All the paper merchants have now advised us that their prices are due to increase on September 15th 2008.

The rises are expected to be in the region of 6% to 11%. The merchants are also now charging for each delivery.  reason given include the rising price of fuel and the weak Euro.

August has seen us produce a range of items for the 2008 Adventure Film Festival which is a showcase of action films that is coming to a cinema near you! Items produced included a set of quads and A2 posters, various leaflets and and several 6ft x 4ft standees. For more information check out http://www.adventurefest.co.uk/films.html

Ecover continued their summer marketing drive commissioning us to produce a range of promotional items including miniature booklets, a dispenser, cistern stickers and shelf wobblers. All the items were produced to the strict environmental criteria of Responsible Print including the wobblers that were engineered out of card and biodegradeable lamination, avoid the use of plastic. Next time you are in the supermarket ditch the Fairy Liquid opt for the Ecover option!

http://www.ecover.com/gb/en/

Four Corners has just produced some items for Amy Lame’s Pom Pom International.

Templates and instructions for making pom-poms were produced, printing in four colour process on to 600 micron dutch Unlined Greyboard.

For more information on how the Pom Pom can save the world go to http://www.pompominternational.com/html_pages/about.html

Ecover, the eco-friendly cleaning products manufacturer, has become the first company to use the Responsible Print environmental tracking service for print buyers, set up by Four Corners.

The free service from the print management company traces the environmental impact for any print job and records the entire lifecycle of a printed item – from paper source and print process, to delivery and use.

According to Clare Allman, marketing manager for Ecover, the company decided to use the service because it always takes “a wide variety of ecological criteria into consideration with every decision made”.

The tracking service is being used for a leaflet advising Ecover customers on how to use water wisely and informing them of the company’s links with the charity WaterAid for a project to help provide clean water to villages in rural Ethiopia.

Lena Johansson, director of Four Corners, said that while printer buyers often think they have done enough when they opt for FSC-certified paper and vegetable-based inks, the Responsible Print service looks at the bigger picture and takes the supply chain into account.

“This is particularly relevant to ethical and environmental organisations which wish to promote their products and services without harming the environment, in line with their ethical commitments,” she said.

Print jobs that comply with the Responsible Print criteria are issued with a unique reference number.

Companies can then add the Responsible Print logo to the printed material along with the reference number. This allows consumers to go online, input the number and view the environmental savings resulting from the print buying decision.

Ecover’s WaterAid brochures were printed on 9 Lives 55 Silk, supplied at a special rate by The Paper Company – one of four Corners main suppliers of environmentally friendly printing paper.

Four Corners said it had passed on the saving in the form of a donation to Ecover’s WaterAid project.

The Responsible Print report for the Ecover/Water Aid leaflet can be viewed by going to www.responsibleprint.info and inputting the code GDA570382.

Four Corners produced the marketing collateral for the The Green Wave event, organised by the Business Forum and New Era Associates, will be held in Preston Park from 11am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday 5/6 July 2008.

There will be showcasing opportunities for all sectors of the community in eight different Zones, which will be themed, and will provide lots of interactive entertainment for the family. For example, the Earth Zone could display wormeries, composting ideas and house a mini eco farm, whilst the Energy Zone will demonstrate products using sustainable energy, ranging from mobile phones to solar powered cars, with the addition of an Energy Play Area or eco circus for children.

The emphasis is on biodiversity, eco friendly, Fairtrade, homemade, locally produced, low carbon footprint, recycled and sustainable!

All the paper merchants have confirmed that paper prices are going up again from 16 June 2008. Most grades are going up by 8%. This is the third time paper has increased in the last 12 months. The paper mills are citing increases in fuel costs and the fluctuating Euro as the main causes.

Mills are also getting wise to the increasing demand for FSC papers and are putting premiums or “uplifts” on this kind of paper.  The increasing demand for FSC paper is a hot topic in paper circles as the true environmental benefits of specifying an FSC paper is up for debate.

This will be discussed in the Four Corners blog in future posts….

Southern Water News, the newsletter printed by Four Corners on a monthly basis has won a Gold Award for the Best Internal Newspaper at the British Association of Communicators In Business Awards held in May 2008.

The job is produced in accordance with Responsible Print® criteria and is printed on 9 Lives 55 silk.

Independent travel company Pura Aventura opt for Responsible Print on their annual brochure. Using an aqueous coating on the cover instead of matt laminating and spot UV varnish choosing a part recycled paper stock the environmental credentials are second to none.

For the 13th year running Four Corners was involved in the production of various marketing materials for the Warren Miller Film Tour called Playground – items produced full colour tickets for all 50+ venues, A1 posters, leaflets, postcards an 88pp brochure and an exhibition stand.
In the past we have also been involved in producing the UK editions of the ski resorts brochure for California Tourism.

Four Corners highlight a severe case of mis selling as one of the UK’s leading environmental printing companies is found to be supplying standard opp lamination under the guise of “biodegradeable lamination”.

Following on from the Big Chill we have just produced the first batch of promotional materials for the Summer Sundae Music Festival – on 9 Lives Offset. For tickets click here

Four Corners recently produced nearly quarter of a million mailers for the Big Chill music festival taking place at Eastnor Castle in August 2008. Last year Four Corners supplied all the mailers and the festival programme – all items are produced using 100% recycled offset papers including 9 Lives Offset and Revive 100 offset. For tickets go to the www.bigchill.net

Over 200 000 visitor maps have just been produced for Visit Brighton improving the environmental credentials significantly by using 100gsm Revive 100 offset (Last years production was on a virgin fibre 130gsm silk). Four Corners production manager Neale Brodie took the opportunity to improve his fitness when he had to offload over 250 12kg boxes by hand!

Southern Water’s monthly newsletter – Southern Water News is short-listed for the best internal newspaper category in the Communicators in Business Awards. Results. It is produced in accordance with the strict criteria of theResponsible Print standard.