For Print Only

A Division of UnderConsideration

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2009
–
2017

Kissimmee Utility Authority (KUA) a community owned utility—where all of its customers actually own the utility—publishes a traditional annual report each year. With a very different visual approach from last year’s annual, Primal Creative focused on telling the stories within the community.

Since they are community owned all profits go back into the community in one way or another. The theme of “Let It Shine” was a great way to connect all of these stories of how KUA has benefited the community in the recent past. I knew from the beginning we were going to use spot UV. I’ve used spot UV in the past, but usually as minor accents—but this time we were going to “blow it up” with spot UV. We actually started back in January experimenting with using spot UV on some different sheets. Our first preference was actually to use French, Butcher paper, we looked around for samples (even asking French Paper), but no luck. So we did our own tests. We had the printer run tests on several weights and colors and in the end it had the perfect modeled affect that we expected. There were certain UV’s that worked better than others and it was great to go through that process before we even shot photos. The cost for the paper was obviously a bit more then a traditional coated sheet, but both the client and I thought it was worth the extra expense.

We shot the photos in a store room at the utility knowing we wanted rich blacks to help define the “light” that we were using to represent how KUA was helping all these individuals and community organizations shine. After the photography process was complete and the copy was written we finalized the layout and financials for the report. About two weeks before going to print we were informed by French Paper that they production issues with the particular paper we wanted to use. We decided to wait for it—but two week later, French Paper told us they were still having production issues and we should look at an alternative sheet. We were disappointed to say the least, but I have to give French Paper the proper recognition for doing the right thing. They knew we were under a deadline and instead of making false promises over and over they told us the truth. Being so late in the game we had to switch to a standard coated sheet (which honestly was always a backup if the Butcher Paper wasn’t going to work). We printed a standard 4 color process with a 5th color for the “minty green” and then coated the sheet with a dull aqueous.

Once the sheets were completed on the press they were sent out to be covered with UV. We utilized UV like crazy—every page has it on there somewhere. The reason for the UV was to emphasize the idea of “light”. The contrast between the dull aqueous and the gloss UV plays with the light and changes like crazy. It’s just amazing how with the tilt of a page it changes the look completely. In the end it’s rare for a piece to turn out as amazing as you expect—I mean usually there is something that you would change, but on this piece it met all of our expectations.

It is refreshing to see a spot varnish used to add a second dimension to an image, beyond highlighting a detail with it.

The Cheaper Show Print

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