Before a child is a year old, he starts responding eagerly to the solid shapes of the three -dimensional world he lives in.
Add motion and sound to those solid shapes and the combination becomes irresistible.
This early responsiveness to dimension will intensify as the child develops, will become an integral component of his adult pattern of behavior.
We believe that the point of this basic observation deserves wider consideration by everyone who seeks to communicate more effectively.
By any measure, ours is a three -dimensional world, but at a time when we're reaching greater heights and probing greater depths, we communicate almost exclusively in the same old two dimensions the cave painters employed.
True, the illusion of extra dimension is better than ever, but it is still illusion.
Photography is better, art direction is more imaginative, ideas are more ingenious, and never before has there been such excellent printed reproduction in all media.
Wide application of parallel talents and techniques to television has added motion and immediacy.
But all of it is two -dimensional, so the flood grows, page after page, piece after piece, panel after panel, frame after frame.
It could be that the more we're exposed to this rising tide of impressive communication, the less we are impressed by what it carries.
Many good messages about many good products and services get lost in total two -dimensional inundation.
There's a growing need for effective differentiation in promotion, and that's why we believe that you'll be interested in the dimensional dynamics of Janus pop -ups and other structural innovations in paper.
Let's start with the basics.
Take a strip of paper, appropriately scored and die -cut.
Add a strategically placed rubber band.
Assemble.
Fold.
Release.
And you have one genuine Janus pop -up.
Now apply a message to this strip of paper, and the resulting communication literally jumps out to be seen and heeded, with every likelihood of being kept around as an object of interest long after other communications delivered the same day have gone their unlimited way.
You will be surprised, we think, at the space afforded by the pop -ups' crisply articulated surfaces.
This basic cube, for example, provides 54 square inches of area for printed messages, and yet it's delivered flat in a three and a half by six and a half envelope, mailing weight under one ounce.
Eight accurately placed holes in one face of the cube give it the added utility of a pencil caddy, practically ensuring its long retention and prolonged display of the messages carried on its other surfaces.
What kind of messages? Or just about any kind that the finest printing techniques can produce.
From one color to full color process.
Words.
Pictures.
Logos.
Diagrams.
Facts.
Figures.
More figures.
Figures, not surprisingly, adverb to designs in dimension, but more about surface treatment later.
Although an infinite variety of custom shapes is the real heart of our business, a versatile line of stock designs permits you to apply the dynamics of dimension principles to your promotion with speed and economy.
Using the hand as a reference point for size, let's run through a preview of the various shapes these dynamic stock structures assume so smartly.
Now let's take them one at a time.
First, the cube with its 54 square inches of display and pencil caddy utility.
After the cube comes the wedge, a natural poster board in miniature with two surfaces to communicate a variety of coming attractions.
The Janus tent is a clean natural shape, literally suggesting a tent with two generous sides for promotional application, not necessarily restricted to outdoor subjects.
The open end rectangle is an exceptionally versatile stock shape with four message panels plus a self -contained reply card for that payoff follow through that we all regard so highly.
Among its advantages, this design can be set up equally well as a vertical structure.
For a bit more space, you can employ the Janus arch, a contemporary structure highly suggestive of quality products and services.
The pop -up chest complete with a lid that really works and reveal your message in intriguing stages.
Keep in mind that all of this graphic treasure is delivered in a conventional flat envelope.
The extra -dimensional moment of truth comes when your customer takes it from the envelope.
Next on the stock item list is a pop -up house.
Applications of this popular shape have long since reached the proportions of a veritable pop -up housing development and it has turned out to be a very productive neighborhood.
If your communication relates to mobility, well there are Janus trucks to deliver it to the farthest desktop outposts and if our stock truck shapes won't fit your needs, we'll do one to your own specifications.
As we mentioned before, custom designs are our strong suit.
Two highly decorative designs, the diamond and the hexagon, round out the roster of Janus stock shapes.
The primary virtues of all our stock designs, aside from their intrinsic dimensional appeal, is their adaptability, economy, and availability.
You choose the message, the colors, and the graphic treatment and then apply your working art to the precise key lines supplied by Janus.
Four weeks or less from the day we receive your camera -ready art, you will get delivery.
It's easy to visualize how these handy stock shapes work out in real life.
On every working day, a high volume of two -dimensional communication comes pouring in for its first critical screening.
