Professional slip manufacturer?

Noodles

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Feb 28, 2011
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UK
Figured I'd make my own thread regarding this...

Anybody know who EverythingBlu use to manufacture their slips? I asked Ben himself, but he wasn't willing to reveal such info, which is understandable and I respect that - he was still very polite and wished me luck FYI.

I've searched high and low for a manufacturer in the UK with no luck. I eventually resorted to just sending emails to companies that made general type packaging, but again... no such luck. :(

I really want to start making professional looking slips/editions - very small runs (possibly even one-offs) where I'd only be selling the steelbook and including the slip plus extras for free, because legal issues. :whistle: :p

Obviously it doesn't have to be the same company EB use, so any help/info would be much appreciated! :)
 
Nick I’ve always liked the stuff you have created and shared .
So if you do make ago of this I for one would definitely buy your stuff and support you in this venture.

Good luck mate and really do hope that you find what your looking for:thumbs:

Theres a few one offs that I’d love to have made:whistle::naughty:

All the best.
 
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Nick I’ve always liked the stuff you have created and shared .
So if you do make ago of this I for one would definitely buy your stuff and support you in this venture.

Good luck mate and really do hope that you find what your looking for:thumbs:

Theres a few one offs that I’d love to have made:whistle::naughty:

All the best.
Thanks mate, I appreciate that. :)
 
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Thanks mate, I appreciate that. :)
Nick why don't you ask @JoMaSanRa and see if he'll lead you in the right direction. I remember once when @zesty was creating them he offered over the template to me but I turned it down as I wasn't really interested. Best thing I would think is find heavy stock photo paper and look online for the right template and if you find it download it and use Photoshop to create your custom design.

Here's a tutorial on how to make them, it's in German so you might need to use the closed captioning to understand what he's talking about. He uses Photoshop for the design and I suggest something like 350Gsm heavy stock photo paper (expensive) and have a printer that can feed heavy stock paper and lots of printer ink. If you's looking for a service your going to pay out the nose for it just to turn around and make a small profit. IDK, seems like a lot of work so I'd see how @JoMaSanRa does it to see if there a less expensive way.
 
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Nick why don't you ask @JoMaSanRa and see if he'll lead you in the right direction. I remember once when @zesty was creating them he offered over the template to me but I turned it down as I wasn't really interested. Best thing I would think is find heavy stock photo paper and look online for the right template and if you find it download it and use Photoshop to create your custom design.

Here's a tutorial on how to make them, it's in German so you might need to use the closed captioning to understand what he's talking about. He uses Photoshop for the design and I suggest something like 350Gsm heavy stock photo paper (expensive) and have a printer that can feed heavy stock paper and lots of printer ink. If you's looking for a service your going to pay out the nose for it just to turn around and make a small profit. IDK, seems like a lot of work so I'd see how @JoMaSanRa does it to see if there a less expensive way.

Thanks for taking the time to reply Kelly, but I think you've misunderstood what I'm asking for bud. I went to the effort of making my own template some time ago and had previously been printing them myself (on 300gsm photo paper) using a pretty decent printer that I bought specifically for the job, but they still didn't have that professional-like quality to them... for starters I have no way to coat/protect them unless I spray them with varnish, which is a messy job and doesn't quite go on evenly, plus it looks cheap overall. I want to find a proper manufacturer whose able to print on really thick card and offer a wide range of finishes - basically like the pros such as BluFans and Manta etc use.

To tell you the truth of it... I'm really struggling for work and am on the verge of going broke, so I'm trying to think of ways to make some quick cash, and making custom slips was a good way of doing that AND something I also enjoyed making. But obviously I don't want to just half-arse it for my own benefit... I actually want to deliver a product that is worth the cash and folks will be 100% satisfied with -- I had one complaint about my previous technique FYI, because the slips weren't coated and could therefore mark easily, so that put me off making any more lol.
 
