your own direct mail piece? Email us.

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Here is a copy of our most recent direct mail piece promoting… direct mail! It features a circular die cut and digital silver metallic ink. Check your mailbox for your copy. Didn’t receive one? Email us and we’ll make sure you do.

Does growing your business seem like a mountain too high to climb?

Direct mail is still one of the most effective ways to reach your current and potential clients. For whatever your company wants to promote, we’ll work with you to bring it to life in print, and get it into the right hands. Plus, we’ll more than likely suggest how a few tweaks could save you some big dollars.

We’ll help you reach your summit.

Watch how this die cut, direct mail piece with silver ink was created.

Our Integrity is Your Peace of Mind.

Setting the mood for Fashion with Compassion

Wanting to create a fresh new look for the 2016 Fashion with Compassion fundraiser, the team from Breast Cancer Supportive Care Foundation reached out to us at Mountain View Printing & Graphics Ltd.

After brainstorming together, we agreed:

• To use a similar colour palette for the event as the foundation’s already established colours, rich oranges, purples, and greens. Doing so helps to associate the event with the organization

• To create a stand-alone logo for the event, 2016 Fashion with Compassion

• To incorporate butterflies. Butterflies have a very significant meaning in regards to cancer treatment and recovery, representing a transformation or rebirth, and

• That the finished pieces should incorporate white space, creating a light, airy feel

The many requests were presented to in-house graphic designer Angela Mosco, who then created a mood board to review with our client.

A mood board is a collection of text, images, and colours all related to a design theme. As design concepts can sometimes be abstract and difficult to communicate effectively, a mood board helps both the designer and the client visualize the final look and feel of a design before starting on any specific projects.

After reviewing the mood boards together, we were able to finalize the foundation’s design vision for the event collateral and began working on the postcard (below) and poster. With a few minor tweaks to the first two projects, the look was finalized and approved making the process of coordinating additional materials more efficient moving forward.

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Fashion with Compassion 2016 will showcase some of the latest trends in fall fashion, as well as the strong, determined, and beautiful individuals involved in supportive programming at the Breast Cancer Supportive Care Foundation. Proceeds from this luncheon will support local programs and services for breast cancer patients.

Ticket to the 2016 Fashion with Compassion are on sale now. To purchase yours, click here.

Celebrating 32 years and “haven’t worked very many days”

While the print industry itself has greatly evolved since the fifteenth century when Johannes Gutenberg perfected movable type, Mountain View Printing & Graphics Ltd. has experienced quite a few changes as well since their incorporation.

More than three decades ago, Mountain View entered the world of printing as a small shop located in northwest Calgary. The company consisted of two full-time employees and “whatever family members we could get,” says B.J. Chandler, Co-owner/Partner of Mountain View Printing.

B.J. has been working in the print industry since he was 18 years old. Reflecting back, he is still grateful to his high school locker partner for introducing him to Graphic Communications, an option B.J. is happy he choose.

“I can honestly say I haven’t worked very many days in my life,” says B.J. “I really enjoy what I do.”

In the beginning, Mountain View Printing & Graphics Ltd. consisted of three rebuilt ABDick offset presses, which were simple and inexpensive to operate. “We were busy and running all three at once,” says B.J.

One of the Press Operators was Gary Park. Over time, Gary worked his way from part time to full time, Press Operator to Production Manager to Sales Representative. When an opportunity to become Partner presented itself, Gary was eager to join B.J. “Gary and I have been going real strong ever since,” says B.J.

Wow, how times have changes.

Once we were just an empty warehouse.

It didn’t take long to fill the warehouse.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the care we take with each project.

One of the first Mountain View business cards.

Just one of the offset presses we’ve had over the years.

The majority of business used to consist of notepads and business cards. Today, presentation folders, high-quality annual reports, oversized signage, and pop-up banners are an every day job for the team at Mountain View. The change in demand required a change in process, and in order to meet the evolving needs of their clients, efficiencies were introduced. Efficiencies for the print industry meant automation. Machines that were once operated by levers had become completely computerized and automated. “When we bought the Heidelberg Printmaster we increased efficiencies by over 400%. We were able to do in one hour what we had been doing in four,” says B.J.

Over the years, as demands continued to change and increase, Mountain View adopted digital printing techniques. Now with four Xerox digital presses, they are able to facilitate the amount of work generated by their sales team, keep the cost affordable for the customer, and offer custom finishes, such as high gloss covering selected or entire areas, and sparkly metallic inks.

In September 2015, Keystone Graphics Ltd. joined Mountain View Printing & Graphics Ltd. Looking forward; business partners B.J. and Gary are excited to announce their expansion into a larger space at the same address. “We are continually building on what we have and are aiming to consistently increase sales,” says B.J. “We will keep looking for ways to improve our processes and gain more customers. Having more space will help because we can bring in more equipment to handle larger jobs.”

