I’m the kind of person who loves his gadgets and while I might draw the line at forking out $400 to be first in line for the latest iPhone, I’m certainly one of the first on the waiting list to get one.  Like many geeks (my wife refers to me as a goober), I’m about as organized as a whirlwind in a pile of index cards but fortunately for me, my long-suffering beloved is far more disciplined than I’ll ever be.  For the center of my universe – my iPhone – I’m very grateful I married the right woman!

Occasionally I’ll come home to find the house is in the throes of being turned upside down as my little lady embarks on a major cataloging and arranging exercise with the household.  My collection of gadgets and techno “must haves” has been spread over the family room more than a few times in our marriage, prompting some gnashing of teeth on my part.

So it was that I returned home to find my angel intent on slapping a personalized label onto all of our “mobile” personal items.  The bicycles, the video camera, both the kids digital cameras bought as Mickey Mouse Christmas presents, baggage, my old rucksack I use for my hiking trips – in short, if it was capable of being moved it had a small, identity label affixed to it.

Now I love my iPhone and I am a self-confessed MacHead; I love the Apple design flare and when it came to making a decision to buy a smart phone it was a real no-brainer for me.  It just had to be an iPhone – the same iPhone I was using to talk to my kid brother as I walked into the house, only to have the phone taken from me and get the “identification” treatment from “She who must be obeyed”.

By now I know not to argue – it took only a few seconds for a very small label to get tagged onto my iPhone towards the lower end where it doesn’t interfere with the phone’s operation or its looks.  After a snatched “Hi” with my younger brother, my little angel gave me the iPhone back and waved me away as she went on to whatever the next target of her labeling interest happened to catch her eye.

By now, you may think I’m a guy who lives under the thumb, however there are times when you should just let your woman sort things out for you.  In some things, women just have a better sense and judgment about things than mere men…certainly this mere man.

Three short weeks later on a trip to New York City, I was riding the subway to downtown Manhattan for a brief meeting and then a cab ride over to Brooklyn.  Another meeting and then a cab ride to Penn Station for the train back home.  It’s at this point that I’m fumbling around for my iPhone which has become noticeable by its silence.  Sure enough it’s gone, but the problem is I had no idea where I lost it and almost immediately I’m thinking about all the numbers and contacts I have in there, all the texts, emails and IM’s I have saved and a host of other data.

Crestfallen, I return home wondering whether I should break the news of my devastating loss only to be greeted by Madam with a knowing grin on her face.  My iPhone had been found by a Good Samaritan on the subway who called the number on the id tag and my wife had arranged for it to be shipped down to me for the next day.

Panic over for me, but humble pie time as the little lady now casts her labeling eye over virtually every possession in the house though I’m drawing the line at having one fixed to me personally!

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Simply pay a visit to the lost and found property of your local golf club and you will quickly see how much expensive property is mislaid by players’ intent on lowering their handicap.  Without their favorite 7 iron, long haul driver or lucky putter, they are going to find they are indeed handicapped, but in a completely different way than they envisaged.  Using golf club labels is a simple and yet highly effective way of securing expensive golf kit and not simply the clubs, but all of your equipment.

Golf club labels can be easily and quickly sourced from the internet, with simple to use templates and designs which can be used on your clubs and equipment discretely and easily.  The cost of buying golf club labels is extremely low and certainly only a tiny fraction of the price of one of your prized clubs!  Golf club labels are easy to use and highly durable with all-weather materials used in their construction and to stick them to your clubs and possessions.

Delivery is straight to your door and the entire order process should take only a few days, in many cases you can get your labels well before your next round on the course!

Fitting identification labels will save your clubs from becoming mislaid or mistakenly taken by other players, and they also serve a very useful function in deterring would-be thieves from taking your clubs and equipment because they are so readily identifiable.  Most losses of golfing equipment stem from simply mislaying a club while playing or at the clubhouse, however it is a simple task to get lost clubs back to their rightful owner when your name and contact information is affixed to them.  Even in cases where theft has occurred, by identifying your clubs and golfing kit you are increasing the chances of successfully recovering them by adding an identification label as otherwise they will simply sit in a police warehouse until public disposal.

