CMYK vs. Pantone (PMS) Colors - What is the best for you?

Choosing the right color system for printed materials makes all the difference in appearance. Because computers use HTML colors or style sheets, they cannot be used to accurately match colors for printing. Instead, either CMYK or Pantone colors are optimum for bright, accurate colors on printed documents. 

CMYK Colors 
Using this system, different colors are created by layering cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks. Also known as process colors, CMYK colors are used in a wide variety of print materials, including magazines and newspapers. The CMYK color model has two primary applications:

• Full-color photographs and illustrations
• Multi-color graphics that require too many colors to reproduce using Pantone (PMS) shades

CMYK uses a series of dots in the four colors to create images and colors. That method means that a wide variety of colors can be used in a relatively small area. Meanwhile, the main limitation of CMYK colors comes from their inconsistency. The same color may turn out differently, even when the same color appears on multiple pages or even in separate areas on the same page.

Pantone Colors 
Often called PMS Match inks or spot colors, Pantone colors use a system similar to that of house paints, where each color corresponds to a number and a swatch sample. Created by mixing 13 base pigments in specified amounts, the PMS model ensures the consistency that is so often lacking with CMYK. Since the color will always turn out the way it looks on the swatch, Pantone colors can be used to match colors, even when it’s impossible to compare samples visually. While PMS inks are not the best choice for full-color photographs, they have several uses:

• Precise color matching for logos and branding
  
• Covering a large area, where consistency and saturation are important
• Using the same color on multiple pages
• Creating more vibrant hues and precise shades
• Adding special effects like fluorescent, pastel, or metallic colors

Because PMS match inks are so precise, governments around the world have even adopted the Pantone color model to specify flag colors. That quality makes Pantone colors the obvious choice for printing branded materials like letterhead, business forms, and many other promotional materials.

Using CMYK and PMS Colors on the Same Document 
Because it is easy to put a logo on such a wide variety of products, it is easy to tailor promotional products to a specific audience. Because these specialty items can be more expensive, careful consideration of the hobbies and interests of the target audience is critical since both CMYK and PMS color models have specific applications, using one system all the time will not always yield the best product. Thus it is sometimes necessary to use both models on the same project:

• If full-color photographs will be used along with logo images, it is best to use CMYK for the photographs, and PMS for the logos.
• Graphics that include multiple colors are often too difficult to duplicate using PMS colors, so it may be necessary to use CMYK for more complex graphics.

Using the right color system means printed materials that pop with brilliant, crisp colors. Knowing the difference between CMYK and PMS match inks makes all the difference in accurately adapting computer- and web-based documents into stunning hard copies.

www.telepathicgraphics.com

11 Ways to Think Outside the Box

Thinking outside the box is more than just a business cliché. It means approaching problems in new, innovative ways; conceptualizing problems differently; and understanding your position in relation to any particular situation in a way you’d never thought of before. Ironically, its a cliché that means to think of clichéd situations in ways that aren’t clichéd.

We’re told to “think outside the box” all the time, but how exactly do we do that? How do we develop the ability to confront problems in ways other than the ways we normally confront problems? How do we cultivate the ability to look at things differently from the way we typically look at things?

Thinking outside the box starts well before we’re “boxed in” – that is, well before we confront a unique situation and start forcing it into a familiar “box” that we already know how to deal with. Or at least think we know how to deal with.

Here are 11 ways to beef up your out-of-the-box thinking skills. Make an effort to push your thinking up to and beyond its limit every now and again – the talents you develop may come in handy the next time you face a situation that “everybody knows” how to solve.

1. Study another industry.

I’ve learned as much about teaching from learning about marketing as I have from studying pedagogy – maybe more. Go to the library and pick up a trade magazine in an industry other than your own, or grab a few books from the library, and learn about how things are done in other industries. You might find that many of the problems people in other industries face are similar to the problems in your own, but that they’ve developed really quite different ways of dealing with them. Or you might well find new linkages between your own industry and the new one, linkages that might well be the basis of innovative partnerships in the future.

2. Learn about another religion.

Religions are the way that humans organize and understand their relationships not only with the supernatural or divine but with each other. Learning about how such relations are structured can teach you a lot about how people relate to each other and the world around them. Starting to see the reason in another religion can also help you develop mental flexibility – when you really look at all the different ways people comprehend the same mysteries, and the fact that they generally manage to survive regardless of what they believe, you start to see the limitations of whatever dogma or doxy you follow, a revelation that will transfer quite a bit into the non-religious parts of your life.

