Printing for the way Philadelphia does business.
Philadelphia is medicine, education, law and a neighbourhood culture as strong as anywhere in America, and it likes print that respects the block.
Philadelphia runs on education and medicine, with a dense cluster of universities and hospitals, a large legal and financial sector in Center City, a life sciences industry in University City and the suburbs, and a food scene built by immigrants over two centuries. Center City and Rittenhouse carry the offices and the fine dining; Fishtown, Northern Liberties and South Philly carry the venues, shops and restaurants; the neighbourhoods carry everything else.
Print in Philadelphia does neighbourhood work. Flyers on the boards, postcards and rack cards at the corner store and the coffee shop, door hangers on the rowhouse blocks. The professional sectors keep clean cards and sales sheets in demand, and the convention center keeps banners busy.
Where print earns its keep in Philadelphia.
Print works differently in different parts of a city. These are the places in Philadelphia where a printed piece tends to do the most work, and the piece that usually suits each one.
Center City and Rittenhouse. Law, finance and fine dining. Cards that feel established and a sales sheet for the pitch.
Fishtown and Northern Liberties. Venues, restaurants and studios. Flyers and postcards that look like posters.
University City and the medical campuses. Research, healthcare and vendors. Sales sheets with real specifications.
The Pennsylvania Convention Center. Conferences and the Flower Show. A retractable banner and a sales sheet.
One clear purpose. The right piece of paper.
What Philadelphia tends to order. Philadelphia's hospitals and universities are among the largest employers in the region, so sales sheets and business cards built for research, admissions and vendor meetings are a steady category of their own, distinct from the retail print of the neighbourhoods. The financial and legal firms of Center City add a one-pager built to travel beyond a single meeting. Rowhouse blocks and corner businesses run on rack cards and postcards for the shop window and the counter, shaped by how tightly packed the neighbourhoods are.
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.
Compare business card finishes| The moment | What usually works |
|---|---|
| A conference at the Convention Center | A retractable banner, booth cards and a sales sheet |
| A restaurant opening in Fishtown | Postcards and rack cards from opening night |
| A practice in South Philly or Manayunk | Rack cards and a door hanger route |
| A law firm or practice expanding in Center City | Business cards for the team, one file |
Make the whole set feel like your business.
A Philadelphia note. Philadelphia respects a well-made, unpretentious card: strong type, a good stock, no gimmicks. Matte for the professions, gloss for hospitality, 32pt if you want it remembered. Put the neighbourhood on the piece; here it means something.
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.
See what design costsPlan 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 Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a city of rowhouses and narrow streets, and a delivery to a Center City high-rise usually means a loading dock and a building reception rather than a street door, while a rowhouse business often has no dock at all and takes a delivery at the curb. University mail rooms handle a heavy volume during the academic year and can take longer to route a package to a specific lab. Winters bring occasional snow and ice that slow deliveries generally across the region.
Mailing in Philadelphia. For postcards by route, South Philly, Fishtown, Manayunk and Chestnut Hill are rowhouse 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.
See the artwork guide on a product