TORONTO—Print is dying? Print is dead?

Not so, especially if you ask these two designers originally from Ottawa who are living in Toronto and getting enough work in print that they can turn away projects they're not keen on.

Brothers Andrew and Matt McCracken formed Doublenaut in 2004, and they spoke at the most recent CreativeMornings/Toronto session at the Gladstone Hotel. The brotherly duo keeps busy creating screen-printed band posters, book covers for Penguin as well as magazine covers and other projects.


On the decision to focus on print, Andrew explained, "Print has a start and a finish, it's tangible. Web projects need updates and can be never-ending."
The two have also learned printing techniques and do their own short runs, outsourcing larger quantities.

When it comes to landing clients, there's direct and indirect methods, they explained. The latter includes sending postcards to clients they'd like to work for, and they also send Christmas cards they silkscreen themselves.

For indirect marketing, "we have a diverse portfolio," explained Andrew. "Social media is huge to keep people up to date on what we're doing. It's overwhelming to keep up with all of the social media channels, but we've got work from sharing our work."

Regarding book covers, they produce three concepts to present to the client and develop the favourite. But they aren't all print all the time; they have done some web-based projects as well, they noted.

This content originally appeared on PrintCAN.com sister site DesignEdgeCanada.com