3. Take a class.

Learning a new topic will not only teach you a new set of facts and figures, it will teach you a new way of looking at and making sense of aspects of your everyday life or of the society or natural world you live in. This in turn will help expand both how you look at problems and the breadth of possible solutions you can come up with.

4. Read a novel in an unfamiliar genre.

Reading is one of the great mental stimulators in our society, but it’s easy to get into a rut. Try reading something you’d never have touched otherwise – if you read literary fiction, try a mystery or science fiction novel; if you read a lot of hard-boiled detective novels, try a romance; and so on. Pay attention not only to the story but to the particular problems the author has to deal with. For instance, how does the fantasy author bypass your normal skepticism about magic and pull you into their story? Try to connect those problems to problems you face in your own field. For example, how might your marketing team overcome your audiences normal reticence about a new “miracle” product?

5. Write a poem.

While most problem-solving leans heavily on our brain’s logical centers, poetry neatly bridges our more rational left-brain though processes and our more creative right-brain processes. Though it may feel foolish (and getting comfortable with feeling foolish might be another way to think outside the box), try writing a poem about the problem you’re working on. Your poem doesn’t necessarily have to propose a solution – the idea is to shift your thinking away from your brain’s logic centers and into a more creative part of the brain, where it can be mulled over in a non-rational way. Remember, nobody has to ever see your poem…

6. Draw a picture.

Drawing a picture is even more right-brained, and can help break your logical left-brain’s hold on a problem the same way a poem can. Also, visualizing a problem engages other modes of thinking that we don’t normally use, bringing you another creative boost.

7. Turn it upside down.

Turning something upside-down, whether physically by flipping a piece of paper around or metaphorically by re-imagining it can help you see patterns that wouldn’t otherwise be apparent. The brain has a bunch of pattern-making habits that often obscure other, more subtle patterns at work; changing the orientation of things can hide the more obvious patterns and make other patterns emerge. For example, you might ask what a problem would look like if the least important outcome were the most important, and how you’d then try to solve it.

8. Work backwards.

Just like turning a thing upside down, working backwards breaks the brain’s normal conception of causality. This is the key to backwards planning, for example, where you start with a goal and think back through the steps needed to reach it until you get to where you are right now.

9. Ask a child for advice.

I don’t buy into the notion that children are inherently ore creative before society “ruins” them, but I do know that children think and speak with a n ignorance of convention that is often helpful. Ask a child how they might tackle a problem, or if you don’t have a child around think about how you might reformulate a problem so that a child could understand it if one was available. Don’t run out and build a boat made out of cookies because a child told you to, though – the idea isn’t to do what the child says, necessarily, but to jog your own thinking into a more unconventional path.

10. Invite randomness.

If you’ve ever seen video of Jackson Pollock painting, you have seen a masterful painter consciously inviting randomness into his work. Pollock exercises a great deal of control over his brushes and paddles, in the service of capturing the stray drips and splashes of paint that make up his work. Embracing mistakes and incorporating them into your projects, developing strategies that allow for random input, working amid chaotic juxtapositions of sound and form – all of these can help to move beyond everyday patterns of thinking into the sublime.

11. Take a shower.

There’s some kind of weird psychic link between showering and creativity. Who knows why? Maybe it’s because your mind is on other things, maybe it’s because you’re naked, maybe it’s the warm water relaxing you – it’s a mystery. But a lot of people swear by it. So maybe when the status quo response to some circumstance just isn’t working, try taking a shower and see if something remarkable doesn’t occur to you!

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/11-ways-to-think-outside-the-box.html

www.telepathicgraphics.com

How to Measure Your Direct Mail Campaign

Executing a direct mail campaign is a relatively easy task, but unless you have put some simple, tactical measures into place first, measuring the campaign results can be difficult. Like many other marketing strategies, direct mail may not work well with all audiences or in every industry, and it usually performs best when you execute it with supporting campaigns, such as emails, phone calls or online marketing tactics. If you are unable to measure the results of your direct mail campaigns, you may be throwing money away on ineffective marketing strategies for your business.

