TruArt Color Graphics Blog

As we look toward the future of commercial printing, the industry stands at an exciting crossroads, fueled by technological advancements and evolving customer expectations. Innovations in print technology, sustainability efforts, and enhanced personalization are shaping how companies engage with their audiences through high-quality, physical marketing materials. For businesses looking to make a memorable impression, keeping pace with these trends is essential. Here’s a look at what’s ahead for the commercial printing industry and how forward-thinking companies are adapting to remain competitive and impactful.

The Rise of Digital Printing: Flexibility Meets Quality

The growth of digital printing technology is one of the most transformative trends in the industry. Unlike traditional offset printing, digital printing offers fast turnaround times, high-quality output, and the ability to print on demand, making it ideal for shorter runs and customized projects. High-speed inkjet and laser printing systems are continuously evolving, improving color accuracy and enabling businesses to print a wide variety of marketing materials—from brochures and business cards to direct mail campaigns and personalized catalogs—at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional methods.

For companies looking to add value to their marketing efforts, digital printing enables mass customization. Customers can now receive targeted, personalized materials that reflect their unique interests and preferences, which can increase engagement and improve conversion rates. Could your business benefit from more flexible, short-run print options that connect with customers on a personal level?

The Comeback of Printed Catalogs and the Impact of Direct Mail

In a world where digital ads have become almost ubiquitous, print media like catalogs and direct mail are making a strong comeback. Recent research from HubSpot revealed that 91% of consumers feel that digital ads are more intrusive today than they were just 2–3 years ago. By comparison, print materials like catalogs offer a hands-on, engaging experience that digital ads often lack. Many brands are returning to printed catalogs to create a more intimate and memorable interaction with customers. Could your brand stand out by providing a more curated, physical experience?

Direct mail also remains a trusted marketing channel. According to data consistently shared by industry sources, 76% of consumers find direct mail trustworthy, and it drives 70% better brand recall than digital ads. Direct mail prompts 400–900% better response rates and generates approximately 600% more revenue per lead than digital ads. These impressive metrics showcase the value of combining digital and physical media to create effective, multi-channel campaigns. Printed catalogs and direct mail connect customers to brands in a way that’s concrete, memorable, and proven to drive results. Is your business maximizing the power of direct mail to reinforce your digital efforts?

3D Printing and Its Expanding Role

3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is another area where the commercial printing industry is seeing substantial innovation. Although still a relatively niche area, 3D printing has applications in prototyping, small-batch manufacturing, and even customized promotional products. Industries like aerospace, healthcare, and automotive have already begun incorporating 3D-printed parts to reduce costs, save time, and enhance product functionality.

For commercial printers, the integration of 3D printing presents new opportunities to expand their service offerings and appeal to clients in creative fields. Imagine offering clients customized, 3D-printed promotional items, product prototypes, or display materials, all created with remarkable speed and precision. As 3D printing technology continues to improve, we can expect to see it become a more prominent part of commercial printing operations. Could your company benefit from personalized, 3D-printed items or prototypes for unique promotional campaigns?

The Growing Demand for Sustainability

Today’s customers are more environmentally conscious than ever before, and the commercial printing industry is responding with green initiatives. Sustainable inks, eco-friendly substrates, and energy-efficient production processes are becoming standard in many printing operations. For example, some companies now offer climate-neutral printing, offsetting carbon emissions and utilizing recyclable materials to meet customer demand for greener solutions.

This trend toward sustainability extends beyond the materials themselves; it also encompasses the entire production process. Many commercial printers are investing in energy-efficient equipment and reducing waste through smarter production practices. Is your business seeking eco-friendly printing solutions that align with today’s sustainability goals?

The Role of Print in the Digital Age: A Perfect Pairing

In today’s digital-dominated world, print is finding new relevance as a complement to digital marketing efforts. Print offers a real-world experience that digital cannot fully replicate, making it an excellent tool for building deeper connections with customers. By combining print with digital elements like QR codes, augmented reality (AR), and Near Field Communication (NFC), brands can create interactive experiences that bridge the gap between physical and digital.

