Christmas Close Down

We will close at 2pm Friday 23rd December and reopen Tuesday 3rd January 2012 at 8.30am

Busy week of Printing

Been a mad busy few days in the run up to Christmas we produced a digital booklet for one client 122 pages printed in colour with a gloss laminated cover and PUR bound, the client gave a great reference which follows

Gentlemen - thank you very much for this.

Since my first initial contact you both have been incredible, and particular massive thank you to Aaron for his constant dedication and going beyond what was expected to fulfill my needs.

This last proof hit the nail in the coffin and I hope the recipients feel the same way. 

Hope you both have a wonderful Christmas.

We cannot mention the company name but it is one of the largest consultancy groups in the world it makes all the effort worthwhile when someone takes time out to say thank you. 


May we take this opportunity to wish all our clients a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year

First Aid Training

Attended a course yesterday in Chigwell, Essex provided by Frinton First Aid with colleagues from Kopykat, it was very comprehensive for a 1 day course and we learnt a lot, if anyone is thinking of going on a course I can recommend them as a provider contact info@frintontraining.co.uk

The Farm - Justice Tonight Tour

The Farm band led by an old friend Peter Hooton from Liverpool best known for the hit 'Altogether Now' are doing the Justice Tonight tour to help raise awareness and support for the families who lost loved ones at the Hillsborough disaster, they will be performing in London on the 8th December playing with The Clash's Mick Jones, they are playing Liverpool on the 9th and Glasgow on the 10th, keep up to date with what they are doing by following them on twitter @thefarm2011 Being from Liverpool I would like to wish Peter good luck as he is regularly featured on LFCTV and still goes to the the LFC games, if you want to support the families the the twitter address is @HJC_official

BoxPark Shoreditch

Boxpark Shoreditch situated by Shoreditch station opened today and some of the Kopykat staff ventured along meeting Dizzee Rascal in the process, they said the atmosphere was buzzing so get yourself along Boxpark is a welcome addition to Shoreditch follow them on twitter @boxpark

Work Experience Student joins Kopykat

This coming Monday December 5th we have a work experience student starting with us for 1 week, Celina Hernandez is coming down from Maghull on the outskirts of Liverpool to work with the Kopykat team and enjoy the delights of Shoreditch life, we have work lined up and ready to go although I can't work her too hard as it's my goddaughter! Wire binding here she comes!

Booklets and Brochures

We seem to have an influx of booklet work at Kopykat at the moment currently we are producing a series of information booklets for an event at The House of Lords to do with drug policy, we have also had an order for 23 different brochures for a conference next week covering different sectors of the economy, most of the print runs are under 250 so all the work is being printed digitally with a mixture of fold, stitch and trim and PUR Perfect binding , if longer run lengths come in we would automatically put it on one of our offset litho presses, typical run lengths on these machines are 500 to 10,000.

Christmas cards

We have a wide selection of Christmas cards to choose from at Kopykat supporting Cancer Research UK  and a number of other leading charities, contact us and we can send you a link with the range of cards available, alternatively you might wish to design your own card and we can print digitally or traditionally using offset litho, send your card as a high resolution PDF we can produce a proof before print commences.

A2 posters in colour

We have the facilities to print posters either digitally or traditional offset litho a client visited yesterday and urgently needed 30 A2 posters, we recommended offset printing as it worked out less expensive than printing digitally this is one of the bonuses of using a company that has a number of different print solutions under one roof as we can always recommend the most sensible and cost effective option for you printing needs.

Flyers and posters

October was a busy month for flyers and posters we printed close on 1 million items for a local government campaign at short notice, at one stage printing 450k leaflets in the space of 3 days the order was placed on a Friday and we had everything printed by the Monday afternoon.

A5 Leaflets

Just a reminder to anyone visiting our website that the 2nd and 4th Monday of every month we have our Manic Monday promotion whereby we will print A5 double sided leaflets at £140 for 2500, £165 for 5000 and £220 for 10,000 a great value way of promoting yourself

Offset quality business cards for £65 plus vat - It can't be true

We are running a special promotion from September 2011 whereby on the 3rd Monday of every month Kopykat will print high quality offset litho business cards on 400gsm board with matt laminated finish for only £65 plus vat for 250 or £95 plus vat for 500 (single sided) all you need to do is supply a high resolution PDF 1 full working day before, we are encourging clients who cannot normally afford a card of this quality to place their order at the same time, we print in bulk this in turn keeps the cost exceptionally low not much more than the cost of the plates to do the job, the only pre-requisite is that all clients have the same material and finish and all are printed in CMYK. Typically cards printed in full colour at a different time of the month will cost more than £200 if printed offset litho. Definitely an offer you shouldn't refuse!

