|
In the early stages of a
product's design, don't wrestle with bizarre fractions of an inch
unless you have to. At Rickard Bindery, we use a planning trick that
is as simple as a quick twist of a ruler. Here's how it works:
Say you're
working on a five-panel accordion fold and you happen to have an 8-1/2"
x 14" sheet of paper. Instead of taking the 14" side and
dividing it by 5 (2.8" on a ruler - aaargh!), simply anchor the ruler
to the upper left hand corner and twist it down until you hit a number
divisible by 5. Then, mark and fold as shown in the above diagram.
This simple trick saves our estimators lots of time. It will work
for you too.
PLEASE NOTE: Since over &
over (roll) folds need different-sized panels, don't use this "ruler
trick" for them.
Notable/Quotable:
The following excerpt ran in
the November 20, 2000 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times on page 20 of the
Metro section:
_________________
"Online
businesses are quietly turning to traditional paper catalogs to boost
sales.
Amazon.com,
Cooking.com, iparty.com, gifts.com and 800.com are using the old-fashioned
medium to find shoppers.
While the
dot-coms say catalogs are simply another piece of the marketing puzzle,
others say the tactic shows a realization that simply selling products
online is not enough to keep a business afloat.
"This
is a growing trend," said Amy Blankenship, director of the
Shop-at-Home Information Center at the Direct Marketing Association.
Dot-coms are realizing "they need to be selling in more than one
channel to serve the customers they have and attract new ones."
Amazon.com
began mailing 10 million copies of its 24-page Holiday 2000 gift book on
Nov. 10.
"It's a
piece of our marketing mix, like advertising and public relations, to get
the word out," said Amazon spokeswoman Lizzie Allen.
Cooking.com,
an online cookware business, mailed out a catalog in October and plans to
send another at the end of this month. Senior vice president Tracy
Randall said the catalog allows the company to present enticing food
displays in a larger format than the Web.
"In
certain categories it allows us to be more visual," she said.
"There are still limitations on the Web." Among them:
photo clarity and the time it takes to download high quality graphics.
On its Website, iparty.com, a party goods seller, boasts that with one of its
catalogs you can "shop anytime, anyplace."
In addition to convenience, catalogs lend a physical presence to a cybershop, helping
to ease doubts some customers have about shopping online, said Glenda
Shasho Jones. Her New York company, Shasho Jones Direct, produces
catalogs for dot-coms as well as traditional businesses ..."
by Dave Newbart, Staff Reporter.
|
