Now it’s your turn: give your vote!

As Businesscards EXPRESS became bce-online.com and our lettering needs a makeover, we invited graphic designers to participate in a logo makeover contest.
Several designs reached us. Many thanks to all participants! Nine designs got into the final round.
Now we’re curious about the opinion of our blog visitors: Which design gets YOUR vote? (multiple answers are possible)
Our jury will take their decision on December 14th. You als blog visitor have a vote which will be included in this decision. The artists which created the designs on the first three placed will be awarded with shopping coupons, with which they can order for free in our online shop transparent business cards, postcards, flyers or whatever they wish. So now let us know: which artwork is your favorite? Which one should be awarded?

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Number 5

Number 6

Number 7

Number 8

Number 9

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Meaning-Giving Prices for Transparent Business Cards

Everyday we get a lot of requests. One of those of today, because of being particularly nice, deserves citation: Dear team, I just saw on your website that you charge 300 euros for 500 semi-transparent business cards… From a Rhenish media agency however I got a quote which beats your service theoretically! Nevertheless I’d like to give you the chance to acquire me as customer. This would be my proposal: If you reduce the price for me to 200 euros, I’ll order the 500 business cards at yours. Thank you in advance for your feedback. Best regards. 300 euros??? We wondered where on earth this customer could have read such a horrendous price. Surely not on our website. Therefore we sent him the following reply: Dear XY, Thank you for your request. We just can’t imagine where you might have read a price of 300 euros for 500 semi-transparent business cards. For 500 semi-transparent business cards we charge 120 euros plus 20 euros shipping. However, feel free to pay 200 euros Best regards And then his reply, highlight of the day: Now life is meaningful again ! Thank you for this information! Best regards Wonderful, when our prices have such an impact

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Bukowa “credit card”

Transparent plastic cards of  ‘Bukowa & Partners’ in credit card style
Material: PVC transparent, 760 micron (credit card thickness)
Printing: UV offset  (CMYK), double-sided
Target: red waves have to stay translucent,
blue areas as opaque as possible
Finishing options: hot foil stamping in silver (logo),
embossing with tipping in silver

These plastic cards are part of the interactive exhibition “The Natural Laws of Economics” (July 31 til August 02, 2009 in Augsburg, Germany) and activate the installation by means of a light barrier.

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Transparent Business Cards ‘LA CHANCLA’

Transparent business cards ‘LA CHANCLA’ hotel, Malaga
Material: PVC crystal clear transparent, 400 micron
Druck: UV offset single-colored + white (flip-flops left blank)

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Transparent Flyer and Bookmark ‘ING’

Transparent flyer and bookmark ‘ING’-Investment Management
Material flyer: PVC crystal clear transparent, 400 micron
Material bookmark: PVC frosted translucent, 300 micron (‘ruler’ format)
Print: UV offset single-sided, UV varnish for protection

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Tutorial: What Do You Mean by „Offset Colors Are Transparent“?

Earlier this week with a customer I exchanged some mails on UV offset printing in general and then eventually this lead to a treatise on the characteristics of offset inks. I’d say this is a good occasion to write a post on the transparency of offset inks.

First of all, offset colors are generally slightly transparent. Even an “opaque white” isn’t opaque at 100%.
Normally, on white substrates, apart from the fact that thus offset colors are more brilliant than colors in digital printing, the transparency has no further effect. On transparent materials, however, the transparency of the inks evokes a special impact and requires extra attention.

Due to the transparency of the inks, in many cases it is necessary to add a white layer on the back of some graphic elements to render the colors more opaque. With such a white layer the impact of the design doesn’t depend so much on the incidence of light and the background, and in addition the colors appear more vibrant.
Adding a white layer behind white elements isn’t possible and thus white itself has to remain slightly transparent. To achieve an absolutely opaque white in offset printing is only possible by means of several (3-4) layers of color. This actually is a very elaborate and thus expensive procedure and therefore makes only sense with large orders.
One example for such a special order is the Dorint-Flyer:

This flyer has been printed with five layers on crystal clear PVC: print for the front of the flyer, three layers of white in between, print for the back. The background of the design for the back side is golden, and even if metallic inks are the most opaque of all offset inks, with backlight you can still see the print from the other side shine through a bit.

The best impression of the transparency of offset inks surely conveys the following picture. The card has been printed with white at 100%.

In many cases in which the design plays with transparency, in which gentle gradients or maybe a transparent coloring of the whole business card is desired, the transparency of the inks is an advantage.

In all other cases we’re happy to assist you with an advice based on our long experience with these transparent materials. If you wish, we can also provide you with special samples which illustrate different grades of transparency, with and without a white layer.

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Flyer ‘Gold Event’

Transparent Plastic Flyer ‘GOLD EVENT’
Material: PVC transparent ‘CRYSTAL’, 400 micron
Printing: UV offset, two-colored (white and brown), plus golden hot foil stamping

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Transparent Flyer ‘Dorint’

Transparent Plastic Flyer ‘Dorint’ – Gala Invitation New Year’s Eve
Design: Ralf Kauffmann, Brainartist
Material: PVC fully-transparent, 250 micron
Printing: UV offset printing double-sided (CMYK and gold), with 3 extra layers of white

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When Design and Material Make a Good Match

Checking our referrers we found a link to Klodjana’s Blog. Excellent photographer, beautiful photos! We loved to delve among the entries of this blog (by the way, congratulations, Klodjana, also from our side! ) And of course we were happy to read, that she loves her new business cards

We love them too, as design and material make such a good match

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bce-online.com – Extraordinary printing products

bce-online.com prints extraordinary plastic business cards, promotional postcards and other stationery products, offering an efficient and high quality service.

The success of the company benefits from the competence of specialists, who have acquired excellent industry experience over the last ten years. Much of this experience can be acknowledged by these individuals acting as managers of Italian and foreign card printing and distribution businesses.

Now a new page has been added to the website showcasing many products realized at bce-online.com, such as transparent and frosted translucent (=semi-transparent) business cards, business cards with hot foil stamping and transparent flyers. We invite you to have a look yourself on www.bce-online.com

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