Triangle Printers' Unique Resources Meet Client Challenges

Triangle Printers and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Collaborate to Create a Beautiful and Environmentally Sound Annual Report
Every annual report is designed to paint a true picture of what a company is all about. Each detail of an annual report should project a consistent image. Not just the text, the photo images and graphics but the printing process, binding and paper can help tell a company’s story.

The 2003 annual report for the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago, Illinois, produced by Triangle Printers Inc. of Skokie, IL, illustrates how the printing process can be an important part of the message. “The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is all about educating people about environmental issues,” says Allison Rickett, Triangle Printer’s account executive who supervised the printing of their current annual report. “So creating an environmentally friendly annual report was really important to them.” Triangle collaborated with Designer Zina Castanuela to use the printing process to underscore the museum’s environmental message. The project used a variety of recycled paper stocks and soybean based, environmentally-friendly inks, but the challenge was to find an environmentally friendly, workable and attractive binding.

The most common way to bind an annual report is using metal staples, but with a stapled binding, the paper can’t be recycled unless readers remove the staples by hand. Last year, working with a different printer, the museum created a perfect bound book, using glue similar to the way a paperback book is produced. But, with only 32 pages, the binding didn’t hold and the book wasn’t as durable as it needed to be.

When Rickett met with Castanuela, they started looking for new ways to bind the book. Both had seen invitations that were sewn together, but neither had seen an annual report that had been sewn to bind the pages together.

Fortunately, Triangle has an established relationship with Chicago Protective Apparel, an industrial sewing facility. After some trial runs, it was determined that Chicago Protective Apparel could stitch bind the books on their sewing machines. “We are always looking for new ways to make our printed projects more interesting, and we really wanted to show off the quality of the recycled papers,” says Castanuela. “I have always wanted to do a book like this.”

Since the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is a not-for-profit agency, the budgets were tight. “There was no room for unexpected issues, so we worked very hard to keep everything on track and on budget,” Rickett explains. Ultimately, the project was delivered a week ahead of schedule and on budget. The key to the project’s success was extensive attention to detail before the project hit the presses.

Triangle made paper dummies and did test sewing. Also, to see how the images worked on the variety of papers, they press-proofed color photos for the cover on ivory, brown and white paper. “It was really a close collaboration with the designer to avoid any problems,” explains Rickett.

This annual report was the first project that the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum had printed with Triangle. “Their resources really excited us,” says Castanuela. “Triangle was really easy to work with, the press checks went smoothly, the mock ups were a big help and the report turned out really great.”

The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum opened in October 1999. Its mission is to expand the public's knowledge of nature and environmental science to promote greater understanding of Midwestern environmental issues and how those issues relate to the rest of the world. The Nature Museum offers nationally recognized, cutting-edge programming in the museum, online and through outreach programs in schools throughout Chicagoland.

The Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum inspire people to learn about and care for nature and the environment. The Institution fosters environmental learning through the exhibits and education programs of the Museum and through the Academy's collections, research, symposia, publications, events and other activities. The Academy builds understanding of global environmental issues by interpreting the effect those issues have on the Midwest. The Museum is open every day except New Year's day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Nature Museum is located at 2430 N. Cannon Drive (at Fullerton) in Chicago's Lincoln Park. For more information, call (773) 755-5100 or visit the Museum's Web site at www.naturemuseum.org.

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. Additionally, the company's Creative Services Department provides graphic design, copywriting and photography for a variety of projects.

For more information about Triangle Printers Inc., please call Bonnie Dayan at 847-675-3700.