Direct Response

Step 1

Plan your direct mail campaign’s tactical strategy. Unless you design the campaign around a direct mail response from the consumer, such as mailing in a form, you will have to put other strategies into play so that you can determine how many sales or leads the campaign generated. This could be in the form of a promotion code, a custom URL or dedicated phone number for the campaign -- or a coupon or certificate the consumer presents upon purchase.

Step 2

Put measures into place to ensure that appropriate personnel know what they should track during the campaign. If you have a customer service center that takes orders over the telephone, for example, the representatives must know to ask for a promotional code and have reporting mechanisms in place.

Step 3

Determine the response rate, which is the number of sales made or leads generated depending on your campaign’s goals, to your direct mail campaign. If you sent out a mailing using a promotion code to help track the results, divide the number of sales made using the code by the total number of mailers to determine the rate. If you sent out 2,000 mailers that generated 42 sales that used the promotion code, your response rate would be 2.1 percent.

Incremental Sales

Step 1

Study your historic sales data, if available, to determine what your average base sales would be during the time you plan to run your campaign, absent of any other marketing activities. If you plan to execute a direct mail campaign during the first week of September, for example, review to sales for that month in the prior years.

Step 2

Execute your campaign and wait at least one to two weeks before you attempt to measure the results. Like other print media, direct mail campaigns do not always have the immediate effect that a television commercial or online promotion has.

Step 3

Compile the total sales during the campaign’s life cycle and subtract that base volume that you calculated from the historical sales data to determine incremental volume, or sales that your direct mail campaign most likely generated.

Control Group

Step 1

Break your direct mail list into one small group, called the control group, and a larger test group. Ensure that both groups are demographically similar for more accurate results. This type of measurement method works best with in-house lists and in industries where you can easily track who purchases your products, such as a catalog business.

Step 2

Send your direct mail piece to the test group, but do not send or any other marketing materials to the control group.

Step 3

Calculate revenue per customer. Determine total revenue for the control group during the campaign and divide that figure by the number of people in the group. Perform the same calculation for the test group. If your control group consisted of 100 people who purchased $2,000 worth of products during the campaign, the revenue per customer for that group would be $2,000 divided by 100, or $20.

Step 4

Subtract the revenue per customer of the control group from the same figure with the test group. If your control group’s revenue per customer was $20 and the revenue per customer for the test group was $50, your incremental revenue per customer as a result of the direct mail campaign was $30.

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/measure-direct-mail-campaign-26082.html

www.telepathicgraphics.com

Building a Sense of Teamwork Among Staff Members

The term “team” is often used to refer to groups that meet over time to complete a project and then wind down (e.g., cross-functional teams) or is used to describe a group that operates solely as a team, with the role of leader alternating (self-directed work teams), or a traditional staff that meets as a group on an ongoing basis to discuss operating issues. Here I am using the word "team" as a synonym for “teamwork.”

Many departments do not operate as teams—that is, “practice teamwork.” Members may talk to each other at the printer or over lunch, and their work efforts may be designed to meet the overarching objectives of the department, but these employees’ work on a day-to-day basis is largely done as individuals, which is unfortunate, for many business experts now believe that teamwork is critical to organization productivity and profitability.

Downsizing, right-sizing, reorganizing, reengineering—all are indications of the pressure on organizations to reduce the size of their workforces. The only way to cope with this need to do more with less is by working cooperatively in an environment of respect, drawing on all the resources available to get the job done.

When people work together in an atmosphere of trust and accountability toward a common goal, they put aside turf issues and politics and focus on the tasks to be done. This focus of resources overcomes barriers, helps to identify new opportunities, and builds a momentum that leads to three major bottom-line benefits:

1. Better problem solving
2. Greater productivity
3. More effective use of resources

Jon Katzenbach, author of The Wisdom of Teams, observes, “There is virtually no environment in which teams—if done right—can’t have a measurable impact on the performance of an organization.”

Unless you have built a sense of teamwork among your employees, they will have no shared performance goals, no joint work efforts, no mutual accountability, which can increase productivity. There is also a group of softer benefits of teamwork that greatly enhances the workplace:

1. People enjoy working together and teamwork satisfies a need for socialization.
2. Working together helps people grow as they learn from each other and develop important skills.
3. Working together toward a common goal provides a sense of purpose that is motivating and fulfilling.