Naturally, much of the uninteresting and unsolicited never gets past this initial hurdle.
But one special piece, having dramatically asserted itself, easily rates top place on the accepted pile.
A significant thing about pop -ups is that they just have to be shared.
But more often than not, the sharing is only temporary, and our research indicates that the pencil's only rule for Janus pencil caddies is sometimes ignored.
This piece of morning mail is here to stay.
In another office on another day, the long -wearing utility aspects of the message keep the communication alive long after its date of entry, and so it goes on desk after desk and shelf after shelf.
In home or office, some of the Janus stock designs make excellent vehicles for the delivery of holiday messages.
So far, we have stressed the basic, widely adaptable Janus stock shapes, but our custom structures are really something else.
This simple example, called a snap -up, stands up like an oil can should, only faster.
A Janus custom design can be a boxcar mail flat.
Once set up, it will occupy a desktop siding for a long time to come.
A Janus custom design can be a filing case, with a life -like demonstration of the expansion capability of full -size multiple units.
A Janus custom design can dramatize the features of a dispensing unit with the palm -length replica.
A Janus custom design can be a computer console, joined by other pop -up components to equip a whole computer center, miniaturized to scale.
A Janus custom pop -up can be a brochure page with real shadow casting dimension, or a building designed as part of an announcement folder or a separate building mail flat.
This one erects itself when the folder is opened to provide three -dimensional support to well -printed illusions of dimension.
But the building potential of Janus custom designs is not limited to the sleekly contemporary.
Classic, colonial, or whatever are equally producible.
A Janus custom design can enclose a champagne bottle, which in turn produces a message of welcome, the whole surrounded by appropriate surface imagery on four faces.
And although this is not part of the original responsibility of the package, a genuine chorus line can be reasonably simulated if one is so disposed.
Some dimensions are undoubtedly more dynamic than others.
In the important area of direct selling, Janus custom designs can assist your man in the field with dimension to sell.
Suppose you have a unit too big to carry about and too complex in its operating details to talk about.
Janus will design it complete with essential moving features as a flat component of your sales kit.
That way you can have the best of both worlds.
The portability of a two -dimensional portfolio with the credibility of three -dimensional form and function.
Where the size of your product permits, the Janus design can be actual size.
We have done this for a variety of complex units.
But miniaturization to scale produces sales tools of proved effectiveness if you prefer this course.
Only Janus can make the associated compound movements and integral design of the paper structure.
Structure that assumes its predetermined form with positive precision.
We accomplish this by creatively combining two deceptively simple principles.
The lively thrust of rubber and the memory of paper for positions previously established.
The uniqueness of these principles is attested to by basic U .S.
patents covering their employment, all of which brings up a very special point.
Janus structures are delivered to you and by you to your customers ready to go.
There are no setting up instructions, no intricate matching and fitting.
Janus structures are hand assembled before delivery by skilled hands.
Hands that do all of the folding and fueling and filling for you.
When a Janus pop -up arrives in its envelope, it's all set to assume its shape upon release.
The secret of what makes them set up is not readily determinable.
Although the natural curiosity of recipients makes them look and wonder in common, this sharing of interest and comment tends to appreciably enlarge the range of the messages communicated.
We call it pop -upsmanship.
Communication expansion through dimension is all we have to sell.
You decide the basic form, colors, words, pictures and all the rest.
We will provide a dimensional sketch of the structure proposed complete with the movement required to erect it.
After your approval, we will supply any technical assistance that will facilitate preparation of working art.
Finally, we will assemble the printed die -cut units in whatever quantity you specify and deliver them to you ready for action.
In summing up, we should make brief reference to three other extensions of the Janus dimensional dynamics concept.
Janus displays are kissing cousins of the pop -up family.
They are extremely easy to assemble and encourage recipients to put them to work.
Janus displays make the most of dimension on an impressive scale.
The highly graphic Janus visualizers feature more motion than dimension, but like pop -ups, they involve the recipient in the action, thereby making their message both more impressive and more understandable.
Janus astrophys literally put the big picture into a small pocket.
Now here's an intriguing widely applicable principle that expands and contracts the image area at the consumer's convenience, an extremely saleable feature.
We could go on with other variations of the dynamics of dimension, but we feel that the highlights already covered should suffice for one sitting.
We will be happy to elaborate on any and all areas at any time you choose.
