Bendigo, Victoria. Bendigo Graphics today introduced a new direction for the business: one local team for print, design and marketing, built for the businesses of Central Victoria. Over the coming months we will open new ways to design, order and follow your work online, and every one of them will keep a real person in Bendigo on your job.
Regional businesses have usually had two choices. Order print from a big website with no one to talk to, or hire a city agency built for companies that already have a marketing department. We think there is room for a third choice, and we intend to be it.
One team for print, design and marketing
Most owners we meet juggle a printer, a designer, someone for the website and someone for the ads, and nobody sees the whole picture. We are bringing that work together. Signs, banners, stickers, apparel and print advertising sit beside websites, Google Ads, social and email, looked after by the same people.
We design and make everything we print, set up every file, proof it with you and manage the order from start to finish. One Bendigo team answers for the quality and the colour, whether it is a box of business cards or a pull up banner for your next expo.
Design is built in
Plenty of print jobs go wrong before they reach production. A file can look fine on screen and still fail in print: low-resolution images, text too close to the trim, colours set up for screens. We check the design before it goes anywhere, and if something would work better adjusted, repositioned or reformatted, we tell you and fix it.
If you do not have a design at all, we create one. Not a template with your logo dropped in, but a layout made for the product, the material and the job it has to do.
How a job runs with us
- Tell us the jobSend a finished file, a sketch or just an idea.
- We check or design itLow resolution images, text near the trim and screen colours are fixed before anything is made.
- You approve the proofA real person in Bendigo looks it over too.
- Pick up or deliveryCollect from Lyttleton Terrace or have it delivered.
What we believe
Prices should be open. You should be able to see what something costs before you have to ask.
A person checks every proof. Real people in Bendigo look over your file before anything is made.
Small runs are welcome. A single corflute sign gets the same file check as a big banner run. We do not scale attention by invoice size.
Marketing should show its results. If you pay for it, you should be able to see what it is doing for you.
Rule of thumb: knowing the materials matters as much as the design. Flat, short-term and indoor jobs suit monomeric vinyl. Anything outdoors for the long haul, or going over curves and rivets on a vehicle, needs polymeric or cast. Tell us the surface and how long it has to last, and we will match the material.
What is coming over the next few months
This is the direction, and we will build it in the open. Three things are on the way:
Design online. Tools to lay out shirts, cards, signs and more in your browser, set up for print from the first click, starting with apparel.
Order online with live pricing. Choose the size, material and quantity and see the price as you go.
A place for clients to see their marketing. What is running, what it costs and what it brought in, in one view.
We will announce each one here on the Bendigo Graphics hub as it opens.
Why it matters
The big online printers sell volume through a website. The city agencies sell marketing to businesses with a marketing department. Most businesses in Central Victoria have neither the volume nor the department. They have an owner who is busy running the place and needs things done properly the first time.
We want to give those businesses what the big players are good at, open prices and good online tools, together with what they cannot offer: a local team that knows the town, checks the work and is easy to reach when something needs fixing. It is the same reason we still think local printing matters in a digital world, and why we wrote about choosing between an agency, a freelancer or doing it yourself.
A third choice for regional businesses
Where Bendigo Graphics sits beside the usual options.
| Compared | Big online printer | City agency | Bendigo Graphics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sells | Print volume | Marketing | Print, design and marketing |
| Someone to talk to | Usually no one | Yes, in the city | Yes, in Bendigo |
| Where they are | Online only | The city | Lyttleton Terrace |
| Fixing a problem | A ticket queue | Email or call | Walk back in |
Availability
Bendigo Graphics is open now at 2/176 Lyttleton Terrace, Bendigo, Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. If something is not right, you can walk back in and talk to the people who looked after your job. There is no ticket queue and no return shipping label.
To get started, browse our print services or read more about Bendigo Graphics.
