April 12th

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Today we see the further easing of lockdown so we wish all our clients in the hospitality trade and wider business community good luck over the coming months let us hope we can eventually return to pre-pandemic levels of business although we all know it will take time. Kopykat has seen more enquiries and orders being placed over the last few days so we remain hopeful things are on the turn and it will steadily improve. We are seeing a few leaflet orders being placed for local bars and restaurants and posters displaying opening times.

We print leaflets & newsletters

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Although we are still affected production wise by COVID the last couple of weeks brought some decent print orders from various Labour Party contacts who placed orders for 70,000 leaflets and 42000 newsletters. This followed on from recent orders for 100,000 newsletters. As you can imagine these orders were very welcome given the currrent economic climate. All the work was delivered on time and utilised our offset litho print facilities. Much of our work is digital print that is suitable for short run print work but offset litho comes into its own for larger quantities so we have the added bonus of having both technologies onsite which in turn helps us choose what print process is best for the customer.

2021 Lockdown

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As anticipated 2021 has started with a lockdown so it is obvious we all face extremely challenging times to try and get the virus under control over the coming months. Kopykat are open with a skeleton shift as we are classed as an essential business. One of the first jobs for 2021 was to produce some vaccine information material for the NHS in relation to the Oxford Astra Zeneca version of the vaccine. In early December we printed vaccine information booklets for the Pfizer vaccine.

Let us hope the vaccines can be rolled out quickly and efficiently and start to turn the tide against this awful virus. Being based in Shoreditch we have many clients in the hospitality and leisure sector so we know how badly they have been affected this in turn has affected ourselves. We wish you all good fortune for 2021 and let us hope we can return to some sort of normality as 2021 progresses.

Christmas & New Year

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We will be closing on the evening of 22nd December 2020 and reopen on January 4th 2021. It has obviously been an incredibly difficult year for everyone so we hope you have a great Christmas and New Year as best you can under the circumstances. Let us hope that 2021 sees an improvement for all of us.

Thank you to our customers and suppliers for your support throughout the year.

NHS Vaccination information booklets

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We were recently asked by one of our NHS customers to produce some vaccination information booklets at short notice and for them to be ready for the 1st day that vaccinations began for the Pfizer COVID 19 vaccine. We received artwork for two booklets at 10am on a Monday morning and 1000 of each booklet was delivered just after 5pm on the same day. The vaccinations began the next day. Although this was a very tight deadline it shows how flexible digital print can be when needed. The team at Kopykat worked really well together to make it all happen. Let us hope that the vaccines on offer are a great success and help overcome this terrible virus.

Door Drop Leaflets & Postcards

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The DMA has reported that door drop volumes have decreased by almost 1 billion in two years. This to us seems a perfect time for customers to consider producing leaflets or postcards through this type of channel. Consider the number of people now working from home giving you a captive audience. They reckon the lifespan of a door drop is around 5 or 6 days with some being around a lot longer and no doubt various members of a household will read it and interact with it on a number of occasions. Social media is great but do not underestimate conventional methods as they can give a good return.

Posters, leaflets & roll up banners

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At Kopykat printing we produce all of the above items in small or large volumes. We have recently produced lots of roll up banners for NHS sites with instructions regarding social distancing and covid guidelines. There has also been plenty of large format posters produced for the same reason. Lots of A5 leaflets have been produced to highlight the reopening of bars and restaurants in the Shoreditch area. All of these items can be produced quickly and efficiently by us. All you need to do is supply a print ready PDF of your design although we can help with design as well should you need assistance

Promotional leaflets

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Now that the hospitality and leisure industry is reopening it is a good time to produce some promotional leaflets for yourself. Let customers know you are open and reassure them about the measures you have taken to look after them if they visit. At Kopykat Printing we can produce leaflets in both small and large amounts. Smaller quantities are often produced same day using digital printing or for larger amounts we use traditional offset litho printing. Rest assured we will advise you as to what is the best route for you to take.

