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Win with Northside Graphics this Christmas. We’ve got 12 fantastic prizes to giveaway!

In light of our recent awards success, we’re feeling extra festive this month at Northside Graphics. So, for one month only, we’re giving our fantastic customers the chance to win great prizes in our 12 Days of Christmas Prize Giveaway.

So, how do you enter? Simply place any order to be in with the chance of winning. The final draw takes place on Friday the 22nd December so make sure you don’t miss out!

See all the superb prizes on offer below and be sure to like us on Facebook where we’ll be announcing our daily winners! To place your order, call us on 028 9022 2111.

At Northside Graphics, thankfully, we are no strangers to winning industry awards but last week was something a little bit special. As we continue to enjoy exponential growth, we are delighted to announce that we have won a further 2 UK wide industry awards which further cements our reputation as one of the fastest growing printing companies in the UK.

Highly regarded as the premier awards ceremony within the UK Digital Printing industry, The Digital Printer Awards were held on Thursday 15th November 2018 in London at The Marriott Hotel. The competition was fierce but we are very proud to announce that we won the coveted award for the best ‘Web to Print’ company in the UK.

Only 48 hours before The Digital Printer Awards, we were again in London, this time to attend this year’s Solutions Awards where we were shortlisted as a finalist in the ‘Solutions for Innovation’ category. We’re delighted to say that we walked away with the winner’s trophy capping off a truly wonderful week. Again, this award means everything to us as it confirms that our people, technology and processes are innovative and industry leading and the reason why we are growing at our current rate.

This recognition is a true testament to the Northside Graphics brand and everything that we stand for. In the last 12 months, we have invested heavily in technology, finishing equipment and staff to ensure that we are in a position to offer our customers the finest digital printed products at great prices with the quickest turnarounds backed up with great customer service.

Northside Graphics should be your first port of call for all of your digital printing needs. We specialise in the finest quality products using HP Indigo technology and market leading large-format presses. Visit our website today and see for yourself why so many people make us their go-to digital printing supplier.

Thanks, as always, to our great team without whom none of these great award wins would be possible.

With the festive season and New Year fast approaching – it’s time to start thinking about some seasonal gifts for your clients!

Marketing managers far and wide will tell you branded items really do work when it comes to enhancing visibility and brand awareness. They’re not wrong. So, why not kill two birds with one stone and give your customers a gift this Christmas that they will not only appreciate but will keep your business at the forefront of their minds all year long… Branded calendars are thoughtful, fun and useful, making them the perfect promotional gift.

At Northside Graphics we supply an extensive list of promo gifts but our favourite of all are custom-made branded calendars.

Here’s why:

1. Practical and meaningful
Calendars are useful, regardless of the industry you’re targeting! Giving a gift that is practical and that clients can use to make their lives easier creates more touchpoints between you and your customer. Your promotional product will prominently display your business name, logo or contact information. Think about how many times in a day the average person consults their desk or wall calendar – each one of these glances equals another time the customer or prospect will think of your business or organization.

2. Affordable & cost-effective
At Northside Graphics, we are proud to provide the highest quality print for a reasonable price across all our products. The number of potential clients, existing customers and industry decision-makers you could reach is staggering – meaning a relatively modest investment to create your calendar, can enable you to target hundreds of customers in one fell swoop.

3. Universal appeal
Everyone uses some type of organisational tool and a calendar is a common sight in offices and homes across the nation. By tailoring the custom calendar to the needs or interests of the client, you’ll not only boost your business but you will also provide value to the person receiving it. And providing value means you’ve supplied a great gift!

4. Continuous presence and year-round visibility
Custom calendars with your branding and logo will spotlight your business and keep you front of mind for a full 12 months, if not longer. When you break down the cost over that amount of time, the price of each calendar seems nearly next to nothing but the investment long-lasting.

5. Include vital business information
Your calendar design can include important company contact details, social media accounts and even opening times so clients and customers can get in touch with your business easily!

So, there you have it! With a new year upon us, ensure that you begin creating your print calendar early on so that you have enough time to get them to your customers before we wave goodbye to 2018.

Northside Graphics is Northern Ireland’s biggest and oldest digital printer. We’ve been in the industry for 30 years and our experience enables us to help our customers when it comes to supplying the perfect printed calendars and promotional gifts. For advice or a quote for your promo items, just call 029 9022 2111 and chat to our Belfast-based print team today.

Northside Graphics have yet again been recognised as one of the leading forces in the digital print industry. Both, a commendation from the Print Week Awards and two shortlistings for the Irish Print Awards are testament to our sustained dedication to providing a reliable and high-quality digital print service.