For example, a printed mailer can include a QR code that links to a personalized landing page, or a catalog can feature AR elements that allow customers to view products in a 3D space. These hybrid marketing approaches enable brands to reach customers on multiple channels, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion. Would your brand benefit from combining digital and physical media for a more interactive customer experience?

Embracing the Future with Tru Art Color Graphics

The future of commercial printing is full of possibilities, and businesses that stay informed and adapt to these changes will be best positioned to thrive. From the flexibility of digital printing to the push for sustainability, commercial printing is evolving to meet the demands of a modern, discerning audience.

At Tru Art Color Graphics, we are committed to staying at the forefront of these advancements. Our team is dedicated to helping clients create impactful print solutions that resonate with their target audiences. Whether you’re looking for high-quality digital prints, eco-friendly options, or personalized marketing materials that bridge the gap between print and digital, Tru Art is here to support your goals and bring your brand’s vision to life.

Ready to take your brand to the next level with innovative print solutions? Contact Tru Art Color Graphics today to learn how our expertise and commitment to excellence can make a difference in your marketing efforts.

In a world where digital marketing often takes center stage, savvy businesses know that commercial print materials still deliver unbeatable value. From direct mail campaigns to event flyers, printed materials create a tactile, memorable connection with customers. But what if you could make that connection even stronger? Adding promotional products as a complement to your printed marketing pieces enhances brand recall, increases customer engagement, and encourages long-term loyalty. Together, print and promotional products can elevate your brand strategy to new heights.

Why Print Materials are Essential to Your Brand Strategy

Commercial print pieces—such as brochures, catalogs, and direct mail—are essential for delivering detailed information in a way that sticks with your audience. People engage more deeply with physical print than they do with digital media. Studies show that printed pieces are easier to read, more likely to be retained, and can inspire action through thoughtful design and clear messaging.

Consider direct mail: a high-quality postcard or a beautifully designed catalog can grab attention right away, especially when personalized with the recipient’s name or tailored offers. Unlike emails that get lost in crowded inboxes, print marketing is harder to ignore and more likely to sit on a desk or countertop, serving as a constant reminder of your brand.

But the impact doesn’t have to stop there. By combining your print campaigns with well-chosen promotional products, you can reinforce your message and extend the life of your marketing materials.

Enhancing Print with Promotional Products: How They Work Together

Promotional items work best when they complement an existing print campaign. Think of them as reinforcements that help your message stick. Imagine a direct mail postcard inviting recipients to a VIP event, paired with a branded keychain or lanyard that builds anticipation for the event. Or, a product catalog mailed to customers with a small branded notepad, encouraging them to take notes as they browse.

Promotional products make your printed materials more interactive. While the print delivers the core message, the tangible gift keeps your brand present long after the initial touchpoint. Together, they engage multiple senses—seeing, touching, and using—which help customers remember your message longer and strengthen emotional connections to your brand.

Examples of Brands Using Print and Promotional Products Successfully

• IKEA’s Product Catalog + Measuring Tape: IKEA’s annual product catalog offers inspiration, but by including a small, branded measuring tape, they invite customers to interact with the print piece and start planning their own home improvements.
• FedEx’s Direct Mail + Stress Ball Campaign: FedEx once mailed a promotional flyer with a branded stress ball to executives, promoting their reliable delivery services. The flyer captured attention, while the stress ball provided a humorous, lasting reminder.
• Toyota’s Test Drive Invitation + Branded Keychain: Toyota mailed printed invitations for exclusive test drives to select customers and included a branded keychain. The printed piece delivered the message, while the keychain became a small token that kept the brand top of mind.

These campaigns worked because the print materials carried the core message, while the promotional items reinforced the brand, encouraging engagement and boosting loyalty.

