Colour posters

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We are finding that more and more companies and individuals are making enquiries about posters. Posters are now being ordered for weddings, birthday celebrations as one offs because it is surprisingly inexpensive.

Generally the most popular sizes are A2 and A1. Most posters for smaller quantities are printed digitally as it is cost effective and has a speedy turnaround time. We can for example often have a client walk through the door who needs a poster almost immediately, it is entirely possible to print within a couple of hours as we have three large format machines available for this type of request.

We have recently installed a mounting machine to enable us to offer a quick turnaround for exhibition type boards. So your poster will be printed on 190gsm silk paper then applied to a 5mm thick board ready for display.

What happens though if your poster request runs into larger multiples? at Kopykat we also have offset print machines so if for instance you need 50 or 100 A2 posters we might suggest offset printing as it is often more cost effective to produce the posters this way than on a slower large format machine. This only works if it is a common content throughout. 

So if you are a best man preparing a speech at your mate's wedding why not accompany it with an embarrassing childhood picture of the groom! All you need to do is supply a print ready PDF.

New York, New York

We received an order earlier in the week from a technology company based in New York. This involved an 8pp brochure, A4 product sheets and business cards. They sent the artwork over and we processed the order which all went very smoothly. They are due to fly in and stay in the Shoreditch area and exhibit at Excel where we will deliver to on Sunday. Almost immediately after we took the order we received another enquiry from New York. It just shows the power of Google and how the print world has changed with orders arriving from all sorts of different locations. Maybe we should open Kopykat NYC!

Mounting of posters

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We have recently installed a new mounting machine to compliment our poster printing service. Previously mounting was outsourced and this slowed the production process down. We have now improved the speed of turnaround which was fairly fast anyway but now something can often be printed and mounted within a few hours depending on workflow.

Bambi — street artist

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Talking about Bambi one of her images is above if you want to see more of her work check out www.waltonfinearts.com or follow her on twitter @bambiartist.

Shoreditch graffiti

Shoreditch has certainly become a lot more colourful over the years with lots of graffiti artists plying their trade. The graffiti shown is just along on the line from our own railway arches. One of our favourites is Bambi.

Bank of England confirms note switch

The Bank of England has announced that the next £5 and £10 notes will be printed on on polymer rather than cotton paper, with the first run scheduled for 2016. The first polymer note to be issued will be the £5 featuring Sir Winston Churchill it will be followed a year later by the £10 note which will carry an image of Jane Austen.

Fighter jet uses 3D printed parts

A Tornado jet has used 3D printed parts using components made on the spot. BAE says this will potentially help slash maintenance costs. The components were successfully used on a Tornado that flew from the defence firms Warton, Lancashire airfield. BAE said they are using 3D technology to design and produce parts that could cut the Royal Air Force's service bill by over £1.2m over the next 4 years

St Bernard Pass — The Italian Job

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Had the pleasure of driving to Italy this year and instead of taking our normal route through the St Bernard tunnel we decided to go over the top of the mountain. This only takes about 20 minutes longer but the views are amazing and when you reach the top you can stop and visit where the St Bernard mountain rescue dogs are kept. This is on the border of Italy and Switzerland you can also visit a small museum and take great photos of the lake and mountains at the top. I normally find this is the best tunnel into Italy as it is less congested and hardly ever any traffic jams which can often occur at the Frejus and Mont Blanc tunnels. So if you get the chance definitely pay a visit you can watch the road snaking up ahead of you as you drive. Some of the scenes for the original Italian Job were filmed here. Anyway the holidays finished so back to the world of print!

FESPA 2013 at ExCeL London

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I attended FESPA last week at the Excel Centre to see the latest technologies emerging in the print industry. The event was well attended with plenty of equipment to see. One thing that caught the eye was the vehicle wrapping as this photo of a mini wrapped in velvet shows.

Rivington Street Festival Shoreditch

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The Rivington Street Festival in Shoreditch took place last week and it appeared that a good day was had by all. This is the 2nd year of the festival so it will hopefully be an annual event from now on. Kopykat's yard was used for a bar area with a DJ. A large bottle of Desperado beer also found its way into the yard.

Kopykat joins Two Sides

Kopykat has joined Two Sides which is an organisation set up to counteract some of the myths surrounding the print and paper industry from an environmental point of view. Its membership spans the whole graphic communications value chain. Two Sides seeks to ensure that, by fostering a better understanding of our industry's environmental credentials, Print and Paper through its myriad of uses from commercial applications to the basis of learning and creativity, remains the essential communication medium of choice. Browse the website www.twosides.info you will be surprised at some of the things you find out.

3D printing

Fears grow as the first gun is produced using a 3D printer. Amazing what you can produce on 3D printers but this could be one of the downsides

Printed aprons — Google

Google asked us to print a small amount of aprons for a cookery event that they are involved with in Israel. It meant printing a logo and sourcing the aprons we then added the logo to the apron by dye sublimination process

Fish Central EC1

A quick blog away from printing just to sing the praises of a local restaurant called Fish Central in Central Street EC1 about 10 minutes from Kopykat. We visited on Saturday evening the service was really good, the staff exceptionally friendly and the fish excellent. So highly recommended if you want to pay a visit.

Birthday posters

Ever thought of a poster as a birthday present? We can scan your photos creating a collage effect then print to either A2, A1 or even A0 and mount onto polyboard for you to display at a friends birthday bash. We have done this recently for a couple of clients and it has gone down well at the party. Of course you could do this for lots of other events as well maybe the best man at a wedding could get some embarrassing photos of the groom!

Digital booklets

It has been a busy weekend at Kopykat we had shifts on until 11pm both Friday and Saturday evenings in order to print a large digital booklet job that is wanted for a meeting 11am on Monday the order was placed Friday at 4pm. If all goes well we should finish the job for 10pm tonight Sunday then we can look forward to a relaxing restful week ahead. He says with tongue firmly in cheek!

B2 printing London

Looking for a B2 printer in London? Look no further we have both B2 presses and B3. B2 is suitable for multi-page booklets and brochures as well as general marketing collateral such as leaflets, newsletters and postcards. You will also find that longer run lengths tend to be printed B2 for example 40k letterheads would almost certainly be a B2 job. Smaller run work under 5k would more likely be printed on a B3 press which is half the size of B2. You do not as a client have to make this decision the printer will use his experience to select the most suitable machine at the most competitive rate for you.

Bocelli — Love in Portofino

We have recently been asked to produce a series of quad size posters to promote Bocelli's new film Love in Portofino. We produced the posters on a backlit material as they needed to be placed in lightboxes. We then supplied postal tubes inserted the posters and distributed to 230 cinemas nationwide.

FSC Chain of Custody

Just been told that we have passed our annual FSC chain of custody audit. This is great news as it allows us to print the FSC logo on a clients print job should they want us to assuming of course the paper comes from an FSC source. Chain of custody shows the journey of the raw material from a well managed sustainable forest to the paper mill, the printer and eventually the end user. FSC was originally set up by the furniture industry to stop illegal logging.