As we mentioned in a previous blog, Northside Graphics was shortlisted for the ‘SME of the Year’ category in the 2018 Print Week Awards. After having won the category last year, we were ecstatic to yet again be recognised as a leader in our field. Northside Graphics were delighted to receive Highly Commended this year. As always, the standard was extremely high this year and the awards evening was thoroughly enjoyed by all! Congratulations to all those who received recognition. You can find a full list of winners here.

Our recent successes do not end there however. Northside Graphics were recently notified that we have been shortlisted for the Irish Print Awards 2018 in two categories. The categories in which we have received a shortlisting include ‘Brochure Printer of the Year’ and ‘Digital Printer of the Year’. Considering the strength of the competition, these shortlistings further demonstrate to us that Northside Graphics is on a positive path. Congratulations and good luck to all the shortlisted companies. You can see a full list here. We will be attending the award ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Northwood on the 30th of November. We are so looking forward to what promises to be a night to remember.

Since our launch way back when in 1988, Northside Graphics have maintained our core focus of supplying the UK and Ireland with high-quality digital printing solutions. Frequent recognition in awards such as the Print Week Awards and the Irish Printer Awards simply reinforces our core principles even more. Accolades and shortlistings of this sort could not have been achieved without our dedicated workforce who all share one thing in common – passion for digital print. We want to say a massive thank you to the whole Northside Graphics team.

For nearly 30 years Northside Graphics have supplied Northern Ireland customers with a wide range of high-quality digital print. Our website shows the full range of products and services we supply. You can see what other customers say about us too! To get a quote or find out more about how we can help with your print, call us at 028 9022 2111.

If you’re unfamiliar with supplying artwork for print the process can seem like a minefield. Even experienced designers can overlook something small before they supply artwork for print and that small mistake can be costly. At Northside Graphics we know how easy it is to miss a tiny but important detail, especially when you’ve been looking at a job for days or even weeks. That’s why we’re here to help. Below we explain how to avoid the most commons artwork errors.

Always add bleed and crop marks

Crop or cut marks show where the printed page will be trimmed. If you have images or graphics going right to the edge of your page you need to add an additional 3mm to your artwork past the crop marks. There will often be tiny movements of paper on the press during the printing process and if your graphic stops at the cut line you may see a fine white line at the edge of the finished page. Adding 3mm bleed ensures this won’t be a problem.

Templates for your artwork
Forgetting to add bleed or safe areas for text are common mistakes when supplying artwork. On our website, we have supplied downloadable artwork templates. The templates are fully marked up with guides for bleed, safe areas, crop marks and any other details you might need. We have created this wide range of templates to help you set up your print ready artwork however, we’re always on the other end of a phone if you ever require further help or advice. You can check out the print templates for all our products here.

Check image mode and resolution

Any images used must be 300dpi at the size they appear in the finished job. Go below that resolution and they might appear pixelated or blurred even if they look fine on screen. Also, make sure they’re saved in CMYK mode. Raw camera image files and stock photography usually come in RGB colour mode. We’ll always convert them to CMYK before print but then some colours may appear differently to how they looked on your screen, so convert them before you supply your artwork. Then you can see them as they’ll appear in print and adjust the colour if necessary.

Always embed your fonts

When you save your artwork for print always ensure you’ve embedded and outlined all fonts. If you don’t they may not print exactly as you see them on your screen. Outlining and embedding fonts converts them to graphics meaning they’re guaranteed to appear the same in print as they do on screen.

Proof check – then check again

Word blindness is a common phenomenon when looking at a document for any period of time. Even if you read the text carefully the brain can easily overlook a typo or grammatical error. You really can’t proofread a job too much before you send to print and you’d be surprised how often a mistake you’ve missed on screen jumps out immediately on the printed version. Print out your job and check a hard copy rather than just read it on screen. It’s also wise to let someone else read it too. A fresh set of eyes can often pick up something you’ve missed.

Northside Graphics is Northern Ireland’s biggest and oldest digital printer. We’ve been in the industry for 30 years and our experience enables us to help our customers when it comes to supplying perfect artwork that’s ready for print. Our templates page is clearly marked on our website so you can easily find and download the template you need. There are artwork templates for everything in our extensive product range, making it easy for you to upload your artwork safe in the knowledge it’s fully ready for print. For advice or a quote for your print just call 029 9022 2111 and chat to our Belfast-based print team today.

We couldn’t be more delighted with what we have achieved this year. As if we weren’t already pleased enough, we’ve just found out that we are finalists for 3 more awards!

Thanks to all our wonderful customers and supporters who took the time and voted for us in The Solutions Awards. We have now been nominated as finalists in the ‘Solutions for Innovation’ category. We are ecstatic and can’t wait for a great night at the ceremony in London this November! The voting is still ongoing however – so, if you haven’t yet, pop over to https://www.earthisland.co.uk/solutions-awards and vote for us to win! We really appreciate all the votes so far and are grateful to our team and customers for getting us here.

