OUGD504 - Augmented Design - Printing/Production Methods

Playing Cards

My Order

Due to time constraints, I had to upload my playing card design to be printed today, but I didn't have any other thoughts on it in the two days since I last worked on it, so I'm not too concerned about this being a problem. 

I ordered 2 packs on 310gsm linen finished paper, as that was what the website said the standard quality was for playing cards. I ordered in a white window tuck box (shown below) as the packaging option as it showcases the design well as well as being a cheap option.

Commercial Considerations

Having looked at the prices the website charge, using this website on a large scale probably wouldn't be cost effective. A few potentially important price points are shown below.

250 Packs - $1,000 - £640
500 Packs - $1,625 - £1,040
1,000 Packs - $2,700 - £1,730
2,500 Packs - $5,000 - £3,200
5,000 Packs - $9,000 - £5,760
10,000 Packs - $15,000 - £9,600

Exchange rate as of 21st December 2014

I would imagine that the most cost-effective way of producing them would be to send them to a commercial printers, receive them in an uncut sheet form, and then use die-cutting to cut them up. 

Menu and Recipe Cards

My Examples

I hope to be able to use the digital print facilities for my menu and recipe cards, as this is important due to the precise nature of some of the vector images. Rather than printing the background directly onto the stock, I've ordered some samples from G.F Smith that were closest to the colour of the background I was using, China White and Mist. I ordered them in 270gsm, as that and 350gsm were the closest weights they had to the 310gsm I ordered the playing cards on, and given the delicate nature of the menus I went with the lighter option. 

China White

Mist

If they don't end up printing as well as I'd like them too, I'll print them one some white stock that they have in the print facility, but I'm hopeful that the China White paper will work well. This will mean I'll have to prepare the documents for print both with and without the background colour in them so I'm ready for either scenario.

Commercial Considerations

Had I been producing this on a larger scale, I doubt I'd have used a higher-end stock such as G.F Smith because of the cost, and would probably have used some stock that the printer use as a standard to keep costs down. This would cause me less concern over the stock colour because I would expect to have less problems with the consistency of the printing of the background colour with a commercial printer than from a digital printer. This would allow me to use white stock, which I would expect to be cheaper than coloured stock.