Colors speak loudly when it comes to brands. The professionals responsible for brand color from concept to final product need to speak the same language to ensure colors are communicating the correct message. You may think that ideal is hard to achieve. Take a look to discover how you can get the color management skills from leading companies to communicate brand color, maintain its integrity through the workflow, and save costs. For some real-world insight, in the comprehensive rebranding of American Airlines, the iconic brand’s red, white, and blue signature colors were reinvigorated. A product of extensive market research, the update was made to evoke a “more modern, vibrant, and welcoming spirit” that represents modern American ideals. Leading the project was Chief Creative Officer Sven Seger of FutureBrand, a creative branding agency that helps companies like American Airlines use color to enhance their brand. Seger, one keynote at the 2013 Color Management Conference, modernized the brand, creating a new livery and logo. The first in the last 40 years, this update effectively communicates the brand and remains consistent across different aircraft composite materials, ticketing kiosks, credit cards, and other substrates as well as online. Seger goes in depth at the conference as to how his team defined the American brand’s core message and created a design that saves their client resources by being repeatable across multiple substrates.  A further example of how the rebranding experts of FutureBrand approach critical color consistency is in the creation of a new visual identity for UPS that was carried across all of the brand’s products from vehicles to uniforms to packaging. They also helped their clients communicate the revamped look through the workflow of design, production, and implementation of the new brand. The rebrand included a “color palette designed to both complement and energize brown—the company’s signature color for over 100 years.” According to this FutureBrand case study, the rebranding resulted in 13% increased earnings and ranked in FORTUNE Magazine’s Top 50 in brand recognition in 2011. Creative software company Adobe is one that is constantly putting out more innovative products to help designers maintain color from screen to print like Creative CloudTM, Photoshop® CC, and Illustrator® CC. Adobe Senior Creative Director Russell Brown is an Emmy Award-winning instructor, Adobe Photoshop virtuoso, and host of a popular Web tutorials series, “The Russell Brown Show.” Brown utilizes creative Photoshop design techniques to get the most precise colors. Another all-star keynote at the 2013 Color Management Conference, he offers aesthetic and technical tips to maximize software for consistent color management. Passionate about adding real tangibility to his work, he states that “projects aren’t real until we have something we can touch, like a print,” said...

Like a common language, wide-format digital printers need set standards to enable their devices to communicate with different parts of the workflow efficiently. When different products operate on the same standard “language,” printers can easily purchase new equipment that will integrate with their existing workflow and connect with one another. Using JDF technology, they achieve standardized interoperability and break free of the data exchange issues and loss of time and revenue caused by competing systems. Through Printing Industries of America, you can take advantage of a new CIP4 JDF Product Certification Program for wide-format devices to complement the existing certifications. This new certification is based on the Digital Print Workflow Interoperability Conformance Specification (DPW ICS) 1.4a. Why is this important to the growing wide-format market? For starters, a JDF Certification provides a competitive selling point to attract new customers and extend services for new clients. For a limited time, members can participate in a beta test of DPW ICSat a special reduced fee.* Here, Dr. Mark Bohan, Vice President, Technology and Research, Printing Industries of America, and CIP4’s Education & Marketing Officer, shares some of his thoughts on JDF Certification for both the seller and the consumer. Discover facts that will increase consumer confidence in purchasing JDF-Certified products and the unique profitable advantages for sellers. Q: What does “JDF-Certified” mean? Mark Bohan: If a product is “JDF-Certified,” it means that it writes and reads JDF and JMF as established in one of many “Interoperability Conformance Specifications” (ICS) documents published by CIP4. The “ICS” documents establish the basic requirements for systems that produce and consume JDF within different workflow options. Certification means that a product has proven that it meets these requirements for basic interoperability, the level of the certification relating to the amount of JDF and JMF information that the systems will handle. Q: Who certifies that my products are JDF compliant? MB: Printing Industries of America provides world-wide JDF certification testing for CIP4. Registration for the certification is carried out through the CIP4 website, www.cip4.org. The program was developed in collaboration with CIP4 and their members to provide a method to ensure that the basic interoperability was available. We have seen great strides over the years with the results for the certifications and level of JDF implemented by the different manufacturers. On a personal note, it has been great to see the development of the program and the success that it has had in helping workflow implementations, as this was one of the reasons that I joined Printing Industries of America to head up this program. Q: How will my customers know that my product is JDF-Certified? MB: We issue products certified by Printing Industries of America a...

