“Tradition with a playful modern twist” is how one magazine aptly described the style of interior designer Kathryn Scott, which is funny because those words sum up her elegant portfolio beautifully, too. While you may not be able to duplicate her unique look, you can make her super-intelligent approach to brochures and portfolios your own.
Championing a style she describes as “austerity” or restraint, the Brooklyn Heights artist, furniture maker and crafter of porcelain objects continues to hone her vision with each new project she completes. Naturally this means that the brief portfolio she printed even a couple of years ago might not quite reflect the work she’s doing now. To keep her “best foot forward,” she had 100 copies of her most recent 20-page brochure digitally printed on 100 lb. Finch Fine Text [Get Swatchbook] using an HP Indigo 7600 by Highresolution (projects / website).
And to add that extra sense of sophisticated “tradition” to this “modern twist,” the New York print shop also produced this elegant holder using 111 lb. Gmund Wood Bubinga Cover. It features a delicious wood-grain texture that feels even better than it looks, and it looks amazing. They also applied a sculptured emboss of Kathryn’s logo to the front using extra heat to add a nearly-burnished look to the edges of the design. As this holder is actually a mini-folder, one simply tucks the front and back covers of the brochure into its pockets and voila: it becomes a small art book!
The printer also produced 2 vellum flysheets to be placed in front of and behind the interior brochure, the former boasting a large rendering of the logo, the latter her contact details. Not only does this add a further sense of sophistication to the piece, it also prevents the holder pockets from marring the printing of the brochure inside. (There’s even a notch on the inside back cover of the holder in which to insert a USB memory stick containing digital images of the designer’s work.)
Not only does the completed brochure look spectacular, it’s also an excellent example of using your budget in the smartest way possible. With the sculptured die for the emboss already made, the designer can have the holder produced in a large enough quantity to take advantage of volume discounts since it can be used indefinitely, while the digitally printed pages within can be printed in short runs and updated as needed.
The finishing touch? The piece is tucked inside a 28 lb., 100% cotton Mohawk Crane’s Lettra White Wove envelope, lending the whole package a thick, pillow-like quality that, once held, will not be forgotten anytime soon.
There’s no doubt about it: Digital printing gives today’s designers a great deal of flexibility when it comes to what they can create. If you’re a PaperSpecs PRO member, be sure to check out our webinar, “The Digital Printing Frontier: Pushing Your Projects to the Edge.”