Manic Mondays - Low cost A5 leaflets

Just another Manic Monday

From September 12th 2011 we will be printing 2.5k A5 leaflets for £140, 5k leaflets for £165 and 10k for £220, these rates only apply on Manic Mondays which are the 2nd and 4th Monday of every month, the idea is to encourage as many clients as possible to place an order at the same time, the leaflets will be printed on 200gsm gloss in full colour and will be top quality offset, all you need to do is supply a print ready PDF at least 1 full day before.

If you have a leaflet that requires a different weight, size and material our rates will be more expensive than Manic Mondays but still very competitive, there is no restriction on when these can be printed.

Perfect Binding for perfect results

July saw the installation of a PUR Perfect binding machine at Kopykat from Intelligent Finishing Systems of Perivale, the new machine uses a super strength glue that is the best on the market, the new machine is used in conjunction with the digital print machines for short run booklets a client can have 1 copy for a pitch or a few hundred depending on their needs, it is also suitable for students who need academic binding, we now have a number of options available at Kopykat for booklet finishing that include fold, stitch and trim (2 staples on the spine) PUR Perfect binding (square spine finish) wire binding for PowerPoint presentations and pitch documents which are popular with financial companies and fashion retailers, we now have a range of options to suit most clients requirements.

Read all about it! Read all about it!

Kopykat has recently installed a new printing press and we have had a couple of reviews about the new installation and the reasons why we have installed the machine and the benefits to our clients you can read the reviews here

http://www.printweek.com/news/1081615/

http://www.worldofprint.com/us/meldung2.php?NID=10537877

Skiathos, Greece

I have not written too much about travel for a while on the blog but I recently visited Skiathos in Greece for a week and found the island well worth a visit, it was a very picturesque island with some beautiful beaches such as Koukounaries with good facilities, it is worth hiring a car to get to some of the more off the track beaches, Skiathios Town is the hub of the island with lots of restaurants to choose from it has a friendly laid back atmosphere, a restaurant worth eating at is The Windmill which has fantastic views over the harbour as you dine outside on a series of terraces high above the town, photo opportunities galore. If you stay in Skiathos Town you have to travel to the better beaches although their are beaches local to the town, if you stay near the better beaches the nightlife is more low key tavernas and you can catch a regular bus into Skiathos which takes 30 minutes although taxis are easily found.

Letterheads, leaflets, brochures, postcards and business cards

Many clients do not know the full range of services Kopykat provide probably our own fault for not getting over the message about what we do, we originally started life as a stationery printer in 1985 producing letterheads, compliment slips and business cards and as our clients requested more items we evolved so that today we produce high quality brochures and marketing material such as newsletters, leaflets and postcards, what we print is very diverse and we have a strong presence in the recruitment industry but also work for many large City firms clustered around Liverpool Street who are in the legal and insurance fields as well as many high profile charitable organisations, we now have a strong digital printing presence for fast turnaround and while you wait work for many of the local bars, restaurants, design and internet based companies in and around Shoreditch  today for example we produced a series of large format posters within a 4 hour period for events happening over the weekend in around the Shoreditch and Hoxton areas we can offer a print solution that is responsive and competitive.

Two Sides To Paper

The print industry can often get a bad press with regards the environment but in reality it is very ethical, a campaign has been set up to try and redress the balance called Two Sides, a few quick facts are that for every tree logged in managed forests three to four trees are replanted and as young trees grow, they absorb Co2 from the atmosphere, as a wood product paper continues to store carbon through it's lifetime.

As industries go paper making is a large scale undertaking and you would expect it to generate some pretty frightening statistics, it doesn't, on average it takes 500 kilowatt hours of energy to produce 200kg of paper this being the average amount of paper each of us consume per year, 500 kilowatt hours is like powering a computer continuously for 5 months or burning a lightbulb for 1 year, it is also what a typical household leaving its electronic equipment on stand-by for 1 year might consume.