Need I say more about the benefits of teamwork?

Team Characteristics
Productive teams usually share many characteristics. They have a common purpose each member is committed to. They stay involved until the objective is completed. They care about each other: and, in keeping with this, they are concerned about how their actions and attitudes affect each other. They listen to each other and respect all points-of-view, and are sensitive to each other’s needs. And their leaders encourage everyone’s participation in the decisions to be made.

If you looked into groups of employees who work as teams, you would see these characteristics or traits:

Openness and candor. The more reluctant people are to express their feelings and be honest with each other, the more likely suspicion and distrust will exist. When real teamwork is present, team members, because they basically trust each other, are more open and honest with each other. 

Acceptance of assignments. It might make each of us happier if we could choose all our work. However, this is unrealistic. Still, when real teamwork exists, team members willingly accept assignments. Motivated by peer pressure, they also work hard to get their jobs done right the first time and to meet deadlines.

Understood and accepted goals. A team needs purpose, direction, and goals. These are accepted by the members of the team, and they work collaboratively to achieve them. Their manager has explained the importance of achievement of these goals in the bigger, corporate picture, and team members understand why it is so important for the goals to be reached. Committed to their accomplishment, they assist one another to make them a reality.

Progress and results assessed. Teamwork requires that members be results-directed as opposed to process-oriented. Their focus is on their objectives, and their activities are directed toward those goals. Periodically, under direction of a leader, the team assesses its progress. That knowledge serves to guide future team action. This includes identification of barriers and what can be done to rid the team of them.

Shared trust. In a healthy team, members essentially trust one another. Despite occasional conflict, members get along well and enjoy each other’s company. They cooperate and get the work done.
Involvement and participation. There are three general types of people in the world: those who do not know or care about what is happening, those who watch what others do, and those who make things happen. Teamwork requires that members be involved in their work and participate in team activities. What they say and do counts for something.

Many work environments in which teamwork is practiced involve team members in decision making, practicing participative management. 

The Loner How do you handle a talented loner or nonteam-player on your team?

You may not have someone like this on your staff yet but you probably will at one point in your career, that is, have a territorial, introverted, or us-versus-them worker who simply doesn’t want to be a team player. The individual can drag down the team effort, but he or she is too valuable to let go. What can you do with this loner who exhibits anti-team behavior?

You must either create a niche that this non-mainstreamer can fill successfully and productively or encourage the individual to modify his or her behavior for the sake of the other members of the team.

To change the individual’s anti-team behavior, you might play up peer pressure. Although loners may march to the sound of a different drummer, explain that the behavior can cause ill

will and negative feelings from other team members. A change would move this person closer to the center of the group, reduce co-workers’ resentment, and help to eliminate the uncomfortable us-versus-them attitude that may exist now.

You may also point out the reality of the situation. While praising the individual’s experience, special skills, and length of service, emphasize that everyone is expected to  embrace a one-for-all, all-for-one attitude. Anything less threatens the success of the entire work unit and will jeopardize the headstrong employee’s job security in a corporate culture that revolves around teams.

http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/Building-a-Sense-of-Teamwork-Among-Staff-Members.aspx

www.telepathicgraphics.com

Memorial Day and Events in Raleigh, NC

Memorial Day, an American holiday observed on the last Monday of May, honors men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, at least, it marks the beginning of summer.

EARLY OBSERVANCES OF MEMORIAL DAY

The Civil War claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history, requiring the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries. By the late 1860s Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo—which had first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

DECORATION DAY

On May 5, 1862, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there. Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Many Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor their dead on separate days until after World War I.

EVOLUTION OF MEMORIAL DAY

Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars.

For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees; the change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND EVENTS - RALEIGH, NC

Historic Oakwood Cemetery will hold a ceremony of tribute to our deceased veterans who have served this country on Mon., May 26, 2014 at 4pm. The setting will be the beautiful Veterans’ Field of Honor within Historic Oakwood Cemetery. This meaningful 45 minute ceremony will have meaningful music, tributes to our military and a key note speaker.

