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Print Solutions December 2006

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CASE STUDY, COMMERCIAL PRINTING

Beauty in Motion

Latcha + Associates was commissioned by the Krasl Art Center in Michigan to create this stellar brochure for gallery members. The brochure employed innovative production techniques and required the input from the distributorship ’s staff and its manufacturing partners.

Latcha + Associates brings creativity and innovation to a brochure for an automotive art exhibit.

When the Krasl Art Center in St. Joseph, Mich., decided to create a brochure to publicize its new exhibit “Art.Automobiles.Passion,” it wanted a firm that could understand the creative spirit of the gallery pieces and bring an equal level of artistry to the brochure itself.

“We’re actually close friends with a number of the artists featured in this work,” says David Latcha, owner and president of Latcha + Associates, an ad agency in Farmington Hills, Mich. “We wanted to faithfully reproduce this artwork rather than just do a 4-color reproduction.”

“[The Krasl Art Center] left the direction of the project entirely up to us, which doesn ’t happen very often,” says Lisa Chapman, vice president and managing director of Latcha + Associates. “But we understood the scope of the project and they were willing to give us carte blanche.”

The final product required three-and-half months of hard work and included input from Latcha + Associates staff and its manufacturing partners Sandy Alexander Inc., Clifton N.J., and Williamson Printing Company, Dallas. Williamson Printing scanned the transparencies and did the primary color work. Sandy Alexander handled the printing and binding.

“We wanted those companies to understand what the intentions were and let them bring their ideas to the table rather than just tell them what to do,” Latcha says. “It allowed them to try techniques that they don’t normally use. Even though they’re usually competitors, all of them played nice in the sandbox to produce a good piece.”

The first technique incorporated the exhibit’s automotive theme throughout the brochure, including the cover. Latcha + Associates used a rubber-like surface for the cover of the spiral-bound brochure called “Touch” by Curious Papers.

“I’d been dying to use this,” Chapman says. “It had a tactile feel and was suede-like. It had such a rubbery feel that we thought it was appropriate for the exhibit.”

“The printer was amazing, and fortunately they had printed on this surface before,” Latcha explains.

The interior of the book was printed in eight colors on paper by Xpex with varnish throughout the piece. The firm selected Day-Glo inks to bump up the regular process inks to stay true to the vibrancy and color density of each piece of artwork.

Latcha says the project went smoothly considering they had so many partners giving their input. The only bump “was making sure that the die cuts properly overlapped the artwork,” he says.

The client was happy with the finished product. “Quite frankly, it’s almost impossible to put into adequate words how pleased we are,” wrote Dar Davis, executive director of the Krasl Art Center. “We’ve never had a catalog mailing in all of Krasl’s 25 years that evoked the response that we received when we mailed this beautiful catalog to our members. "You did a brilliant job.”

—LaShell Stratton

TIPS

1. Use the best of the best to produce a quality product. “I always hate when I hear people say this, but it’s true,” says David Latcha, owner and president of Latcha + Associates. “We went with the absolute best companies we could find for each segment of the work. Williamson Printing was the best at reproducing on this type of level and Sandy Alexander had efficiencies and checks in place that were important to us.”

2. Don’t be afraid to get creative. Lisa Chapman, vice president and managing director of Latcha + Associates says the designer who was in charge of the Krasl Art Center project “outdid herself in terms of bringing to life automotive art,” especially with the innovative use of die cuts. “To do something like that to enhance the design of world class art is pretty amazing,” she says.