We’re also delighted to announce that we have been nominated for two Digital Printer Awards categories; SME business initiative and Web-to-print.

The Digital Printer Awards get bigger and better every year. We are excited to celebrate in style at the industry’s comprehensive digital printing awards ceremony in November. The Digital Printer Awards 2018 will celebrate the standout digital print that achieved great results. We would be over the moon to be crowned the winners in both our categories!

Once again, we would like to take the time to thank each and every one of our amazing team members here at Northside Graphics. We wouldn’t be here without you.

The standard of nominees is extremely high this year and we want to wish all the finalists in both The Solutions Awards and Digital Printer Awards good luck from us.

Since launching in 1988, Northside Graphics have striven to supply customers throughout Northern Ireland with quality digital print and great customer service. Regular recognition from UK awards not only shows us that we’re going in the right direction as a company but it gives our customers confidence in our service and peace of mind in their print supplier.

For nearly 30 years Northside Graphics have supplied Northern Ireland customers with a wide range of high-quality digital print. Our website shows the full range of products and services we supply. You can see what other customers say about us too! To get a quote or find out more about how we can help with your print, call us at 028 9022 2111.

Wow! We have been shortlisted as a finalist in the ‘SME of the Year’ category for the second year running at the PrintWeek 2018 Awards.

We’re absolutely delighted to be shortlisted for this prestigious award after our successes last year. We’ll be attending the gala dinner and award presentation this November in London. There will be 24 awards presented to the winners, all independently selected by a formidable panel of industry leaders. The standard is exceptionally high!

We’re looking forward to the awards and wish all the finalists in each category the best of luck. If the ceremony last year is anything to go by, we’re in for a real treat!

We were thrilled to have won the 2017 ‘SME of the Year’ accolade. Our shortlisting shows that we have been able to build on what the judges had previously found impressive. They were extremely pleased with our dedication to improve the way in which we utilise technology in order to enhance customer experience. Although this has remained a focal point in our business strategy, this nomination would not have been possible without those who operate the technology itself.

The team at Northside Graphics all share something in common, passion for digital print. So, a big thank you to each and every one of the staff at Northside for the hard work is due – this nomination wouldn’t be possible without you!

Since launching in 1988, Northside Graphics have striven to supply customers throughout Northern Ireland with quality digital print and great customer service. Regular recognition from UK awards not only shows us that we’re going in the right direction as a company but it gives our customers confidence in our service and peace of mind in their print supplier.

For nearly 30 years Northside Graphics have supplied Northern Ireland customers with a wide range of high-quality digital print. Our website shows the full range of products and services we supply. You can see what other customers say about us too! To get a quote or find out more about how we can help with your print, call us at 028 9022 2111.

It’s been a pretty great week here at Northside Graphics. It turns out we’ve been shortlisted for not one, but two awards!

The Solutions Awards 2018
The Earth Island team, who have more than 100 years of media, marketing and publishing experience, have announced their shortlist for The Solutions Awards 2018.

A shortlist of entries has been drawn up with six nominees in each category who are being put forward for the online voting process. And, we are delighted to announce that we are one of them! Northside Graphics have been shortlisted in the very exciting category dedicated to Innovation.

The voting has now opened to the public – all you have to do is click on the ‘Vote’ button under our picture on the voting page and send an email with your vote! Check out our social channels or you can find voting information on the Solution Awards Twitter: @SolutionsAwards or using the hashtag #TSA18.

We would really appreciate your vote for Northside Graphics to finish in the top 3 of our category, allowing us to go through as final nominees. We’d love to attend the awards event in London this November!

Northern Ireland SME Business Awards 2018

As if one award wasn’t exciting enough, we’ve also been shortlisted in the first ever Northern Ireland SME Business Awards 2018.

Creative Oceanic is delighted to introduce the first ever Northern Ireland SME Business Awards 2018. Voted for by the public, the awards seek to recognise and commend the efforts, tireless work and success of people working in the country’s SME business sector. The list of finalists has now been compiled based on the tremendous number of nominations received from the public.

The list of finalists compiled is of an extremely high standard so we are proud to be listed!

The black-tie ceremony promises to be the biggest night in this year’s events calendar with a range of awards to be presented to the most deserving entrepreneurs and businesses, including the SME Business of the Year, Businessman of the Year, Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Online Business of the Year and many more.

Northside Graphics are shortlisted for ‘Best in Belfast’ along with a number of great local SME’s. Good luck to all, we are very much looking forward to the event!

Keep an eye on #SMEBusinessAwards on Facebook and Twitter for more info!