For more information about what events are going on in Raleigh please click the link below.

http://www.visitraleigh.com/events/

www.telepathicgraphics.com

Coat THIS! The low-down on press coating - The Prothero Press

Decades ago, if you asked about coating on a press sheet, the immediate thought was varnishes.  Or perhaps, some may have even thought of it in reference to the coating OF the sheet itself, such as gloss, dull, matte or silk.  Or perhaps they may have thought of post press coating, such as UV or even lamination.  Aqueous coating was applied to the graphic arts field in the 1970′s, and exploded in the 80′s.  During the 90′s, while we watched “Friends” debut, or the last few episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, coating took off, and press manufacturers met the demand with 4, 5, 6 and 8-color presses that had the additional tower for the coating, and the extended delivery for the UV curing.

A 6-color 40″ press with an aqueous tower and extended delivery.

WHAT IS AQUEOUS COATING?

Unlike the name suggests, aqueous coating is NOT water-based, but a liquid polymer that dries and cures quickly under UV light.  The benefits of aqueous coating are numerous:

• Dries quickly, allowing for work and turn or sheetwise back-ups within minutes, not hours.
• Seals the sheet and protects it, which is vital with certain PMS colors or reflex blue, which can haze as they are trimmed (hazing is NOT offsetting.  Hazing is where the the color is transferred at the trim edges from one sheet to the next due to the knife-blade slicing through the paper).
• Does not gas-ghost as varnishes do, and therefore, does not require dry time.
• Will not yellow as it ages, as varnish does.

As aqueous coatings have become more sophisticated, you can find not only gloss, but matte, satin, specially formulated coatings for synthetic papers and for work & turn applications, a high-gloss coating, and a special coating for jobs that will film laminate.  Finally, soft touch aqueous is becoming a sought-after type of coating.  It has a very smooth surface, but it has a slight texture to it, almost like touching leather.  Another benefit of aqueous coating is that it requires no plates as varnishes do, and it has little clean up, so the costs to add aqueous are minimal.

THEN WHY USE VARNISHES?

Varnishes still have their value as design elements, whereas in the past they were used to seal the sheet.  For example, doing a spot dull varnish over a solid color with a spot gloss varnish as a design element can have a dramatic impact.  Varnishes can be run “inline”, which means they are printed with the rest of the 4-color on that side of the sheet.  But varnishes look best if they are run as “dry trap” or offline, meaning run as a 2nd pass on the side of a sheet.  Finally, in order to insure that the varnish looks the same from one side of the sheet to the next, the pressmen will run it back through the press to “polish” it.

Image from printingwiki.org

WAIT.  CAN I DO BOTH???

YES!  in fact, a very dramatic effect is what is known as “strike-through” varnish, which again is best used with solid colors.  The job is printed with a satin aqueous, then a dry-trap spot gloss varnish is applied over the top of that.  This has the same effect as doing a spot gloss and spot dull varnish, but without the cost of 2 additional varnish passes, plates and wash ups.  Another effect is using a dry trap spot gloss varnish over the soft touch aqueous, which heightens the effect of the leathery feel of the aqueous. As always, check with your print services provider on what they provide in the way of coatings, and how to prepare your files for these spectacular ways of finishing your press sheet.

http://jakethejeep.wordpress.com/2014/05/08/coat-this-the-low-down-on-press-coatings/

www.telepathicgraphics.com

How to Design a Business Card That Stands Out

A good business card should convey the overall image of your business -- not easy, considering the card measures only 2 inches by 3.5 inches.

How can you possibly get a message across in such a small amount of space?

You can't expect your business card to tell the whole story about your company. What you should expect it to do is present a professional image people will remember.

The color, wording and texture of our business card have a lot to do with its appeal and its ability to convey your company image.

Use common sense when you are designing your business card.

If your business markets children's toys and games, you might try using bright, primary colors and words written in child's script. On the other hand, if you run a financial consulting service, then you want your business card to convey professionalism and reliability, so stick to traditional looks such as black printing on a gray, beige or white background.

Of course, professional designers claim entrepreneurs should not try to attempt designing a business card on their own, but many cash-strapped business owners have no other choice.

The best course of action: Look at all the business cards you receive, and emulate the cards that you like. You may have more leeway if you are in a creative business, such as party planning or retailing, but in general, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Use your logo as the basis. Make it the largest element on the card.
2. Keep it simple. Do not cram too much information on the card.
3. Do include the essentials -- your name, title, company name, address, phone and fax numbers, and email and website addresses.
4. Make sure the typeface is easily readable.
5. Stick to one or two colors.

