Variable Magic

Imagine inviting 300 customers and prospects—designers, nonetheless—to an open house and having 150 of them actually show up. “We expected 50, maybe 75,” admits Blayne Jensen, prepress supervisor at Salt Lake City’s Lorraine Press, which wanted to show off its new Xerox DocuColor 8000 digital press last summer. The 50% response was no small feat, especially considering how challenging it can be to capture a designer’s attention. The printer was elated with the response, which is high even by variable-data direct mail standards.

The bottom line is that above-average mailings get above-average results. And the customized flipbooks created by H Theory Design for Lorraine Press were anything but typical. Each of the four versions of the 3½×5´´ mini books features a different magic trick: a top hat (shown), a levitating woman, a magic box and a mind reader. As the recipient flips the pages the trick unfolds, revealing his or her name amid a smoky backdrop on about 20 of the book’s 51 pages.

“Lorraine wanted to showcase variable imaging while targeting the creative community,” says Christian Hansen, principal art director of H Theory, a boutique design firm in Utah. “One criteria for the piece was that it needed to be memorable—a 'keeper,’ not a throw-away. Most designers are pack-rats who save 'cool’ things that they like.” It also had to be “viral,” he notes, spurring conversation so that people would pass it along and spread the word. The different versions helped to elicit the desired reactions. Multiple recipients at the same address did not receive the same invitation, generating a lot of “What does yours look like?” and “Which one did you get?” excitement. The creative approach and execution won Best of Show among nearly 250 entrees at the 2005 Printing Innovation with Xerox Imaging (PIXI) Awards.

Photographer Tyler Gourley used a digital camera to shoot thousands of frames of the magicians/models moving in slow motion to simulate a stop-animation technique. Lorraine worked with Kodak’s Darwin Pro software to introduce variable elements into the QuarkXPress files supplied by H Theory.

Since the DocuColor was installed 10 months ago, Lorraine’s runs have been ranging from one to 5,000 sheets. A chain-store customer is employing variable data on monthly rebate offers with personalized spending data. “Most customers have more data than they think, beyond their mailing list,” says Jensen.

Known primarily as a sheetfed offset shop, Lorraine Press’s 21,000-sq.ft. facility includes two 6-color 40´´ Komori Lithrones and a 2-color Heidelberg 102 ZP perfector. Celebrating its 60th year in business this year, the $4-million company employs 35 people. “The quality [of the DocuColor] is equivalent to offset and, with a little massaging, you can create a piece that is virtually identical to an offset piece—even under the loupe,” says president Robert Miller, son of company founder Harry.

Before the flipbook invitation, “We weren’t thought of as a short-run printer,” Jensen adds.