Why Tangible Marketing Has a Lasting Impact

Print creates a sense of permanence and value that digital channels often can’t match. A well-designed printed piece tells customers, “This matters.” When paired with a useful promotional product, the impact becomes even more powerful—your customers not only see your message, but they interact with it in a meaningful way.

Think about it: When a customer receives a printed mailer they can hold in their hands, and an accompanying product they can use daily, the chances of remembering your brand increase exponentially. These touchpoints create positive associations that digital messages alone simply can’t achieve.

Questions to Reflect On for Your Next Campaign

• Are you leveraging print to engage customers at key moments—like product launches, events, or seasonal promotions?
• Could your direct mail campaigns be enhanced with a small, branded gift that adds value and memorability?
• What promotional product would best reflect your brand and complement your print materials?

How Tru Art Can Elevate Your Marketing Mix

At Tru Art Color Graphics, we understand the power of print and how it drives brand engagement. Whether you need direct mail, catalogs, brochures, or custom event signage, we can design and produce print solutions that communicate your message clearly and effectively. And when you want to take your campaigns further, we’ll help you select the perfect promotional products to complement your printed materials—creating a marketing mix that leaves a lasting impression. From concept to production, Tru Art ensures every piece works together seamlessly to support your brand goals.

Print is powerful on its own, but when you add the right promotional products, the results can be transformative. Are you ready to create campaigns that connect, engage, and build loyalty? Let’s work together to design a print-driven marketing strategy that leaves an impression your customers won’t forget. Reach out to Tru Art today to get started.

Hashtags: #CommercialPrinting, #DirectMail, #BrandedMerchandise, #IntegratedMarketing

“As Featured in Canvas Magazine: Our Insights on ROI of Print”

Our feature in Canvas Magazine explores the ROI of print and how tangible, personalized materials like calendars and direct mail create deeper engagement, increase brand recall, and drive better response rates than digital media alone. Print’s unique sensory appeal and credibility make it a powerful tool in any marketing strategy.

Ready to learn how print can elevate your business? Read the full article here

When stacked up against history, there are certainly at least a few moments we can point to as antecedents to our current era. But for most of us alive today, especially those out in the workforce, we have had no frame of reference for the kinds of radical changes our lives and businesses have had to go through over the past nine months. We may not all be in the same boat, but we are certainly in the same storm — and that storm has made our paths forward unclear.
 
So — as individuals and as businesses — we have had to become agile. Since the future became less predictable than ever, we’ve had to learn how to let each moment guide our choices. With our understanding of the novel coronavirus changing almost daily; with constantly shifting regulations and recommendations from national, state, and local authorities; with the needs and concerns of customers constantly getting rearranged — we have been standing on sand at high tide. We’ve had to learn to find new footing, repeatedly. We’ve had to learn to think in all directions at once, to be ready to choose the right course as it became clear.
 
In short, we’ve had to learn to pivot.
 
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), in its annual members poll, chose pivot as its Marketing Word of the Year for 2020. Having watched their choices over the last couple of years, and having watched marketing trends this year closely, I would have been shocked if they had chosen anything else.
 
Prior to 2020, when I thought of the word pivot, it was always in a context of athleticism and grace. It was a dog swiveling to catch a stick in midair; a dancer’s pirouette; a hockey player running drills. There is an inherent rigor to the word—to pivot is to have practiced. And friends, over the course of 2020, we have practiced. Throughout the print and promotional products industries, our minds have been exercised in this skill.

Early on, promo manufacturers rose to the occasion and pivoted to produce masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE). Our own graphics team led the charge locally in pivoting to offer stock and customized signage, from floor decals to yard signs and so much more. Our mailing program, previously focused on direct mail and creating custom mailers, pivoted to excel in kitting projects for clients suddenly needing to send gifts to people’s homes.

In the print and promo industries, our specialty is communication, and the COVID-19 pandemic that has dominated most of 2020 has made essential the need to communicate tangibly — for businesses to offer things that people could touch, see, smell, hear, and even taste, in order to stay front-of-mind when they couldn’t engage their customers in person. So, in a way, we have done what we have always been best at.
 
