By Charlie Laughtland
BDA blog editor

BDA earned gold honors in the Detroit Club of Printing House Craftsmen’s 2012 Gallery of Superb Printing Awards for The Ford Collection 2011-12 merchandise catalog.

Our in-house creative team in Troy, Mich., designed the catalog, which features images and descriptions of more than 150 officially licensed Ford products developed and sourced by BDA.

BDA partnered with Allied Printing to produce the catalogs employing a Stochastic printing process that opens the color possibilities far beyond CMYK. Stochastic printing uses a dot pattern so fine you can barely see it with a loupe to produce rich, full-color images that leap off the page. Paired with a high-end coated paper stock, the technique creates a broader range of color tones and smooth images that appear more uninterrupted to the eye.

“This sophisticated print method would be rendered pointless without extraordinary, vibrant photography to show it off,” BDA art director Nick Seluk said. “For the lifestyle shoot we went with a less is more approach, focusing on one or two products per photo. The cover shot required some significant Photoshop work to add in the background and reflection in the sunglasses.”

The catalogs also feature a unique loop stitch so Ford dealers can put them inside three-ring binders without resorting to the destructive three-hole punch.

“Anyone who knows print knows it's an imperfect art that requires a lot of work behind the curtain,” Seluk said, “so this is a great testament to BDA’s catalog design and print management expertise.”