With even a very basic set of clubs costing $100, it pays to use golf club labels which can cost only a few cents each.  The economic case is even greater when a typical regular player will have more than $1,000 in golfing equipment which is all very movable and easily mislaid.  There is no greater, value for money investment a player can make than by investing in a set of clear identification golf club labels.

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Lasers are needed to take the images used in constructing he hologram – in fact two laser beams are used in conjunction with a photographic plate – these combined images are then viewable as a hologram using normal light.  One laser beam hits the object from the side while the other hits the object from the front – the photographic plate collects both reflected images so the image collected is actually a dual-image on one photographic plate – this creates the holographic effect.

If this seems complicated, it’s because it is – and this is why hologram stickers are such an excellent security device – they are so very difficult to reproduce by counterfeiters.  If you wish to instill confidence in your customers that the products you are supplying to market are in fact made by you and covered by your warranties and guarantees, then a hologram sticker with your logo and brand stamped on them are an excellent way to do this.

So secure are hologram stickers that they are incorporated into credit and debit cards as well as formal identification cards used by companies and government agencies.  While hologram stickers are more expensive to produce and source than ordinary labels and stickers, the costs is still not prohibitive because modern print technology is capable of rendering the pieces at a very cost-effective price.  You can order hologram stickers in relatively small print runs but you will benefit from much greater cost efficiencies if you order larger print runs for the stickers.

Other hologram sticker applications include:

• Quality control marks on items which contain intellectual or performance property such as software, film and audio;
• Asset tracking labels to demonstrate ownership and equipment information (especially when combined with barcode tags);
• Tamper proof evidence by preventing sensitive items such as medication or baby foods from being opened or if they are opened, the end-user will have visual evidence of tampering;
• Vehicle registration and parking rights;
• Concert and event ticket anti-counterfeiting measures;
• Confidential document protection;
• Clothing hang tags;
• Original equipment manufacturer marks (OEM) for use in a wide range of applications including car and aircraft parts as well as widely used in software packaging; and
• Lottery ticket scratch cards.

Hologram labels lend themselves to a wide range of creative uses so it is simple to incorporate your brand name and logo or other customized design into the finished product.  Using hologram labels in connection with your branding lends a degree of unique differentiation to help your company products be more readily identifiable in the minds of the buying public and to get the most out of hologram labels you should consult with a print and design partner who is experienced in designing and producing them.

You can simply and easily control your parking slots and who uses them by making sure they have an easily displayed and customized parking tag so no mistakes can be made.

Implementing parking control is not difficult though it is certainly not top of anyone’s agenda unless the issue has become blown out of all proportion.  Thankfully, it does not have to be a major chore and here is a simple to follow, seven step process to resolve the problem.

Step One – Choose the Tag Product

You have three main choices available – a custom hang tag (parking hang tags hang off the rearview mirror), a bumper sticker or rearview mirror decal and finally, an inside window sticker.

No matter which you choose, it should be durable and easily identifiable; hanging tags are simple but some users don’t like something dangling from the rearview mirror but they are secure and cannot easily be interfered with.  A rearview mirror decal does the job simply as does an inside mirror sticker.

One tip is to use whichever product you choose in a uniform manner so everyone has the permit displayed in the same location which helps avoids mishaps with the tow company.

Step Two – Choose Your Design

A simple design is best but do not forget to add your company logo!

You are looking for a design which is simple but stands out easily enough from outside or some distance from the vehicle -  you are not looking to add to the aesthetics of the vehicle itself (that is someone else’s property remember), but it needs to be easily identifiable and visible.

Step Three – Ink Color

Choose the ink color and steer clear of multiple colors – a strong color and white are excellent but avoid jazzy, psychedelic combinations – it’s going on someone’s car and a customer or employee in an expensive vehicle may not take kindly to something they consider “trashy” or tacky being stuck on their vehicle.

Step Four – Text Addition

Use a font that is clear and readily readable – Arial or Times Roman for instance – again nothing jazzy or fancy.

What you are looking to add is simple; “Parking Permit” and date of expiry may be all you need but if you wish to control not just the drivers but also the vehicles parking in your space, you can add the license tag number to the permit as well.

It is simple to use a barcode which can be added to the tag and is easily scanned by whoever is responsible for controlling your parking spaces and lot access – a barcode also removes any privacy issues because there is no need for names, expiry dates or any information to be on display and a barcode needs a scanner to read the information.

