Our Process

The Colad Process

Product quality and extraordinary service.

Colad designs and manufactures custom presentation and promotional packaging. Our dedication to product quality and extraordinary service is known and respected by our many corporate customers, advertising agencies, colleges and universities, and graphic designers. No other company offers so many services under one roof. Imitated but never duplicated, our processes are what enable us to achieve success project after project.

Colad Idea Center and Samples

The first step in any potential project is to get an understanding of what product best suits your needs. The Colad Idea Center showcases hundreds of ideas in the form of high-resolution photographs, as well as 3D-PDF images that can be clicked and moved to show every angle. Your account executive can supply you with product samples. (Please keep in mind that our samples are overruns from previous jobs, so we may not have samples of a specific product shown on our website.)

Design and Estimating

Once you and Colad understand the desired product, our structural design team will estimate your packaging. Concepts and sketches are useful, and experience shows that it is of great benefit to you to actually hold a prototype. In nearly all cases, at your request, Colad will prototype your project with a handmade sample.

Digital Templates and Artwork Preparation

When you’ve decided on a product design and determine that the project is within your budget, Colad will email you a template to which you can set your final graphic design. This ensures that your final product will match your design and eliminates the worry about critical details like score lines, glue strips, tuck-flaps and die-cutting tolerances. We will provide all the production specifications and information you may need. We can output your digital files from a disc or you may upload files to our FTP site.

Implementation – Manufacturing

Manufacturing success is what happens when you put the best people and processes together. For more than 60 years, we have differentiated ourselves as excellent manufacturers. Colad is not a reseller or a broker – in nearly all cases, we make what we sell. We believe that is the best model for providing true value to you, our customer and our manufacturing centers include:

• Printing – offset and digital
• Film lamination – gloss, matte, satin, eco-lam
• Die-cutting, embossing, foil stamping
• UV coating – spot and flood
• Folding/gluing – straight-line and right angle
• Mounting
• Turned edge case making
• Automated rigid packaging (setup boxes, slipcases, slashboxes, etc.)
• Complete post-press finishing through our facilities in Baltimore and Atlanta
• Hand finishing, fulfillment and mailing
• Logistics management – let our volume discounts with FedEx, UPS and regional freight companies benefit you