Jonathan Porrit Chairman of UK Sustainability Development commented 'There aren't many industries around that can aspire to becoming genuinely sustainable. The paper industry, however, is one of them; it is inherently sustainable'.  Visit www.twosides.info

Recycled Paper Ideas

We recently came across an interesting 100 % recycled paper made using post consumer waste collected from schools and businesses around the UK, no bleaches or detergents are used when cleaning the paper, special ingredients are added ellie poo and rhino poo, grass, banknotes, denim and straw, it has a lovely natural look to it and whilst it might not be ideal for every type of job it could be used on invitations, leaflets and letterheads with a matching business card, the paper company who makes the paper supports a charity which helps Elephants and people so all very ethical.

Full colour leaflets

Although the market is tough at the moment it is still important to promote your business, Kopykat prints leaflets for a number of clients on a regular basis and our rates are competitive, we have machines suited to both short and long run requirements and we can also offer advice on recycled leaflet stocks, we have FSC chain of custody membership so can use the FSC logo on your job.

Testimonials

We like to think we do a good job doesn't everybody a few recent comments are:

I just wanted to thank you for the excellent job you did for the LDA brochure, the client is very happy and is now talking about some other projects, first rate job very impressed
Lee Newham, Designed by Good People 

Thanks very much for the flyers. I have just received them, they look great, I really appreciate your help today the fact you came to our office to show us samples and you printed the flyers so quickly, Kopykat proved to be a very professional company, it was excellent service I know that we can count on you.
Teresa Aldea, BITC

Thanks Phil, my colleague Steve Edwards told me that the books look fantastic, it is a pleasure working with people who can handle your job so efficiently and provide a quality product, take care I look forward to working with your crew again.
Jeff Jones, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Washington, USA

Paper samples

If you are planning a print project and need paper samples or advice call and ask one of the Kopykat team on 020 7739 2451 we also hold a range of samples onsite covering most clients needs or can easily arrange for paper samples to be sent to you direct from the paper merchant, if you speak to Darren Lock or Phil Moretti-Greene they can advise you of different papers available or give advice regarding FSC and recycled papers.

Print Tip - Artwork

Before you prepare artwork for print talk to your printer and ask their advice, on occasion we find a client might spend hours of hard work preparing a file only to overlook the basics and if the print job is needed quickly incorrect artwork can slow the process down as it needs to be corrected, typical mistakes are forgetting to add bleed if the colour prints to the edge of the sheet or photographs at the wrong resolution, 300dpi is best not 72dpi which is mainly for screen display, bear in mind programmes such as word or publisher are not ideal for high quality print such as brochures or leaflets, it is best to use Apple Macintosh based programmes such as Indesign, Quark Express, Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, your local graphic designer or print company will use these programmes on a daily basis, we recently had a client supply a leaflet in publisher and we thought the layout did a disservice to an important subject, we had one of our designers work on the leaflet for 30-45 minutes in quark and illustrator this improved the leaflet tenfold the client was delighted with the result and the feedback from us.

Artwork tip - DL roll fold leaflets

When setting up artwork for a 6pp DL roll fold leaflet it will have three sections, two of them will make up the front and back cover they are the largest at 100mm each, the third panel then needs to tuck in comfortably without buckling so it needs to be slightly smaller at 97mm when you add these three measurements together it measures 297mm the length of an A4 sheet, the outside measurement should start with the the lowest measurement of 97mm on the left this assumes that when you look at the flat sheet the front page is on the far right, the inside measurement of the leaflet is an exact replica of the outside but the lowest measurement of 97mm should be on the right in order that it backs up correctly at the printing stage, once you have done this remember also that if you have colour bleeding to the edge of the sheet to add 3mm bleed this is often overlooked. To find more information about the various folds available and the correct technical term look under our downloads section where a PDF is available regarding folding formats.