Summary

It is a simple step to control access to your lot and your commercial property; parking in certain areas is at a premium and needs to be controlled and regulated to ensure the even flow of your business.  Staff need to be able to park easily and get into work without the hassle while how many of your customers are not going to be impressed if they turn up at your premises but have to find parking several blocks away.

A parking permit is easily created and forms part of a manageable parking control policy which will ensure the smooth operation of your business without demanding attention out of all proportion to handling this straight forward situation.

Mark Trumper, President of MaverickLabel.com, online source for custom stickers.

Photo credit:cafemama

Inkjet printers squirt small, high pressure jets of ink onto the paper when printing (hence the name “inkjet”) and this must then be allowed to dry – when you print a heavy ink piece off, particularly a photo or other image, you will feel the paper is heavy and wet and the image printed will smudge easily if you don’t handle it properly.

A laser printer uses a laser which creates an electrically charged image on a rotating drum and which is then used with the toner to create an image or text on the paper using heat to melt or fuse the ink with it.

There are pro’s and con’s to using both types of printer but here is a brief summary:

Inkjet Pro’s and Con’s

The advantages for using an ink jet printer for your custom ink jet labels are:

• Vivid colors are created with inkjets
• Most inkjet printers are easily within everyone’s budget and they are very affordable
• Very suitable for occasional use at home or in the business
• Can create photo quality images

But here are the downsides:

• Frequent ink cartridge replacement will drive up the regular operating cost
• High maintenance costs relative to laser printers
• Print slowly compared to a laser

In the other corner we have the laser printer labels and the advantages here are:

• Lower operating costs
• Toner cartridges have a longer life than inkjet cartridges
• Sharp text quality
• Fast printing speeds

But the downsides are:

• Usually much more expensive to buy upfront
• Occasionally, images and photographs are not so clearly printed
• Toner cartridges can be much more expensive than inkjet cartridges

Occasional home or business use favors using an inkjet printer and especially if you are printing images and photo reproduction whereas if you are looking for a regular use, high volume capability then you are better off investing in the laser printer.

OK, I know currently you have the choice with your advertising medium – plaster your brand name all over the place, hit the potential prospect with a high impact assault on their senses, gain attention, generate interest leading to making a decision and then getting them to act on it.  Except no billboard hoarding is going to be able to do that as the prospect is driving along at 60 mph and how many people do you see stopping alongside a billboard with pen and paper in hand taking the advertisers contact information from the ad?

Not many if indeed, any!

In Japan they have been experimenting and innovating 2D barcodes and cell phones equipped with a reader or more usually, just the ability to send a Multimedia Messaging text (known as MS as opposed to SMS).  The system is known as Jagtag and the 2D barcode labels at the center of this concept is able to store music, audio, picture and video information as well as gain access to marketing collateral stored online.

The neat part of Jagtag is that it is able to deliver information both ways – not only is the 2D tag able to give you immediate information, but it can also be integrated with an online back-end you can hook into with your cell phone giving the website your personal preferences or your location so the marketing response to your request for information is highly contextual.

Imagine you see a an ad, you like what you see so you text the Jagtag code (by scanning it with your cell phone) to the text number provided, the code is processed and the appropriate message is then returned to the user’s cell phone which is then used on the cell phone as and when they wish. There are no API’s to download and no fuss while the advertiser is updated in real-time with the response to their marketing efforts.

The US version simply requires you to subscribe to either Verizon or AT&T networks and some big names have signed up for the concept including Nike who have been trailing the system with Nike 6.0.

There are a wealth of internet sites offering personalization services for wine for special occasions such as weddings and holiday celebrations but what is also remarkably ignored, are the services available to personalize any bottle and not just a fancy wine bottle either – think soda for instance!

Personalizing your own custom wine label does require a good idea of what will work and what does not – personalization is a double edged sword which can easily lead to a presentation disaster no matter how good the wine inside actually is.  The wine label for many is a certain symbol of the quality of the bottle which is why wine producers and distributors spend so much time and effort on creating a good looking bottle and label in the first place.