Once you've got business cards, make the most of them:

1. Always give people more than one card (so they can give it to others).
2. Include your card in all correspondence.
3. Carry cards with you at all times, in a card case so they're clean and neat.

Business cards don't have to be boring. If your industry allows for a little creative flair, here are some ideas to try:

1. Use 4-inch-by-7-inch cards that fold over (like a mini brochure), cards made of plastic or cards with photos on them.
2. Although they are more standard than standard business cards, cards in nontraditional shapes get attention. Try a teddy bear shape for a day-care service, for example, or a birthday cake for a party planner.
3. Textured paper can add to a card's interest, as can colored paper. In general, stay with lighter shades that enhance readability.
4. Thermography, a process that creates raised, shiny print, adds interest to a card. Embossing and foil stamping are two other printing processes that can give your card visual appeal.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225962

www.telepathicgraphics.com

The Law on Fonts and Typefaces

The right typeface is often the key to a great logo, graphic or web design. But there’s much confusion and misinformation about typefaces, fonts and the law.

Many people do not understand the law governing the use of typefaces and fonts. Others incorrectly assume that they can freely use any typeface or font for any project.

When you purchase a commercial font, you are purchasing a license to use the font software. Your rights and obligations are defined in the End User License Agreement (EULA). Those agreements will vary among fonts and among font makers – so read them very carefully to understand what you can and cannot do with the fonts you’re licensing. For example, some agreements will restrict the number of computers on which you can install a font.

How is a font different from a typeface?

Technically, a “font” is a computer file or program (when used digitally) that informs your printer or display how a letter or character is supposed to be shown. A “typeface” is a set of letters, numbers and other symbols whose forms are related by repeating certain design elements that are consistently applied (sometimes called glyphs), used to compose text or other combination of characters.

Although many people would call “Helvetica” a font, it’s actually a typeface. The software that tells your display or printer to show a letter in “Helvetica” is the font.

What is copyright?

Copyright is a form of legal protection provided to those who create original works. Under the 1976 Copyright Act (United States), the copyright owner has the exclusive right to reproduce, adapt, distribute, publicly perform and publicly display the work. Any or all of these rights can be licensed, sold or donated to another party. One does not need to register a work with the U.S. Copyright Office for it to be automatically protected by copyright law (registration does have benefits – but we won’t be covering those in this article). For more about copyright law, you can read Small Business Legal Issues: Copyright Basics.

Does copyright law protect typefaces and fonts?

Generally, copyright law in the U.S.does not protect typefaces. Fonts may be protected as long as the font qualifies as computer software or a program (and in fact, most fonts are programs or software). Bitmapped fonts are considered to be computerized representations of a typeface (and are not protected by copyright law). On the other hand, scalable fonts (because they are incorporated as part of a program or software) are protected by copyright.

This means that copyright law (at least in the U.S.) protects only the font software, not the artistic design of the typeface.

You should remember that copyright law, and more specifically, as it relates to typefaces and fonts, varies by country. For example, the U.S. may be the only country in the western world not to recognize intellectual property rights in typeface design. The U.S. Copyright Office has unequivocally determined that fonts are not subject to protection as artistic works under the 1976 Copyright Act.

In contrast, Germany recognized in 1981 that typeface designs can be protected by copyright as original works. England also allows typeface designs to be protected by copyright (since 1989).

Doesn’t the U.S. have to follow the copyright law of other countries under international treaties?

Yes and No. All of the major copyright treaties and agreements to which the U.S. is a party (such as theBerne Convention) operate under a common principle (called “national treatment”) which holds that a country must treat foreigners and locals equally. That means, among other things, that the U.S. is not obligated to provide greater protection to works from other countries than it provides to works produced in the U.S.

Does this mean you can copy typefaces without worrying about copyright law?

Some argue that you can copy a font (by recreating it yourself) and as long as you don’t copy the computer program, you’re not violating the law (in the U.S.). How might you do this? Among other ways, you can lawfully print every glyph on a printer, scan the image and then trace each image on your computer (none of this would involve copying the software or program representing the fonts).

