Case Study: Triangle Printers Partners with Crosby Associates to Create an
Award-winning Annual Report
Any designer will tell you that a successful printed project is a careful collaboration of many creative people working together. Copy, photographs and design are carefully honed to connect the message with the visual presentation. However, the impact of the final piece may depend just as much on often overlooked pre-press and printing considerations.

The partnership between design firm Crosby Associates and Triangle Printers on Cole Taylor Bank's Annual Report is a case study on the impact that careful attention to technical details can have on a printed project.

The Cole Taylor Bank Annual Report was a high-end piece which featured photographs that had to be top-quality. Working together, Crosby Associates Designer Carl Wohlt, Triangle Project Manager Becky Kirby and Pre-Press Technician Bill Kirby addressed this deceptively simple project with extraordinary attention to detail. Although the original photographs were all black and white, there were exceptional technical challenges to create the unique and striking final product.

The process began with special attention to the photographs that served as the heart of the project. Crosby Associates supplied black and white prints. Although the quality of the original photos was excellent, the retouching process was extremely detailed. "In one photo, one of the Taylor Brothers was wearing glasses and there was a slight glare that made it impossible to see one of his eyes," says Becky. "We had to eliminate the glare and actually recreate one of his eyeballs digitally." Wrinkles in pants, details on clothing, faces and hair got similar attention to detail.

Triangle also converted the images to tri-tones. This is a complicated process in which technician Bill Kirby works carefully with subtle shadings in the photo and converts each nuance to a given tone. Wohlt had suggestions and the two worked collaboratively to develop the final image.

To further enhance the look of the photos, Triangle Printers and Crosby Associates decided to use a unique varnishing technique. Normally, a 100 percent spot varnish is added to photos to provide an appealing gloss, protect the piece from fingerprints and add to the look. In this instance, the spot gloss was screened to match the density of the tri-tone, creating a subtle, sophisticated effect that brought out the best in the image.

The team then faced a significant challenge in creating perfect crossovers. The piece was designed so that photos crossed over the center of the book where two pages met. "On a perfect-bound book like this one, the pages creep in about a quarter of an inch and there are slight variances," explains Becky. "We had to bring the bindery in to consult and together we developed a system to manipulate the photo edges. It was a very complicated process, but in the end, the photos transition perfectly over the center break."

"Carl was very knowledgeable and clearly understood the whole printing process," says Becky. "Working with him made this challenging project a real pleasure."

With such an important project that relied heavily on technical and visual details, the team at Triangle wanted to leave nothing to chance. Instead of a standard proof, the Triangle team decided on a more accurate press proof. Samples of the paper that the final project would be printed on were brought in and the press set up exactly the way it would be to run the final project, but only the proof copies were run. This way, colors and images would be an exact match for the final project with no discrepancies caused by differences in equipment or paper.

"We knew that this would be a very difficult piece," says Carl Wohlt, the designer from Crosby Associates. "The team at Triangle really went out of their way to make sure that this was a showcase project." "Any designer wants to work with people who are smarter and work harder than they do, and the people at Triangle really did."

Account Manager Allison Rickett shares Wohlt's enthusiasm. "This is one of the best pieces that we've produced. Part of the success is from the designer's vision and part of it is the amazing mastery of new technology on the part of our team. You couldn't have achieved the same results even five years ago, because there have been significant advances even in that short time."

Founded in 1955 by Harvey Saltzman, Triangle Printers Inc. is a full-service printer at the forefront of printing innovation, developing new techniques to provide clients with maximum quality at an affordable price. Using today's latest sheet-fed technology and environmentally safe soybean oil-based inks, Triangle Printers designs and prints a wide range of jobs, from postcards to annual reports, at its 50,000-square-foot facility in Skokie, IL.

Clients can choose custom printing for high-profile, full-color presentations. Triangle also offers customers a value printing option, which produces high quality materials-including catalogs, postcards, brochures, rack literature and posters-at about half the cost of custom printing.

"At Triangle Printers, we strive to make our client's job easier every day," says Triangle President Harvey Saltzman. "The business environment seems to get more hectic all the time, so offering comprehensive service that our customers know that they can depend on really makes a difference.

For more information about Triangle Printers or to request a quote, please contact Bonnie Dayan at 847.675.3700.