Check out the printing service offered and ensure that they provide help with the label design before you plunge into the personalization process.  Many internet suppliers do little more than provide templates which are bland and uninspiring and certainly nothing in the form of custom designs to suit your own particular requirements; this results in many wine and champagne bottles looking like cast off prizes from a cheap fairground instead of the bespoke and customized entertaining experience that a good label will produce.

You should also look for help in selecting your wines; this is where the really good wine label suppliers will stand out from those who are simply dabbling in the market – personalization means putting something of yourself into the end product and this creates an opportunity to demonstrate taste and something unique however, it is also an opportunity to get it completely wrong which will equally reflect upon you.

Make sure you select a supplier who is able to help you at all stages of the personalization and design process including helping you with your wine selection too.

Typical waterproof labels will be able to resist the effects of water for several days, weeks or indeed permanently depending on the adhesive used and how well it has been applied.  In fact, most waterproof labels will be able to withstand the impact of water long after the ink has faded on the label so in practice it becomes a moot issue.

If you are looking for waterproof labels to mark the kids sports kit then a standard label is going to be able to do the job, but it is probably better if you use a heat activated iron-on label or even better for extra durability, a sew on label which will be unaffected by water.

The ink used to mark the label will be the next consideration and indeed, it is likely that the water or weather is going to affect the ink on the label far sooner than they will affect the adhesive or fixing material.  Most ink used is water soluble, in fact if you are looking to ensure minimal impact upon the environment, a water soluble ink will be recommended due to the toxicity of traditional durable inks and their manufacturing process.

There are two main methods for water and weatherproofing a label – the use of special microfiber material which traps the water -soluble ink applied and the use of a laminate coating to protect the label image after it has been applied.  Microfiber printing material acts in a similar fashion to your cotton shirt when you spill orange juice on it – the fibers trap the juice and it is difficult to remove without a thorough clean.  The ink is trapped by the microfiber and this retains the image applied despite the presence of water, however over time the image will fade and deteriorate so this method is not recommended for heavy exposure.

Laminating the image after it has been applied provides all round protection both for the ink and the material making up the tag; a coating such as Nalgene will ensure that the label is preserved for as long as is necessary and how heavy the application will determine whether the tag becomes weatherproof as opposed to simply waterproof.

New Year is just around the corner and we are getting ready for welcoming 2009 in and waving goodbye to 2008 as it heads for the history books.

This last year has seen a range of developments in technology which have massively broadened the application of tagging and carrying information – this is after all what the point of a tag is – to carry information.

I expect to see greater application of RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) technology with labeling and not just in security functions to protect goods from shop lifters but also in delivering information to consumers.  Already, there are several test programs for carrying RFID tags on food products so the customer can use a scanner provided by the store not only to automatically add the item to the bill but give the buyer a history of where the food is from, who grew or produced it, when it was made and what went into it and a host of other good stuff.  This is not so far fetched as you may think and they are already introducing this technology in the UK with leading grocery store, Sainsbury’s.

I’m also going to predict a dramatic increase in the application of biometric tagging in both identification and security functions.  Biometrics have still to achieve their full potential and there is the money in the market for it – the government is throwing huge sums not just at biometric development but in furthering the application of reliable technology.  There is just too much money being invested for this to fall flat on its face.

What else takes my fancy?

I think that there will be some of the first integrated scanning technology delivered for use in cell phones – in fact, I’ll confess, I know this is going to happen as a friend of mine writes cell phone reviews and Visa has been teaming up with several handset manufacturers so a cell phone will also be able to scan intelligent tags and act as a money payment device.  Still in its infancy but the Europeans are stepping up the momentum here and I expect we’ll catch up with them on this sooner rather than later.

That’s all from me for 2009, drive safe if you are going out to party and enjoy the holidays and we’ll see you all next year

Take look at some of the law enforcement statistics regarding lost and stolen property:

• a tagged item is 37 times more likely to be returned to the owner than an untagged one;
• 92% of crimes involving stolen property result in a conviction as a direct result of tagged items being found in the possession of the criminal involved;
• a tagged pet is returned to owner 90% of the time while an untagged one less than 10% of the time
• more than 80% of convicted thieves surveyed have responded that they are deterred by tagging of property;
• 100% of convicted thieves surveyed responded they would choose to steal from an untagged property than one where tagging was practised; and
• tagging is estimated to save $17 billion annually in insurance costs due to reduced payouts and premiums for policyholders.