But we have had to think of our relationships with customers and with each other in new ways. There has been more emphasis on reaching out and interacting via phone, video conferencing, and email, as we’re sure there has been for you as well. From all of our customers, the constant refrain has been that you’ve had to change the way you do business in order to survive.
 
In short, we have all learned to pivot.
 
And as is always the case when the ANA chooses their word of the year, pivot is more than just a word that defines the experience of the current year that’s almost done: It’s a word that we carry with us into the year to come, and beyond. This agile thinking, this graceful discipline, is a skill that will make us all better at all our endeavors going forward, no matter what the future holds.

• It makes clients trust us more
• It makes it easier to rebound from disappointment
• It makes us more capable of seeing solutions where others see obstacles
• It keeps us quick and it keeps us aware
• It allows us to get out of our own way

I’m not usually a lemons-into-lemonade kind of thinker, and it seems unseemly to consider what we have gained in a season when so many have lost. But we can honestly and gratefully examine the impact that pivoting has had on our lives, and we can commit to staying in practice.
 
What ways have you had to learn to pivot in 2020? Have your messaging and marketing approach had to shift? We’re here to help! Contact us for ideas for successfully continuing your pivot into the new year.

A sunbeam cracks through the gray clouds above. You turn your face toward it, basking in its unexpected warmth and beauty.

Congrats; you’ve just experienced Pantone’s Colors of the Year for 2021!

For just the second time, the Pantone Color of the Year is in fact a pair of colors: PANTONE® 17-5104 Ultimate Gray and PANTONE® 13-0647 Illuminating (this happened previously in 2016, when PANTONE® 13-1520 Rose Quartz and PANTONE® 15-3919 Serenity were featured). The Pantone Color Institute, which has selected a Color of the Year since 2000, regularly forecasts and consults on color trends, brand identities, and the leveraging of color psychology and emotion in design.

Pantone notes on their website that the two colors are exemplary of the way that “different elements come together to support one another,” a mood that they found valuable heading into 2021. They emphasize Ultimate Gray’s “deeper feelings of thoughtfulness” and Illuminating’s “promise of something sunny and friendly.”

In color theory, yellow is considered the color of happiness and optimism. It is recognized as the most attention-getting of any color. In Hinduism and ancient Egyptian religion, it was the color most associated with deity. Interestingly, yellow’s negative associations fall into illness and caution, two ideas that certainly lurk in the background of the coming year as well. But overwhelmingly, worldwide, it is a color of creativity and warmth.

Gray is a color associated with wisdom and compromise. It’s a color of stability, but with an eye toward the future, with echoes of industrial design and smooth, sleek efficiency. It can also be considered a color of boredom and ambiguity or uncertainty, which are also ahead for us — but at its best, it is a color of reaching a middle ground, something that would be a welcome respite from the many different types of extremes we’ve experienced in 2020.

“The union of an enduring Ultimate Gray with the vibrant yellow Illuminating expresses a message of positivity supported by fortitude,” said Pantone Color Institute Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman in the announcement of the colors. “Practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, this is a color combination that gives us resilience and hope. We need to feel encouraged and uplifted; this is essential to the human spirit.”

In marketing and promotions, teaming these two colors together will give your customers a sensation of a steady foundation from which to launch into a joyful positivity. They work together to make consumers feel safe and secure enough to be hopeful again—something that will be invaluable as we work to lift the economy as well as our spirits. Consumer confidence is going to be crucial to everyone’s experience of the coming year, and pairing Ultimate Gray and Illuminating in marketing opportunities can help to foster that.

“Emboldening the spirit,” the announcement reads, “the pairing of PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray + PANTONE 13-0647 [Illuminating] highlights our innate need to be seen, to be visible, to be recognized, to have our voices heard.”

This is the perfect opportunity for you to listen to your customers’ needs and highlight both your reliable infrastructure and your willingness to cast your eyes forward to a better future.