In the words of Zig Ziglar, successful salesman, author and motivational speaker, who is highly respected by B.J., “You can get everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” And that’s what motivates the team at Mountain View Printing & Graphics Ltd. daily.

Whether it’s working together to figure out the best way to present an idea, meeting a tight deadline for printed materials, providing personalized customer service to fit the client’s needs, all while saving the client time and money, nothing is above and beyond for this full-service print company. “It’s just what we do,” says Gary.

What the heck is a vector file?

 

Raster and vector are two different types of digital graphic files, each serving a specific purpose. Understanding the differences is important to achieve your desired outcome.

Raster

Raster graphics are images made up of tiny dots or pixels, which contain colour information. While the terms are often used interchangeably, the technical term for this
information when referring to an image displayed on a monitor is pixel and dot refers to the same bit of information on a printed image.

The most common use of a raster file is photographs. You may have heard reference to a photo as 300 dpi or 72 dpi, this refers to the quality of the photo. A 300 dpi, dots per inch, photo has a higher resolution and higher quality than a photo with 72 dpi. High resolution photos will print sharper than photos with low resolution because there is more information in one square inch of the photo, there are more dots per inch.

Why don’t images from the internet print well?

There is nothing worse then waiting for an image to load onto a webpage, agreed? Typically when this happens, it’s because the image is a higher quality than it should be for its purpose. In order for images to appear in focus when viewed on a screen and not keep you waiting, they should be formatted to 72 dpi. As mentioned, 72 dpi is low resolution for a printed photo which is why photos from the internet do not print well.

It is possible to decrease the number of dots or pixels and size of a raster image or graphic without losing quality, however the conversion does not work the other way.

Raster files used for print will contain one of the following extensions:

.psd – Photoshop Document – is a layered file created in Adobe Photoshop. This file format makes it possible to edit individual layers of the image even after the file has been saved.

.tif/.tiff – Tag Image File or Tag Image File Format – is similar to a .psd file in that it keeps individual layers separated even after saving, but a .tif can also be opened by programs other than Photoshop. A .tif has the ability to save transparencies and has a slightly smaller file size than a .psd without compromising quality, taking up less space when being stored.

.jpg/.jpeg – Joint Photographic Experts Group – is the most common format for digital photos. This file type has “lossy” compression, which means that some image quality is lost when the file is saved. This slight loss in quality results in a smaller file size making it easy to transfer electronically. A .jpg does not maintain layers after saving.

.eps – Encapsulated PostScript – are acceptable for print but are a less common format today, as there is no real benefit to them over the other formats available.

HELPFUL HINT: It is possible to save both raster and vector files as an .eps. If a vector file is required, a raster .eps will not suffice. Be sure to clarify what type of file is needed not just the extension the file should have.

Vector

Vector graphics and images are a combination of geometric shapes, point, lines, and curves, based on mathematics instead of pixels. Having a mathematic relationship between elements allows them to be resized without losing quality. Vector files are typically editable, provided the text hasn’t been converted to outlines and raster images haven’t been placed within the file without being embedded.

TIP: If using raster images in a vector .eps file, be sure to embed the image or include the linked image when transferring the vector file.

Vector files are particularly important for logos. As a best practice, always design logos using a program that will produce a vector file.

Vector files will end with the following extensions:

.ai – Adobe Illustrator – is a vector file created in Adobe Illustrator. All elements and layers are editable even after saving.

.eps – Encapsulated Postscript – is similar to an .ai file but can be opened by programs other than Adobe Illustrator. (See Raster .eps HELPFUL HINT)

As you can see there is more to a file and its extension then you might expect. Each file type has a unique purpose. Simply changing the letters of an extension will not change the properties of the file itself. When it comes to digital graphics, it’s a good idea to start with the end in mind to avoid wasting time recreating or reformatting files.

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Do you have print related questions? Our experts are here to help, contact us.

Our Integrity is Your Peace of Mind.

Is your business card working for you?

In a world dominated by digital… everything, you may be surprised to know that business cards are still one of your most important tools when it comes to making connections and growing your business. During most face-to-face interactions, business cards are still exchanged and if you don’t have one to offer it could result in lost opportunities for you.

“It’s a good way to make a positive first impression, not only of your business but also of you,” says B.J. Chandler, Owner of Mountain View Printing & Graphics Ltd. “It needs to grab their attention without being complicated.”

Your business card is a marketing tool. In addition to providing contact information, it acts as a storefront to your business giving the receiver a quick understanding of what you offer.

Per unit business cards are very inexpensive, which is why it’s worth spending the necessary time and resources to ensure your card portrays the message you want, both literally and subjectively. “There is a big difference between price and cost,” says B.J., referring to Zig Zaglar, successful salesman, author and motivational speaker. “Whenever you try to cut the price, it will cost you in the long run.”

