Printing services
for Washington, DC.

Printing for the way Washington does business.

Washington is government, law, associations, consulting and media, and it hands over more business cards at receptions than any city in America.

Washington’s economy is the federal government and everything that works with it: law firms, lobbying, associations, consulting, defence contractors, think tanks and media, plus a growing tech sector and a hospitality scene that serves a permanent conference. Downtown and K Street carry the firms; Capitol Hill carries the associations; Georgetown, Dupont and Shaw carry the shops, restaurants and practices; Northern Virginia and Maryland carry the contractors and the households.

Print in Washington is professional print. The card is handed over at a reception and read the next morning, so stock and type matter and gimmicks do not. Sales sheets, one-pagers and rack cards for associations and advocacy, banners for the conferences, postcards for the neighbourhood businesses and galleries.

Where print earns its keep in Washington.

Print works differently in different parts of a city. These are the places in Washington where a printed piece tends to do the most work, and the piece that usually suits each one.

K Street and downtown. Law, lobbying and consulting. A card that feels established, on a stock that survives a wallet.

Capitol Hill and the association corridor. Associations, advocacy and events. One-pagers, rack cards and cards for the staff.

Georgetown, Dupont Circle and Shaw. Boutiques, restaurants, galleries and practices. Postcards and rack cards.

The Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Conferences every week. A retractable banner and a sales sheet.

One clear purpose. The right piece of paper.

What Washington tends to order. Washington runs on the one-pager and the card handed over at a reception, but real volume comes from associations and advocacy groups printing rack cards and sales sheets for a Hill visit, sized to survive a bag full of other people's handouts. Law and lobbying firms want a card that photographs well on a desk as much as it reads in the hand. Media and think tank offices lean toward trifold brochures for briefings, built for someone to read start to finish on the train home.

Put a readable name first, then one line about what you do, then the one contact route you want people to use. A finish should support that, never make it harder to read.

Make the whole set feel like your business.

A Washington note. Washington cards are conservative and should be: a serif or a clean sans-serif, navy or black, a soft touch or 32pt stock, small type. The one-pager is the real workhorse here; make it read in ninety seconds and give the contact route at the bottom.

A brand does not need every piece to look identical, only a consistent voice, a deliberate palette and type that works at several sizes. Bring your logo, or start from nothing: print product design is $97 and logo design is $250, set up for the product and finish you picked.

Plan around the day you need it in hand.

Work backward from the day the materials have to be ready, and leave room for artwork, the proof, production and shipping. Each product page states its own time on press: two to three business days for most cards and postcards once you approve your proof, three to four for soft touch and door hangers, seven to twelve for the XL banner. Shipping sits on top of that. Give us the delivery address and your date when you order, with a receiving name if it is going to a venue, a hotel or a shared office. If the date is fixed, say so and we will tell you whether it is possible before you pay.

Getting print into Washington. Washington's federal buildings and many association offices screen deliveries at their own security desk, separate from a normal reception, so a package can take an extra step before it reaches anyone. Northern Virginia and Maryland suburbs are a real drive from downtown at most hours, and congestion around the Mall and the convention center worsens whenever a large public event is scheduled nearby. Humid summers are hard on stock left sitting in a car, and a federal holiday often means offices running with a skeleton staff.

Mailing in Washington. For postcards by route, Capitol Hill, Cleveland Park, Chevy Chase and Arlington are neighbourhoods where a mailer reaches households and gets read.

Give the file your full attention.

Use the artwork guide on the product you picked, because the finished size, the bleed and the safe area are not the same for every format. Upload a PDF, PNG or JPG and the size, bleed and resolution are checked in your browser, then your proof arrives by email and nothing goes to press until you approve it. Read your own details out loud when it lands: names, numbers, web addresses, dates, spelling and which side is which. If there is a QR code, scan it yourself.