Today’s ephemera fell out of one of the newspapers – it’s a 16 A4-page glossy heatset brochure, trimmed and stitched, promoting Canberra tourism. It’s quite a substantial piece of work, lots of colour photographs and full bleeds, remarkable really that 16 pages of shiny bright ink on glossy paper should be given away for free, just like that. Obviously somebody thinks there is value in doing so.
The bit that caught my eye was the little green PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) logo that appears towards the back. This tells us that the brochure was printed on paper sourced from forests that meet the requirements of the PEFC for sustainability, and that it was printed in Sydney by Offset Alpine. The little number underneath the logo – 21-31-05 – is exclusive to Offset Alpine as part of its membership of the PEFC scheme. Other printers and paper suppliers have different numbers.
All well and good but I wonder sometimes about the value of putting these blobby green logos on printed material. Who is this for? Not the readers, most of whom would have no idea what the logo means and what PEFC stands for, and presumably not the client who must already know or have specified the PEFC-approved paper. Perhaps it’s to remind them of their green credentials, in case they forget.
Sure, let’s spread the message about the sustainability of print – it’s a good story – but this type of enviro-branding doesn’t cut it for me. What’s wrong with saying ‘Printed by Offset Alpine on paper from sustainably-managed forests approved by PEFC’, or some such thing? OK, so it’s a bit long-winded but at least it says something. But then, hey, what do I know about branding? [Please feel free to reply ‘SFA’ below]
