Damn !! .. I just went to my local kinkos to enquire about their binding !! the F****** A***holes dont know the first thing about customer service. they just gave a a couple of examples and told me " make up your mind !!" thats it .. just like that . I wanted to ask them a few questions about it and they told me to come back when i have the material in hand !! and then i told them that i wanted to see some paper samples to decide on my printing material,, so they asked me to wait and left me there for 15 minutes or so before i decided to exit
i mean imagine the nerve.
On my way back home i spotted another establishment and decided to check my luck out there. they were awesome (+ the counter girl was way too cute ;) ) they gave me complete attention and even agreed to my request that I wanted to be present during the binding ..I saw their sample work and they were just as good, if not better, than kinkos. and way cheaper too. so i say .. "fuck kinkos .. these guys are getting my buisness"
kinkos is over-rated. all they have is people in uniform !!
I agree with what others above have said: Avoid Kinko's at all costs. I don't think I've ever taken a job to them that they haven't found a way to fuck up.
Even something painfully simple like, "I want 50 single-sided, letter-size black & white copies on paper type 'X'", and you can be assured the copier will be out of toner or making streaks across your copies, and nobody will give a rat's ass.
After sever such botched jobs, I finally bit the bullet and bought a printer good enough to print my portfolio at home.
I used Kinko's for my grad app. Expensive and poor quality. I should have used the local print company which offered more binding options and charged $0.65 per book and not $5.
kinko's did a great job on mine. it is very relative.
the other great option is to pick up a binding machine online or in person at a staples or office depot, they range from $30-$300, and you can pick what binding, typically brand specific...
I'm tempted to get a binding machine. and a few boxes of silver wire-o
a) found out today that the only local place that did a decent job with wire-o went out of business. They only ever had black (I always wanted silver), and it cost $30 whether it was two books or 20.
b)no other place I can find does wire-o without an order for 100+. The couple things I needed bound by tomorrow are in the hands of someone at kinkos right now. it's going to have a plastic spiral (ugh). I'm scared.
c) even the nearest kinkos is 20 minutes away. add gas in, and a binding machine starts to look pretty decent. if I can find one that will do a decent job for under $100, I'm buying it.
i get my stuff bound at mimeo.com
a guy named tony helps me out, he's really nice, does a great job (will do it over if it's wrong) and it's cheaper than doing it myself
i've also used printingforless.com, and had no problems.
At the very least if you do decide to go with them bring a draft copy for them to see exactly how you want it!
I once had them bind the absolute wrong side of a portfolio. The layout was simple and straightforward, with nothing to suggest I wanted the right hand side of the book bound. The employee told me he had a "brain fart" and just screwed up. All the pages were hand cut... I proceeded to push over a display case as I walked out...dont let his happen to you PMPN
same thing happened to me, i submitted a book to be bound on the left hand side....
they punched holes through half of the book on the right hand side instead of the left hand side, and then reprinted the damaged prints on crappy bond paper even though i printed it beforehand with nice paper.
Wire/spiral binding is so ugly, and there are so many other options - I'm not sure any reason other than laziness why someone might default to those methods.
There are many digital POD (print on demand) binderies popping up. Worth looking into if you are printing more than 1 copy. Also, you can get things perfect bound (glued like paperback books).
Mind you, fancy binding for the sake of being fancy is not going to help your portfolio, in fact, probably the opposite. But spiral/wire/comb binding isn't going to do you any favors either.
Good work deserves a good portfolio, and a good portfolio deserves to be bound in an elegant way.
Kinko's Book Binding
Damn !! .. I just went to my local kinkos to enquire about their binding !! the F****** A***holes dont know the first thing about customer service. they just gave a a couple of examples and told me " make up your mind !!" thats it .. just like that . I wanted to ask them a few questions about it and they told me to come back when i have the material in hand !! and then i told them that i wanted to see some paper samples to decide on my printing material,, so they asked me to wait and left me there for 15 minutes or so before i decided to exit
i mean imagine the nerve.
On my way back home i spotted another establishment and decided to check my luck out there. they were awesome (+ the counter girl was way too cute ;) ) they gave me complete attention and even agreed to my request that I wanted to be present during the binding ..I saw their sample work and they were just as good, if not better, than kinkos. and way cheaper too. so i say .. "fuck kinkos .. these guys are getting my buisness"
kinkos is over-rated. all they have is people in uniform !!
I agree with what others above have said: Avoid Kinko's at all costs. I don't think I've ever taken a job to them that they haven't found a way to fuck up.
Even something painfully simple like, "I want 50 single-sided, letter-size black & white copies on paper type 'X'", and you can be assured the copier will be out of toner or making streaks across your copies, and nobody will give a rat's ass.
After sever such botched jobs, I finally bit the bullet and bought a printer good enough to print my portfolio at home.
some more resources outside of the norm
http://www.lulu.com/author/create.php
http://www.bindagraphics.com/presentation/pages/binding.html
I used Kinko's for my grad app. Expensive and poor quality. I should have used the local print company which offered more binding options and charged $0.65 per book and not $5.
kinko's over-rated? come on. when was kinko's ever rated well?
Just venting...
kinko's did a great job on mine. it is very relative.
the other great option is to pick up a binding machine online or in person at a staples or office depot, they range from $30-$300, and you can pick what binding, typically brand specific...
I'm tempted to get a binding machine. and a few boxes of silver wire-o
a) found out today that the only local place that did a decent job with wire-o went out of business. They only ever had black (I always wanted silver), and it cost $30 whether it was two books or 20.
b)no other place I can find does wire-o without an order for 100+. The couple things I needed bound by tomorrow are in the hands of someone at kinkos right now. it's going to have a plastic spiral (ugh). I'm scared.
c) even the nearest kinkos is 20 minutes away. add gas in, and a binding machine starts to look pretty decent. if I can find one that will do a decent job for under $100, I'm buying it.
don't go to kinkos ever.
i get my stuff bound at mimeo.com
a guy named tony helps me out, he's really nice, does a great job (will do it over if it's wrong) and it's cheaper than doing it myself
i've also used printingforless.com, and had no problems.
I go to kinkos for a nice simple tape bind. Office Depot does it as well. Comb, wire and coil binds are the ugliest things ever.
black cover with black wire binding ...clean and simple....
over done portfolios are pointless.....
I went to kinkos and gave the guy my USB stick so he could print my boards. He didn't know where to plug it in...
enough said.
I would concur with the Kinkos Bashing...
At the very least if you do decide to go with them bring a draft copy for them to see exactly how you want it!
I once had them bind the absolute wrong side of a portfolio. The layout was simple and straightforward, with nothing to suggest I wanted the right hand side of the book bound. The employee told me he had a "brain fart" and just screwed up. All the pages were hand cut... I proceeded to push over a display case as I walked out...dont let his happen to you PMPN
same thing happened to me, i submitted a book to be bound on the left hand side....
they punched holes through half of the book on the right hand side instead of the left hand side, and then reprinted the damaged prints on crappy bond paper even though i printed it beforehand with nice paper.
needless to say they are my last resort...
Wire/spiral binding is so ugly, and there are so many other options - I'm not sure any reason other than laziness why someone might default to those methods.
There are many digital POD (print on demand) binderies popping up. Worth looking into if you are printing more than 1 copy. Also, you can get things perfect bound (glued like paperback books).
Mind you, fancy binding for the sake of being fancy is not going to help your portfolio, in fact, probably the opposite. But spiral/wire/comb binding isn't going to do you any favors either.
Good work deserves a good portfolio, and a good portfolio deserves to be bound in an elegant way.
Also, make friends with some graphic designers.
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