This gets a bit muddied when you consider that fonts are often tweaked and used as part of a larger design. For example, a typeface may be customized and used as part of a logo design. While the typeface itself is not subject to copyright protection in the U.S., the logo design itself might be protected as an artistic piece, taking into account the arrangement of letters, use of space, organizations, colors, and other creative aspects of the design. A good example of this is the Coca Cola typeface – the typeface is protected because it is the logo.

Does patent law protect typefaces?

Sometimes. Typeface designs can be patented but typically are not. Moreover, even those typeface designs that have been patented were patented some time ago and nearly all of the design patents have expired.

Does trademark law protect typefaces?

Trademark law protects only the name of a typeface, but not the design of the typeface.

Can you use “free” fonts without worrying about the law?

Maybe. Although many free fonts allow unrestricted use (including use for commercial projects), “free” fonts can sometimes be fonts that are illegally copied. Be careful and make sure that the fonts you are using come from a trusted source and that you understand your rights and obligations.

Can you license a font to a client?

Typically, your right to sub-license a font is governed by the EULA. You cannot send the client a font unless the EULA specifically permits you to do so. This means that if the client will need the font, they will be required to purchase a license to use it.

Most logo designers avoid problems related to font licensing by converting their logotype to outlines (in a program like Adobe Illustrator) and sending the client a vectorized outline (but not the font).

Three Questions To Ask When Using Fonts In Your Designs

1. Are you legally allowed to use the font? Many fonts are sold commercially and cannot be used by people who do not purchase those fonts from proper vendors.

2. Is your intended use permissible? Some font licensing agreements may restrict ways that you can use the font. Review the agreements carefully when in doubt.

3. Can you sell and/or send a copy of the font to your client? Typically, at least for commercial fonts, the answer is NO. Your client will be required to purchase the font. One way to avoid this is to outline the font (as described above) and provide the client a vectorized outline.

http://blog.crowdspring.com/2011/03/font-law-licensing/

www.telepathicgraphics.com

What are Bottlenecks and How to Unblock Them

Fixing Unbalanced Processes

Consider this scenario: You own a trucking company, and you've recently had problems in the delivery process for one of your clients.

The loading at their factory goes smoothly, but once your trucks arrive at the client's warehouse, efficiency seems to fall apart.

The trucks typically wait six to eight hours before workers unload the cargo.

Every minute that your trucks are parked and waiting costs your company revenue.

You investigate to find out why the trucks are forced to wait, and you discover something surprising: The reason they wait is because no one notifies the warehouse in advance of their arrival. As a result, when a truck arrives, the forklift that's needed for unloading is often being used for another task. So your truck has to wait until the forklift is free.

Now you begin to wonder why the warehouse isn't notified, as it should be, that trucks are on their way. You investigate more and learn that the person who used to call the warehouse left the company a few months ago, and the task wasn't reassigned. So you delegate the phone call to another team member, and you persuade the warehouse to purchase a second forklift – and your problem is solved.

This bottleneck was pretty easy to fix. But have you ever discovered a bottleneck in your business processes? These can be harder to resolve, mostly because they're harder to identify.

What is a Bottleneck?

A bottleneck in a process occurs when input comes in faster than the next step can use it to create output. The term compares assets (information, materials, products, man-hours) with water. When water is poured out of a bottle, it has to pass through the bottle's neck, or opening. The wider the bottle's neck, the more water (input/assets) you can pour out. The smaller, or narrower, the bottle's neck, the less you can pour out – and you end up with a back-up, or "bottleneck."

There are two main types of bottlenecks:

1. Short-term bottlenecks – These are caused by temporary problems. A good example is when key team members become ill or go on vacation. No one else is qualified to take over their projects, which causes a backlog in their work until they return.
2. Long-term bottlenecks – These occur all the time. An example would be when a company's month-end reporting process is delayed every month, because one person has to complete a series of time-consuming tasks – and he can't even start until he has the final month-end figures.

Identifying and fixing bottlenecks is highly important. They can cause a lot of problems in terms of lost revenue, dissatisfied customers, wasted time, poor-quality products or services, and high stress in team members.

How to Identify Bottlenecks

Identifying bottlenecks in manufacturing is usually pretty easy. On an assembly line, you see when products pile up at a certain point. In business processes, however, they can be harder to find.

Start with yourself. Is there a routine or situation that regularly causes stress in your day? These frustrations can actually be a significant indicator that a bottleneck exists somewhere.