Social Distancing

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Please be aware we can help with your social distancing material. We are producing roll up banners for many companies conveying your chosen message. We are also printing lots of A4 and A3 posters for noticeboards. We have a product that is a roll up banner with clear material inserted that can act as a barrier it can work well in a hairdressers or perhaps a gym environment. We are also printing floor signage to remind people to keep their distance

Covid-19 Update - We are open

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We are open again albeit with a skeleton staff and bringing people in as we need them from furlough. The furlough scheme from July is more flexible so this in turn allows us to react in a more flexible way with regard production. Without doubt businesses will face challenging times in the months ahead. We look forward to trying to get back to some sort of normality. We are available to produce your leaflets, postcards, posters and general marketing material along with roll up banners that are proving quite popular at the moment in regard to social distancing.

If you visit our premises we have worked hard to make it safe we have had the arches completely fogged by a leading cleaning company. However we are encouraging clients to send their PDF in advance allowing us to print the job before they arrive. We are encouraging payment by card in advance over the phone and the job to be couriered back to you where possible.

We look forward to working with you in the near future and pass on our best wishes to the local and wider business community for a successful return to work.

Coronavirus

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In the interests of safety for our staff and customers we are closed to walk in trade and have shut down general production until further notice and will follow government advice. We are working from home and contactable by email for quotes and advice on print@kopykat.co.uk or darren@kopykat.co.uk. If you have an enquiry do discuss it with us and we will assist in anyway we can to help.

Leaflets and Flyers

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We often get asked how quickly we can produce leaflets and flyers, the answer is mostly very quickly. If you just need small amounts perhaps under 1000 they can often be printed same day sometimes within a couple of hours depending on what else we have on. They tend to be printed using digital printing. Leaflets that are available same day tend to be flat double sided leaflets although it is sometimes possible to produce a leaflet that also needs folding although this has an extra operation as it has to pass through a folding machine. One of the most common issues we come across is a customer may need several thousand leaflets and needs the job the same day or next morning and as it has been left until the last minute this can have cost implications. Printing 5000 leaflets for example is more cost effective printed traditional offset litho whereby plates are made than using digital printing. Offset litho is also considered to be a better quality with a wider choice of materials the downside is it needs slightly longer to produce than a leaflet printed using digital print. If time allows printing offset printing can save a customer a considerable amount. Kopykat can print small quantities of leaflets under 50 if necessary up to very large amounts sometimes 200k although average offset orders tend to be between 2000 and 20,000. The key is to allow a decent lead time so you give yourself options on how best to produce the leaflet or flyer. Another bonus is that flyers and leaflets tend to be vat exempt and are a great way of marketing your company.

Bleed on a print job what is it?

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As a printer every day we are dealing with multiple files supplied by clients or perhaps designers working on their behalf. We find that most files supplied do not have 3mm bleed added. Bleed of 3mm should be added by the person suppying the file so it is print ready so that all the printer has to do is open the PDF file impose and make plates if it is an offset litho printing job or impose and print if it is a digital print job. Bleed of 3mm should be added when colour prints to the edge of the sheet so in effect the colour is extended over and above the finished size. This means that when the print job is cut on the guillotine no slithers of white are left showing. It also allows the print finisher more latitude for fine adjustments at the folding or booklet making stage for example. The best thing to do is speak to your printer about the job you have in mind as at Kopykat we will often try and flag up issues regarding bleed at an early stage. On many occasions a PDF file will be sent to us to produce an urgent job and if it is supplied without bleed we then need to go back to the client asking them or their designer to add bleed and resupply the file. This can slow down the production process at a critical stage and lose valuable production time. Many clients will use freelancers which is fine but if they are unavailable more time can be lost. Designers who deal with traditional print on a regular basis will automatically add bleed and crop marks when supplying to the printer however if the designer is more of a web designer used to working digitally on screen bleed does not come into the equation and they may not be aware that this is required. For more advice about bleed https://www.kopykat.co.uk/artwork-advice/ or email print@kopykat.co.uk and we will send you a PDF that shows an example of how it should be done.