The Grand Central Hotel, the seventh hotel in the Hastings Hotels collection, opened to guests in late June this year.

Situated in the heart of Belfast, the hotel is a magnificent contemporary reincarnation of a Victorian hotel with the same name that glimmered on Royal Avenue from 1893 to 1979. Inside the hotel, grandeur meets glamour, just as it did in the original Grand Central. The hotel is truly something to behold, a new jewel for Belfast with an old soul. For us, this means it is extremely important that all their printed materials matched this level of quality and brand image.

The Grand Central Hotel and Northside Graphics
As we have been already working with the Hastings Hotels Group for over eight years, supplying a wide range of print collateral to all their existing hotels, including The Culloden Estate and Spa, the Slieve Donard Resort and Spa, The Europa, Stormont, Ballygally Castle and Everglades – we were thrilled to be involved in the printing of many of the materials and menus required for this newest addition to The Hastings Group.

Perfect Print Partners
The launch of such a prestigious hotel was a massive and exciting project and it was essential to ensure that all the printed materials were ready and in place for the first guests’ arrival in late June.

We’re delighted to be their chosen print partner for this major project, supplying a wide variety of print across all departments of the hotel, including:

Door hangers – Do Not Disturb and Room Breakfast Menus
Employee handbooks
Business cards
Bar & Cocktail menus
Seahorse Restaurant Dinner, Breakfast & Afternoon Tea Menus
Promotional strut cards & posters
Car parking signs
Grand Café collateral – including all menus and signs
Foamex panels – Welcome Signs for the Restaurant
Cocktail, Bar and Afternoon Tea menus for the Observatory Cocktail Lounge

Here’s what Joanne Harvey, Group Marketing Manager from Hastings Hotels had to say about their partnership with us:

”Northside Graphics have been a key supplier over recent years and we are extremely impressed by their consistent high levels of quality, service and reliability. From straightforward small print requirements to more complex and intricate jobs where I required advice on paper choices and samples, they always meet and exceeded my expectations. Having them working closely with us for the launch of our latest flagship hotel in Belfast City Centre was a huge benefit as it was vital that all our printed collateral was of the highest quality to reflect our stunning new branding and design for all parts of the hotel. At times some of our deadlines were very tight and David and the team always delivered on time and even in person at very short notice, to ensure we had ever single item of print in place for the first guests arriving. I look forward to continuing this fabulous partnership as we look at many more print projects in the future!”.

Get the most from your roller banners this summer – and get the best value for money

Get the most from your roller banners this summer – and get the best value for money
We’re well into what has so far been a fantastic summer and with everyone out and about there are some fantastic marketing opportunities. The exhibition season is underway, summer sales are everywhere and this summer’s events are busier than ever. Roller banners are a great way to capitalise on increased numbers of shoppers, visitors and event-goers. They’re highly effective marketing tools and right now Northside Graphics are offering our extensive range of professional roller banners at stunningly low prices so it’s a great time to order and increase your sales for little investment.

Five top tips to get the most from your roller banners

Your roller banners will be even more effective if you follow a few trusted tips:

1. Stick to one main message

Roller banners aren’t for listing your entire product range, prices or for telling your company’s history. You typically have less than five seconds to get attention before people will stop reading so whatever you want to say, say it quickly and say it loud.

2. Top to bottom – left to right

Given readers’ short attention span with roller banners and other large format advertising, ensure you make yours as easy as possible to read. The eye naturally reads from top to bottom, left to right so put your most important element at the top (eye level) and work down. Your logo and main message should always be the most immediate elements of your design.

3. Push your unique selling point (USP)

At events, in retail or business premises and over the course of a day people see a great deal of marketing messages. What will make your product or service stand out from competitors? If your prices are lower, your service better or if you’ve won awards, use your roller banner to shout about it.

4. Avoid stock images

There are many photo stock libraries out there – some offering more original imagery than others. Stock pictures are now very easy to find but they can make your print look bland. Great images will really help your roller banner but get some taken that are unique to you and your banner will be much more effective.

5. Look around and use anything you like

There’s nothing wrong with getting inspiration from other company’s marketing. Look at stands, posters, printed and even online marketing from your competitors or similar businesses across the world. If they’re doing something well take inspiration from the idea and customise it for your own business.

Best value roller banners printed right here in Belfast

Northside Graphics is a Belfast based print company dedicated to supplying high-quality print at low prices for our Northern Ireland customers. We offer a wide range of roller banners from our entry-level Silver stand to our top of the range Platinum option. The only difference between each of our roller banners is the weight and strength of the frame. All printed graphics are produced on the same Roland high definition presses so any stand you choose will be of the highest quality. We also believe we offer the best value around so call us on 029 9022 2111 and get a quote for your new roller banner stand today.