Cardboard Engineering and Fun Folds

When we mention cardboard engineering techniques we are really talking about a small handful of the simplest cardboard engineering cuts, creases and folds in order add a little extra oomph to you promotional marketing product. In this particular section we present examples of some slightly different ways to fold a strip of paper or an A4 sheet. There is nothing fancy here, no origami magic, just dead simple cardboard engineering stuff but the end result is massively more interesting that the starting point.

From A4 leaflet to Interactive Pocket Sized Print

Let’s take a look at the Hidden Book for example. This promotional marketing product starts life as an A4 sheet. If it was left up to an ordinary printer, it would stay that way and it would become an A4 leaflet and then it would eventually find its way into your customer’s bin!  However, by adding one cut and 8 creases, the A4 sheet suddenly turns into a little 8-page book. Not only that, if you unfold it and fold it up again it becomes a different 8-page book. That’s like having two books for the price of one! Now, you might say, “Well, that’s only like looking at the reverse side of the A4 sheet” – but where’s the fun in that? By transforming the A4 sheet into a Hidden Book you will have transformed an A4 leaflet into a highly interactive marketing product that will be handled again and again. Not only that, as an A7 marketing item, the Hidden Book also falls into that category of handy pocket-sized marketing products known as pocket marketing media!

The U Card is another example of how to easily transform an uninteresting A4 sheet into a snazzy piece of promotional marketing with just one cut and 7 creases. If you add a couple of extra cuts to the cover – like we did to form the “U” as pictured on the product page – you can add extra visual impact to your marketing product.

Credit Card Sized Printed Pocket Products

There is absolutely nothing new about a concertina fold, let’s get that straight, but it does add a very playful and tactile action to the act of turning a page. We decided to make use of this simple fold and to add some little extras in order to create what has become a very popular piece of pocket sized print indeed – the Foldilocks Card. The first step was easy – make the product the same size as a credit card. The second step was also fairly straightforward and that was to add a fastening device. Adding the flap and slot was the finishing touch to this very simple but delightful promotional product and it presented us with a piece of pocket sized print that hadn’t previously been produced for use in the promotional marketing arena. The Foldilocks card is one of those products that somehow “feels right” in your hand and when that feeling is achieved you are holding a winning product! Amongst many other things the product has found favour as a publicity product for events.

Cardboard Engineering Cuts to Create Pop-Up Cards

We feature two different examples of how cutting and folding can add an interesting feature to your promotional pop-up cards and other promotional products. The pop-up card showing the word “FREE” cut out and raised is very effective but beware, the more intricate it the cardboard engineering becomes, the longer it takes to assemble and therefore it makes a bigger hole in your pocket. The best advice is to keep it simple – keep it affordable – and the pop-up mouth device is a good example of that maxim.

Another product that makes a feature of decorative die-cutting is the Pocketina Card. Based on a simple concertina fold, the card extends to a length of 620mm but it has a little extra in the way of decoration. Our own example uses the creative die-cut to add emphasis to our company logo but pretty well any shape could be used.

We have made that cardboard engineering cut and fold on quite a few promotional products over the years, particularly on promotional pop-up cards when the technique has been used to good effect to represent eyes, beaks, mouths and windows.

The InterloopMailer – Folding and revolving interactive mailers

The Interloop Mailer is a folding and revolving interactive mailer that will have you puzzled. As soon as you handle the Interloop Mailer you ask “How does it do that?” The square mailer folds inside out, changing into three different cross-shapes and each time revealing a different message before reverting to a square. The tumbling and revolving motion seems to be almost perpetual making it one of the most highly interactive products in our entire range. The Interloop Mailer certainly deserves consideration for your next promotional campaign and we can almost guarantee that once your customer has handled it, the Interloop Mailer will prove hard to put down. What better way is there to present your printed message?