Let us take you back to the year 1440. If you were lucky enough to survive all the leprosy and smallpox outbreaks, it was actually a pretty great time to be alive.
The Gutenberg Printing Press for Professional Business Card Printing
Enter Johannes Gutenberg
The guy who invented the first professional printing press was named Johannes Gutenberg. You may have heard of the Gutenberg Printing Press, which created a revolution felt across the globe.
But how much do you know about Johannes Gutenberg outside of the fact that his name adorns the first printing press?
Good old Johannes was a born businessman. After a class uprising in the German city of Mainz where Johannes was born, his family was forced to flee to Strasbourg.
Johannes was born into a goldsmithing family when goldsmithing was all the rage. In 1439, one year before it is thought he perfected his famous printing press, Gutenberg was involved in what was referred to as a “financial misadventure.”
Gutenberg was involved in polishing metal mirrors of a special variety—Johannes’ metal mirrors were believed to capture holy light from religious relics. Just when Gutenberg was ready to sell his mirrors to German pilgrims, the city flooded and he lost a small fortune in holy light mirrors.
As the old adage says, “when you lose a fortune in holy light mirrors, you have to invent something that will forever change the world.”
We’re not sure the rest of this is entirely true, but some say that Johannes learned something from his holy light mirror fiasco. Some claim that he discovered another truth about business.
You see, before Strasbourg flooded, Gutenberg had relied on carrier pigeons to get the message out about his holy light mirrors. He pondered: if there was only a way to give potential customers a 3.5 by 2-inch portable piece of paper that would give the name and address of his holy light mirror shop, the pilgrims could find him after they were done pilgriming all over town.
Johannes Gutenberg accidentally stumbled onto the idea of professional business card printing.
But first, he needed a contraption in order to print the thousands of cards necessary to spread the word far and wide about his business.
Necessity being the mother of invention, in 1450, the Gutenberg printing press churned out Johannes’ first business card.
Professional Printing in the 21st Century
We’ve come a long way since Gutenberg printed his first business cards on vellum. Nowadays, businesses invest in professional letterhead printing for correspondence and other documents that they send to clients and customers.
They also find it wise to have professional envelope printing. Whatever your business’s printing needs, GOS is here to offer you the best prices and service available.
As we like to say, “if you can dream it, we can print it.” We do much more than professional letterhead printing and professional envelope printing.
Do you need new menus for your restaurant?
We print that.
Do you need a whole color catalog to mail to your customers?
We print that, too.
But you may be asking yourself the question: why do I need printing in a digital world? Doesn’t a website do the same thing as a catalog?
The answer, according to neuroscientist David Eagleman, is an emphatic “no.” In his trailbreaking book, A Communicator’s Guide to the Neuroscience of Touch, he explains that successful brands and businesses are those that master the art of touch—the tactile.
As Eagleman shows, when we handle a physical object—be it a box, a newsletter, or a package—we develop an emotional attachment to it.
For instance, when you receive a catalog or newsletter from a business in the mail, you’re not simply advertising what’s on the page—you’re building a relationship with your customer through their physical interaction with your marketing materials.
Gutenberg’s printing press offers proof of this: because he gave people the ability to own their own copies of The Bible (the first book printed), scholars have claimed that folks in the 15th century developed a stronger relationship with their God.
Holding printed material is different than engaging with stuff online. It’s more personal, more effective marketing.