Like a common language, wide-format digital printers need set standards to enable their devices to communicate with different parts of the workflow efficiently. When different products operate on the same standard “language,” printers can easily purchase new equipment that will integrate with their existing workflow and connect with one another. Using JDF technology, they achieve standardized interoperability and break free of the data exchange issues and loss of time and revenue caused by competing systems. Through Printing Industries of America, you can take advantage of a new CIP4 JDF Product Certification Program for wide-format devices to complement the existing certifications. This new certification is based on the Digital Print Workflow Interoperability Conformance Specification (DPW ICS) 1.4a. Why is this important to the growing wide-format market? For starters, a JDF Certification provides a competitive selling point to attract new customers and extend services for new clients. For a limited time, members can participate in a beta test of DPW ICSat a special reduced fee.* Here, Dr. Mark Bohan, Vice President, Technology and Research, Printing Industries of America, and CIP4’s Education & Marketing Officer, shares some of his thoughts on JDF Certification for both the seller and the consumer. Discover facts that will increase consumer confidence in purchasing JDF-Certified products and the unique profitable advantages for sellers. Q: What does “JDF-Certified” mean? Mark Bohan: If a product is “JDF-Certified,” it means that it writes and reads JDF and JMF as established in one of many “Interoperability Conformance Specifications” (ICS) documents published by CIP4. The “ICS” documents establish the basic requirements for systems that produce and consume JDF within different workflow options. Certification means that a product has proven that it meets these requirements for basic interoperability, the level of the certification relating to the amount of JDF and JMF information that the systems will handle. Q: Who certifies that my products are JDF compliant? MB: Printing Industries of America provides world-wide JDF certification testing for CIP4. Registration for the certification is carried out through the CIP4 website, www.cip4.org. The program was developed in collaboration with CIP4 and their members to provide a method to ensure that the basic interoperability was available. We have seen great strides over the years with the results for the certifications and level of JDF implemented by the different manufacturers. On a personal note, it has been great to see the development of the program and the success that it has had in helping workflow implementations, as this was one of the reasons that I joined Printing Industries of America to head up this program. Q: How will my customers know that my product is JDF-Certified? MB: We issue products certified by Printing Industries of America a...

In this four-part series, we’ll take a look at how each indicator from the Monthly Conditions Dashboard is affecting your business based on the survey results from the past 11 months. Charts are also provided to show the trends in an easy-to-read format, so you can benchmark your current market conditions with hundreds of other printers. Where do you expect your sales to go in 2013? Earlier this month in Industry Trends Report: Part 1—Monthly Sales, we told you about printers’ wide swings and recent modestly rising sales based on the Monthly Industry Conditions Dashboard.* This report is a new industry market trends report from our Economic and Market Research department that allows you to plan your business strategies each month. How does it all work? Survey respondents provide information in five principle areas—1) Monthly Sales, 2) Sales Expectations, 3) Profits, 4) Print, and 5) Paper Prices. Current sales and profits are compared to the previous month. Printing prices and paper prices are current-month compared to 12 months earlier. Sales expectations are expectations for next month compared to the current month. Respondents are asked to report the directional change of each of the five key indicators (increasing, decreasing, or no change). We’re taking a little vacation in July, but check back in August to see the latest industry profit trends in Part 3 of the series! The findings you will read are based on May 2012 to May 2013 calculations using a net diffusion index, where the percentage of respondents reporting an increase is subtracted from the percentage of respondents reporting a decrease. The net diffusion index provides a simple snapshot of printers’ market perceptions for each variable. Part 2: Sales Expectations Printers’ sales expectations have also experienced wide swings over the past 13 months and generally are a leading indicator for next month’s sales. The expectations index peaked at 39.6% in February of  2012 after hitting a low of –18.9% in November—one of only three negative readings during the past 13 months. The overall sales expectations index average for the period was 14.6%. In the first quarter of 2013, the monthly sales diffusion index and sales expectations index changed drastically from month to month. The end result was no growth in the first quarter of 2013 according to our Quarterly Print Market Survey. So far the first two months of the second quarter point toward slightly more consistent and moderate growth. Our panel expects the second quarter to end strong with 21% more expecting June sales to be stronger than May sales than those expecting sales in June to decline compared to May. Printing Industries of America members respond to a survey to uncover some of the key...

In this four-part series, we’ll take a look at how each indicator from the Monthly Conditions Dashboard is affecting your business based on the survey results from the past 11 months. Charts are also provided to show the trends in an easy-to-read format, so you can benchmark your current market conditions with hundreds of other printers. Where do you expect your sales to go in 2013? Earlier this month in Industry Trends Report: Part 1—Monthly Sales, we told you about printers’ wide swings and recent modestly rising sales based on the Monthly Industry Conditions Dashboard.* This report is a new industry market trends report from our Economic and Market Research department that allows you to plan your business strategies each month. How does it all work? Survey respondents provide information in five principle areas—1) Monthly Sales, 2) Sales Expectations, 3) Profits, 4) Print, and 5) Paper Prices. Current sales and profits are compared to the previous month. Printing prices and paper prices are current-month compared to 12 months earlier. Sales expectations are expectations for next month compared to the current month. Respondents are asked to report the directional change of each of the five key indicators (increasing, decreasing, or no change). We’re taking a little vacation in July, but check back in August to see the latest industry profit trends in Part 3 of the series! The findings you will read are based on May 2012 to May 2013 calculations using a net diffusion index, where the percentage of respondents reporting an increase is subtracted from the percentage of respondents reporting a decrease. The net diffusion index provides a simple snapshot of printers’ market perceptions for each variable. Part 2: Sales Expectations Printers’ sales expectations have also experienced wide swings over the past 13 months and generally are a leading indicator for next month’s sales. The expectations index peaked at 39.6% in February of  2012 after hitting a low of –18.9% in November—one of only three negative readings during the past 13 months. The overall sales expectations index average for the period was 14.6%. In the first quarter of 2013, the monthly sales diffusion index and sales expectations index changed drastically from month to month. The end result was no growth in the first quarter of 2013 according to our Quarterly Print Market Survey. So far the first two months of the second quarter point toward slightly more consistent and moderate growth. Our panel expects the second quarter to end strong with 21% more expecting June sales to be stronger than May sales than those expecting sales in June to decline compared to May. Printing Industries of America members respond to a survey to uncover some of the key...