Remote printing advice and inspiration
It’s a crisis and everyone is homebound. So how should you handle that marketing-wise, not just today but tomorrow? Our print shop has also had to organize differently to get its story told. An example of our approach is our digital edition of Café Cliché, where we were challenged to create a real-life event from a distance.
Normally, Café Cliché takes place in our buildings: with our printing presses as an infectious backdrop, creative souls learn all about a specific aspect of printing. We invite guest speakers, provide inspirational printed materials and provide snacks and beverages. Our second edition, about letterpress and related printing techniques, had to be completely different: we moved Café Cliché into the living room. It became a success. This was evident from the numerous entries and certainly from the enthusiastic reactions afterwards!
By sending participants an inspiration packet ahead of time and discussing it in depth during the broadcast, Café Cliché became an almost interactive event.
Tangible inspiration package & remote explanation
Café Cliché represents an evening of experience around print. Info and entertainment flow together. Now how do you integrate something like that in a digital context? Initially, everyone who registered was sent an inspiration packet, which included a bundle of inspiration cards that brought together different printing techniques and paper types. During the broadcast, this was discussed in detail by graphic designer An Eisendrath, paper expert Sofie Jacobs of Papyrus and cliché supplier Repro Hermans. Like an accomplished TV host, our very own paper and print expert Valérie moderated the conversation. The result: not an hour of one-way traffic, but an almost interactive event.
You saw the guest speakers at work in places that breathed the history of letterpress, which gave more context to the story we wanted to bring.
Experts at work in their own habitat
Café Cliché was introduced by guest speaker Patrick Goossens, who explained the history of letterpress printing. The cool thing: thanks to the digital concept, it could be done from his own studio, a treasure trove of century-old printing presses that beautifully illustrated the story. Afterwards, the camera and viewer moved to the Plantin Moretus museum. In that historic setting, An Eisendrath talked about her passion for type printing and what makes this craft so unique.
Finally, we switched to the meeting room in our print shop for the aforementioned inspiration session around maps. In short, three different locations provided more context and gave a deeper dimension to our story, even though everything happened from a distance.