For example, imagine that you're responsible for reviewing a report that another team member creates each week. Once you're done, you give it to another team member, who has to post the report on your company's intranet. Due to your workload, however, the report often sits on your desk for hours – so the next person down the line sometimes has to stay later at the end of the day to post it on time. This causes a lot of stress for you as well as your colleague. In this scenario, you're the bottleneck.

Here are some other signs of bottlenecks:

• Long wait times – For example, your work is delayed because you're waiting for a product, a report, or more information. Or materials spend time waiting between steps of a business or manufacturing process.
• Backlogged work – There's too much work piled up at one end, and not enough at the other end.
• High stress levels.

Two tools are useful in helping you identify bottlenecks:

1. Flow Charts

Use a flow chart   to help you identify where bottlenecks are occurring. Flow charts break down a system by detailing every step in the process in an easy-to-follow diagrammatic flow. Once you map out a process, it's much easier to see where there might be a problem. Sit down and identify each step that your process needs to function well.

For example, in the trucking scenario we mentioned earlier, a flow chart might look like this:

• Step 1 – Goods are manufactured at the factory.
• Step 2 – Goods are loaded onto the truck.
• Step 3 – The warehouse is notified about the truck's arrival time.
• Step 4 – The warehouse schedules a forklift for the expected arrival time.
• Step 5 – The truck arrives at the warehouse, and unloading starts.

In this case, the delay occurred because Steps 3 and 4 were missing, and this led to a long wait between Steps 2 and 5. Creating the flow chart before investigating the problem would have helped you quickly see where your process broke down.

2. The Five Whys Technique

The Five Whys   technique can also help you identify how to unblock your bottleneck.

To start, identify the problem you want to address. Then, working backward, ask yourself why this problem is occurring. Keep asking yourself "Why?" at each step, until you reach the root cause.

Consider our trucking example again. Go back to the beginning, and imagine that you have no idea why the trucks are delayed.

Trucks are forced to wait for hours at the warehouse.

Why?

Because the forklift isn't ready to unload the trucks when they arrive.

Why isn't the forklift ready?

Because there's only one forklift, and it's used for other things. The warehouse doesn't know the trucks are arriving, so the forklift isn't scheduled to unload cargo.

Why doesn't the warehouse know the trucks are coming?

Because no one has called to tell them.

Why has no one called the warehouse?

Because the team member whose job was to call the warehouse left months ago, and no one else was assigned to make the calls.

And there's the solution. You've identified the root cause: a missing team member. The easy fix is to delegate the task to someone else.

By working backward and identifying the root cause, you can clearly see what you need to change to fix the problem.

How to Unblock Bottlenecks

You have two basic options for unblocking your bottleneck:

1. Increase the efficiency of the bottleneck step.
2. Decrease input to the bottleneck step.

In our trucking example, the clear solution was to increase efficiency by notifying the warehouse. How you might increase efficiency in other situations will depend greatly on the nature of the process concerned, but here are some general ideas:

• Ensure that whatever is being fed into the bottleneck is free of defects. By doing this, you ensure that you're not wasting the valuable bottleneck resource by using it to process material that will later be discarded.
• Remove activities from the bottleneck process that could be done by other people or machinery.
• Assign the most productive team members and technology to the bottleneck process.
• Add capacity in the bottleneck process.

The other option, decreasing input, may at first sound silly. But if one part of a process has the potential to produce more output than you ultimately need or can manage, it's an appropriate response. You may have a situation where you keep increasing the amount of work-in-progress inventory immediately after a step that's working too efficiently.

For example, speed cameras can "catch" a large number of drivers who exceed the speed limit. However, each speed violation has to be processed, and this incurs a cost. The cameras can catch far more drivers than the processing departments can handle. So, many cameras are programmed to identify only those drivers who go a certain amount over the speed limit, or to operate only at certain times of day or certain days of the week. As a result, the number of inputs to the system is reduced to the level that it can process.

Key Points

Bottlenecks can cause major problems for any company, and identifying their root causes is critical. Look for the typical signs of bottlenecks – such as backlogged work, waiting (by people, materials, or paperwork), and high stress relating to a task or process. To make sure you identify the root cause (and not just one of the effects), use a Flow Chart or the Five Whys technique.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_76.htm

www.telepathicgraphics.com