Here are seven tips to help you create an effective business cards that works for you:

Size: Consider the standard business card size which is 3.5” x 2”. Anything bigger, smaller or unconventional may stand out but can be annoying, since it won’t fit into a wallet or business card storage device. Your card could have a horizontal or vertical configuration providing the proportions are the same.

Simplicity: The objective of a business card is to ensure people know who you are and how to get in contact with you. Key information to feature on your business card is your name, company name and/or logo, phone number, email address and website. If space allows and depending how relevant the information is, you can add your title, physical address, cell number, and fax number. Remember to keep it simple to avoid overcrowding.

Legibility: Make sure all text is easily legible. Avoid overuse of script or decorative fonts.

Well-organized: Since most business card storage devices hide one side of the card, keep all important information to one side. The reverse side of your business card is a great place to express your company’s identity. We recommend adding your tagline or mission, or an icon or photo representative of your business.

Design: There are a lot of templates available to help you create your own business card but we recommend you have a professional design it, and we aren’t just saying that so you will pay us to do it. As the first impression of your business, we’re guessing ‘generic template’ isn’t what you’re going for.

Paper: A flimsy business card is like a limp handshake, it’s memorable but not in a good way. Choose a paper stock that has a quality feel, so that your card only leaves a good impression.

Unique: Just because your business card should be simple doesn’t mean it should be boring. Use colour, incorporate an interesting printing technique, or a unique cut; you may be surprised how eye catching and affordable these additions are. Choose one element to highlight to give your card a bit of an edge over every other card/competitor out there.

For more information and to get a business card that works for you contact us. We’re always happy to give suggestions and creative expertise, or offer an estimate on your next project.

“Our integrity is your peace of mind.”

Add a bit of sparkly to your next project!

A hint of Metallic Gold or Metallic Silver Ink could be just what your heart desires when it comes to making your piece pop.

As one of the few printers in Calgary that offers digitally printed metallic inks, we hope you might develop a bit of a crush on us this Valentine’s Day! PLUS, since the ink is digitally printed you may be surprised how affordable it is.

For more ways on how to add sparkle to your next project, visit us at www.mvprinters.com we’d be happy to offer some suggestions, creative expertise, or provide a quote for your next printing project.

Follow us on social media @mvprinters to stay up to date on the latest trends in printing and how “Our integrity is your peace of mind”.

Do you want lucky* business cards?

Find out how you can WIN 1,000 FREE business cards!

We attended the Tourism Calgary Open House at Arts Commons. During this great event, our new Marketing Manager won a trip for 2 from ‪Calgary to ‪London, England‬ with Air Canada on their new ‪‎Dreamliner‬. If you haven’t see this aircraft yet, it’s a thing of beauty, check it out here.

Since this was one of the first business cards she had handed out, we figure her cards are lucky, and the reason her card was chosen from the collection by Naheed Nenshi was because the Mayor simply couldn’t resist the feel of the high-quality finished product  -printed by us, of course 😉

To ‪share this luck‬, we will be giving away 1,000 FREE high quality lucky* business cards.

For your chance to WIN:
Follow us on Linked in, twitter, instagram and like us on facebook.

Each action will receive one entry into the draw for 1,000 FREE business cards. Contest closes Monday, February 29 at 3 p.m. MST.

*luck not guaranteed

Good luck everyone!

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1,000 FREE standard sized business cards will be printed on 130 lb stock, full colour, double sided. All cards must be of one design but can be divided among up to 5 different people. Design of cards not included.

New opportunity with a Mountain View

Kim Foster, Marketing Manager: Mountain View Printing & Graphics

With 15 years experience in Marketing and Communications, I’ve worked with my fair share of print companies. During this time, the one that always stood out as the clear front runner was Mountain View Printing & Graphics Ltd.

Their quality is consistently spot-on, their personalized customer service makes me feel that my project is their number one priority, and their prices can’t be beat – trust me. I am always confident that when I send a project to Mountain View it is going to meet, if not exceed the expectations of myself and my client.

Which is why I’m excited to announce that I have joined their team.

As the Marketing Manager, I will share stories through social media from behind the scenes and advice from our in-house experts to help you save time, money, and frustration on custom printing you are proud of.

As a Sales Representative, I’m excited to work directly with clients to brainstorm creative solutions for their design challenges, while delivering the same peace of mind and quality products Mountain View has always provided me.

So the next time you or your company is looking for printed materials, such as brochures, direct mail pieces, or event signage please contact Mountain View Printing & Graphics Ltd. so I can show you exactly why I choose to join their team.

As well, be sure to follow us on twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, like us on facebook, or subscribe to our blog to stay up to date on the industry’s best practices, secret of the trade and how “Our integrity is your peace of mind”.