Corporate Identity Printing

What belongs in a printed set

The core set covers three items: a letterhead (for contracts and official correspondence), envelopes (usually two sizes — one for letters, one for documents) and business cards. A folder for commercial proposals, badges for staff and a calendar for clients are often added. Menus, certificates and vouchers are already sector-specific — needed by particular businesses rather than everyone. What the set contains should be decided by what customers actually encounter, not by what is considered standard.

• Letterhead — contracts and official correspondence
• Envelopes — two sizes, letters and documents
• Business cards — the most frequent contact point
• Folder — commercial proposals

Why ordering together is worth it

The main reason is colour consistency. In digital printing the same CMYK values come out slightly differently on different stocks and on different days — a normal property of the technology. When letterhead, envelope and folder print in one cycle, that deviation is minimal and the set reads as one system. Printed three months apart, the corporate blue may differ slightly on all three — and that is exactly what breaks visual consistency. The second reason is economic: setup cost is paid once.

• One cycle — matching colour across items
• Printed at different times — colour drifts
• Setup cost paid once
• Artwork kept for repeat orders

Technical requirements for the whole set

Every corporate identity item shares the same technical requirements: vector artwork, CMYK, 300 dpi for raster elements, 2-3 mm bleed and outlined fonts. Two additional requirements are specific. First, the corporate colour must be defined by CMYK values or a Pantone code rather than 'the blue from the logo' — that removes ambiguity. Second, the logo must be vector, because it is used at sizes ranging from two centimetres on a badge to fifteen on a folder.