When it comes to customized calendar printing, there are more planning to be done than it looks. Here are 3 essential tips to ensure a smooth sailing experience:
1. Deciding on your Calendar Theme
The theme sets the whole look of the calendar, thus it is important to lock it in right at the start. Things to consider would be if you would like a fully customised calendar using images of your choice or if you would prefer to choose existing themes from your vendor.
Option 1: Fully Customized Calendar
A fully customized calendar uses a brief of your choice. The entire calendar layout will be decided by you—the theme, layout, grid format and images. It can adhere to your branding guidelines and also made to feature your products or services. This is especially useful for brands that has a wide portfolio of products to play with.
If you pick this option, it is advisable to start planning early - as shortlisting deciding on the theme, shortlisting the images, copywriting and experimenting on the grid layout may take up sometime.
Option 2: Using Existing Design Themes
An existing calendar theme is essentially ready designs for you to pick and choose. The concepts we have curated are popular topics that are trending in the recent years such as Self Care, Surrealism and illustrative quotes. Although, these pre-designed themes offer lesser customization options but it saves time in the designing and conceptualizing process as the research and designing work has already been done.
If you pick this option, don't worry about not relating to your brand as image replacement is always possible. Most vendors would be happy to assist in changing out a few pages of design and also assisting you to input your logo into the calendar pages.
2. The Technical Aspects Of Calendar Customization
After deciding on the theme, we move on to the physical look of the calendar. For a fully customised calendar, these some factors which needs attention:
What is the size of the calendar you are looking for?
What kind of paper material do you prefer?
Your ideal stand quality
The number of inner pages
If you require any special packaging
A good calendar should not only focus on the design, but also how it feels in your hands. Being clear of the output also helps to craft the ideal calendar. The calendar production team would be able to guide you through the technical stuffs to help you craft the most suitable calendar for your brand.
3. Timeline Planning
By understanding when you would like to start giving out the printed calendars would help in your time planning. The whole process can take up to months so planning in advance is essential to factor time for planning, decision making, designing, production and distribution. It avoids that last minute rush and you get to enjoy lower rates too!
There's a reference guide on how much time to cater for each stage
Planning & deciding on the theme - Depending on how fast your management can comes to the decision this stage can last between 1 week - 5 weeks long.
Designing and Layout - A fully customised calendar can take up to 2-3 weeks to finalize while a pre-designed calendar will usually take 1 week or so.
Mock up - If the time allows, a mock up will be produced. A mock up is a sample printed based on the final artwork and done up to the actual specifications. The mass production would be 85% close to the mock up. There might be some discrepancy in the print out color between mock up and mass production as different machines are deployed during these two processes. The mock up takes 2 weeks.
Calendar printing & production - This usually takes 3-5 weeks depending on the agreement.
Keeping all these in mind, we would often recommend customers who want to start the calendar distribution at the start of November to start planning in august - It avoids that last minute rush and you get to enjoy lower rates too!
Ready to Make an Impact With Your 2022 Corporate Calendar?
Want to make the right impression on your clients with a well designed and impactful calendar?We can be of help!
From shortlisting designs and concepts to delivery and distribution to offices worldwide, our team of experts are ready to guide you through the steps of creating your very own corporate calendars.
Ready for a hassle-free experience of getting your custom corporate calendars for 2022?
Find out more about our calendar printing services today.
Our team at Weio looks forward to help you on your customization journey for 2022!