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I have contacted different companies in The Netherlands and Germany to do the same. Hell, I have even made a model to see what's possible.
The screenshots show:
- an aluminium case (with an inside layer not to damage the steelbook)
- embossing/debossing
- glossy

Don't mind the white borders. It was a quick model to see how the embossing turned out when it was near the borders and how the folding turned out.

IMG_0083.JPG


IMG_0082.JPG


In Germany I went to a company to do exactly the same, but then with very thick paper. I have learned quite a lot :)
 
I have contacted different companies in The Netherlands and Germany to do the same. Hell, I have even made a model to see what's possible.
The screenshots show:
- an aluminium case (with an inside layer not to damage the steelbook)
- embossing/debossing
- glossy

Don't mind the white borders. It was a quick model to see how the embossing turned out when it was near the borders and how the folding turned out.

View attachment 455873

View attachment 455874

In Germany I went to a company to do exactly the same, but then with very thick paper. I have learned quite a lot :)
Wow, very nice work. That looks really cool! Are they expensive to make? And did you ever go ahead with getting a run of them made and sold?

I'm beginning to think I should broaden my search to other countries, since trying to find a manufacturer/printers in the UK seems like mission impossible.
 
The “stamp” (I don’t no what the English word is) to emboss is around €200-300. The aluminum slips ended up (including printing, folding, etc) around €15 a piece when making more than 100.
The model (as you see on the photos) itself costed around €700 to make.

When I knew the prices for the aluminum slips I went to another company to ask for the prices (with my model) for the paper versions.....well my conclusion was to do it all myself. Mainly because the price is only interesting when you make a lot of them and you have then complete control over the process. To get everything the way you wanted took quite a while.
I wanted to make them at a higher rate and not in large quantities.

So my next step was (and with what I have learned so far) is the things to get I needed to do it all by myself.
I found an Epson printer with could print very heavy paper and gave the best quality. You would assume it’s a laser, but in fact it’s an inkjet. The printer is around €2000 - €2500.
I got from another company lots of heavy (glossy) paper samples. The sheets costed a few Euro per piece.

The next part was to do the embossing...and here it stopped because I got a freelance job....
 
The “stamp” (I don’t no what the English word is) to emboss is around €200-300. The aluminum slips ended up (including printing, folding, etc) around €15 a piece when making more than 100.
The model (as you see on the photos) itself costed around €700 to make.

When I knew the prices for the aluminum slips I went to another company to ask for the prices (with my model) for the paper versions.....well my conclusion was to do it all myself. Mainly because the price is only interesting when you make a lot of them and you have then complete control over the process. To get everything the way you wanted took quite a while.
I wanted to make them at a higher rate and not in large quantities.

So my next step was (and with what I have learned so far) is the things to get I needed to do it all by myself.
I found an Epson printer with could print very heavy paper and gave the best quality. You would assume it’s a laser, but in fact it’s an inkjet. The printer is around €2000 - €2500.
I got from another company lots of heavy (glossy) paper samples. The sheets costed a few Euro per piece.

The next part was to do the embossing...and here it stopped because I got a freelance job....
Damn, impressive stuff! Seems like a lot of money to spend on something you'll no longer be pursuing though... you should continue with it. There's a fairly big market for quality custom slips, but I'm yet to see anyone feature embossing on them, so yours would be the crème de la crème. :D
 
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Well at this very moment I have too many things on my plate to continue with this. I have a website to maintain and in a few weeks I'm opening an online comic shop :D
 
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Well at this very moment I have too many things on my plate to continue with this. I have a website to maintain and in a few weeks I'm opening an online comic shop :D
Ah, that's fair enough then. Best of luck with it all buddy!
 
Nick you might try these guys and maybe get a quote or something. If they don't maybe they can point you to someone that can.
Thanks Kelly. Will shoot them an email for sure! Just a shame they're in Canada, but at least then I'll get a better idea of what the prices are like in that part of the world.
 
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