Chocolates to tantalise the taste buds

We have just finished producing some printed labels and leaflets for Ilze's Chocolat when we delivered the work to Ilze she kindly let us sample her delightful chocolates and they certainly do tantalise the tastebuds as Ilze's website proclaims, Ilze trained as a gourmet chef and had her own cookery school in Pretoria, Ilze gained the Diplome de cuisine et de Patisserie the ultimate qualification in french cuisine and patisserie, she then trained at the Ecole De Chocolat in France and Belgium and eventually developed her own mouth watering products, Ilze mainly sells at Farmers Markets and online and donates 10% of her earnings to www.hope4saorphans.com. Why not visit Ilze's website www.ilzeschocolat.com we can definitely recommend it.

Shoot Experience - Photo competition

Shoot Experience based in Shoreditch held a photo competition today and asked us to open up especially to print out A3 prints of the photos taken, they had a series of runners popping in with memory sticks for us to print from we had 90 minutes to print them all out for an exhibition and event held today at 5.30pm the event takes place at Idea Generation Gallery in Chance Street, E2 as part of the Becks Art Crawl visit their websites to see upcoming events http://www.shootexperience.com/events/home/PUB http://gallery.ideageneration.co.uk/

Roll up banners

We have also been busy this week printing roll up banners we had an order for 35 of them for a hotel group we also needed to print posters and directional signs to accompany them, the banners were all printed digitally on one of our large format printers.

Truepress

The new Truepress has now been in production over a week and the printers have produced some nice leaflet work in the few days it has been in operation, it is also suitable for company stationery, postcards and newsletters, give us a call when you next need a quote or email print@kopykat.co.uk

Huge sigh of relief

At last it's in position with no damage done all we have to do over the next few days is wire it up and print test it we can all have a nice cup of tea now and relax, by the way where do we plug it in?

You push i'll pull

Come on boys bit more elbow grease is needed I'll take the photo, not far now.

Imagine wrapping this up

At least its through the doors nearly there

Gently does it lads!

Gently does it lads make sure you don't hit those doors, a bit more to the left not that I'm a back seat driver

Truepress Arrives

The new Truepress being lifted off the lorry early Saturday morning a long day awaits this is the start of the tricky bit let's hope it all goes well.

Out with the old in with the new

We have had a busy day today we decided to purchase a new Truepress machine from Screen Europe so the old 5 colour press was taken apart and away by a articulated lorry with a crane on the back, it frightens the life out of you when you see the guys at work and the weights they have to lift certainly a pressurised job, tomorrow we will have a good clean up in anticipation for the new press which arrives Saturday this will take 5 days to get up and running ready for print so this time next week we hope to be printing our first jobs.

 Their are several benefits to the client of Kopykat installing the new press the main one is speed of set up compared to other presses this will result in more competitive rates to our clients if anyone would like a demo contact us on print@kopykat.co.uk

Japan

You have to admire the people of Japan they are so resilient it is not many countries who could deal with a massive earthquake a tsunami and a nuclear disaster all at the same time they have been so dignified, we actually deal with a number of Japanese companies for our print machinery such as Komori and Dainippon Screen who we are in the process of buying a new press off their HQ is in Kyoto and so far they have kept all their production intact, lets hope they pull through and eventually get back to some sort of normality, we also have Japanese clients in the City may we wish them well.

New Starter at Kopykat

Kopykat are pleased to welcome a new person to the team James Bushell, James started work at Kopykat on February 28th and comes from a digital and large format background, he has settled in nicely and seems to be enjoying the banter, Jim will be responsible mainly for clients walking in over the door who need quick turnaround digital work, he is also a Liverpool FC fan which helps redress the balance between myself and the rest of the staff.

London Fashion Week

It's been a busy few days with all the rush print jobs wanted for London Fashion Week we received one job on Wednesday night which was 7500 copies of a 24 page brochure for Friday lunchtime we printed all day Thursday and made into booklets Friday morning the job looked really nice on an uncoated recycled paper, the client left it a bit late supplying the artwork but we managed to pull out all the stops and deliver on time very rewarding when all goes according to plan.

What do Grange Hill and Kopykat have in common?

We've just found out one of our staff appeared in Grange Hill in the late 1980s the person in question has worked here 9 years and he has just been uncovered talk about modesty! we will not tell you who he is but a clue is that he supports Fulham FC, he said that Kopykat is just a filler until they are looking for an actor for the next James Bond.

Special offer - Leaflets

We have a special offer on leaflets at the moment which lasts until the end of February 2011, the leaflets are printed full colour both sides of A5 (2pp)on a 150gsm paper silk or gloss, we print using vegetable inks and without the use of alcohol so environmentally you are doing the right thing the paper is also FSC, delivery is free within the M25, all you need to do is send us your print ready PDF call one of the team at Kopykat on 020 7739 2451 or email print@kopykat.co.uk alternatively call us with any of your other leaflet requirements.

Truepress demonstration

Visited Screen UK today for a demonstration on their Truepress print machine this combines the speed of digital set up with the quality of offset litho printed work, I must say very impressive, we hope to install it in the near future, if so this will increase turnaround times and be more competitive on certain types of work, we will keep you posted

Italian vacations

A long standing client Carole Groombridge has recently spent some time renovating an Italian hideaway which is now available to rent, Casa del Ruscello is a self catering holiday home nestled in the foothills of Mount Maiella, one of the national parks of Abruzzo on the Adriatic coast, it enjoys panoramic views across a valley amongst olive groves and vineyards. the house sleeps 9 people and all general amenities are available locally, the beach is 35 minutes drive, skiing 45 minutes and Pescara airport 1 hour so if you like the idea of an Italian vacation visit www.casadelruscello.com

File preparation

We often get asked advice on how to prepare a file for print, we find the most common mistake clients make when preparing a file is that bleed is not added, when colour prints to the edge of a sheet it is standard practice within the print industry to add 3mm bleed so when the job is cut on the guillotine the white edges of the sheet do not show, therefore if the finished size of your job is A5 210mm x 148mm if 3mm and bleed is added all around the size would be 216mm x 154mm trim marks would normally be shown on the file to show the finished size at A5, files should also be saved as CMYK if in full colour rather than RGB which is a PC format, occasionally work might involve pantone colours rather than CMYK the bleed principle still applies, if you need any advice do not hesitate to call one of the Kopykat team

LARGE FORMAT Posters in Shoreditch

Our new poster printer is now installed it produces top quality prints perfect for your poster prints, if you are local to us in Shoreditch why not pop in and take a look at the superb print quality it produces, if need be we can mount the poster for you as well, it is also ideal for roll up banners.

Kopykat and Chelsea FC

Kopykat would like to apologise to any of our clients who support Chelsea about our last blog but we will give you the right of reply

Transfer day deadline January 31st 2011

My nerves are shredded! Torres to Chelsea? why oh why Fernando? Barcelona I could understand even Arsenal if they would pay out for you but not Chelsea, Carroll to Liverpool would be good news though teaming up with Suarez, this transfer deadline day has more tight deadlines than the print industry!

New digital equipment installed

In December we installed a new digital machine the Xerox 700 with online bookletmaking this joins 3 Xerox machines we already have onsite and expands our capacity further, February will see the installation of another poster printing machine from Epson with a 64 inch wide capability again doubling our output in this area as it joins an existing poster printer, we also have two 5 colour offset printing presses and a single colour press this allows us to choose the best solution for the clients needs.

Sutherland House restaurant Southwold

I visited Southwold in Suffolk for New Year and ate with family and friends in Sutherland House Restaurant which I would highly recommend, on the 3 or 4 occasions we ate there the food was 1st class, all the food is sourced locally and in fact it recently won best UK restaurant for local produce from the Good Food Guide they even have their own allotment and have been awarded two rosettes. Southwold itself is definitely worth a visit with great pubs such as the Lord Nelson and The Red Lion, the beach is clean and safe and ideal for young children and reminds you of what the English seaside used to be like. www.sutherlandhouse.co.uk

A Tribute to Horatio Nelson

Just been given a job from really nice guy called David Griffin who is a Chelsea pensioner, Dave had an old manuscript written for Horatio Nelson as a tribute to him that he wanted to reproduce, it had been kept in a vault in Harrods, Dave nervously gave us the original, we were nervous as well, we immediately scanned the original as we were worried about damaging it, the manuscript dated back to 1805 and was the only one of it's kind, once scanned we retouched the document made printing plates and reproduced new copies for Dave who was then to distribute it through specialist booksellers Dave also wrote a booklet which accompanied the document Nelson & Victory at Cape Trafalgar. Some of the younger guys asked if I remembered the manuscript being printed originally blooming cheek!