Final (probably) Update!

Most everyone should have their calendar by now (except those outside the US).

1. LET US KNOW IF YOU DIDN'T GET YOUR CALENDAR
We're new to this and we've made a few mistakes already, but everyone should have gotten their calendar by now. So if you haven't gotten it, or you have another problem, email us RIGHT NOW: feedback@NeuYear.net and we'll take care of you!

2. TAKE A PICTURE = $1 for charity:water
We love charity:water. They are doing AMAZING work toward ending the clean water crisis in the world. 100% of our donations go to building wells. $1 can give someone clean water for a year! So we've got a way you can give someone clean water (and help us out!) - all you have to do is tweet! Here's how:

 Step 1: Tweet a picture  of the calendar on your wall, use the hashtag #NeuYear.net.

 Step 2: We'll see your tweet & give $1 to charity:water on your behalf.

3. OUR WEBSITE IS UP: NeuYear.net
If you have friends that would like a calendar, they can go to NeuYear.net. We don't have our nice photos back yet, so we've still got more work to do, and we still need to add a page for our partners.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for your support! You guys are wonderful! Let us know anything we can do for you.

Took some great professional level pics of the calendar today. It was lots of fun & I think we got some great shots! We'll get them back in a little over a week & they should be on the site in 2 weeks.

Thanks to Andy Brophy of OneNineImages.com for doing an AWESOME job on our photos! If you need a great photog (in the South East) for a great price, call Andy - great to work with, heart of gold, very solid dude.

And thanks to Matchstic for letting us use their offices. (BTW, they are the premier branding house in the South East, if you need branding or design help (I promise, you do) talk to Craig or Blake at Matchstic, they will take great care of you & make your brand awesomeified)

Below are my (cheezy) iPhone pics of the shoot. The real images will be coming soon!

Seth Godin would be proud.

today we SHIPPED!

Been busy with wrapping up other projects & holloween projects & my car broke down this weekend, but we shipped.

Hope you saw our last update (we made an award winning video of the printing process)!

Calendars were delivered Thursday to my friends' house, we packed several Fri & Sat, and we shipped TODAY! Below are some pics of the packing process (and a lame time lapse video).

Note: we had considerable trouble with USPS.com not accepting my credit cards, so we were unable to ship EVERYTHING today. 73 were shipped today & the remaining 100 or so will ship this week (fingers crossed). 

Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! You should get your calendar next week.

The website is getting closer to complete: NeuYear.net SO TELL YO FRENS! Calendars make AWESOME (and thoughtful (and in our cause, BEAUTIFUL)) Christmas/Holiday/Chanukah/Kwanza/Thanks Giving/Arbor Day gifts!

(Photo shoot tomorrow! at the Matchstic offices.)

Video: 

Pics:

PRESS CHECK!
Hey guys! We did Press Check this morning! (that's where they print a few calendars & you look at the colors, make a few adjustments & sign-off). It was SO EXCITING!

I have more details below for those interested, but the short update is: we are printing today, cutting tomorrow, picking them up Thursday, and Shipping either Friday or early next week!

Thanks EVERYONE for your continued support!

P.S. our webstore is closer to being done. We'll be adding some more professional photos in a couple weeks. Don't tell your friends yet, but it will be at http://www.NeuYear.net.

More details:
So we got an email yesterday at 10am asking us to be at the printer tomorrow morning (today) at 9am. So we jumped on it. I guess when you print on this scale, that need you to be at the printer to give final approval & make minor adjustments just before they print.

They can do things like change the "density" (how thick) they print the ink, adjust "registration" (how tightly the lines line-up w/ each other - across multiple "plates" (the different layers of color you're printing)), and probably some other stuff ;). ALSO, they could totally change the ink color, or make other major changes, but those would be very expensive to do at this point in the process. Still, if it has to be done, that's what this check is for.

So we talked to Jack (the print master) & Bill (our sales rep) about the colors. We liked the blue. The gray was a little light, so we bumped up the density on it a bit.

It's amazing how difficult it is to get your colors exactly the way you want them. Part of the problem is that colors are displayed differently on your computer than they are in print. Another challenge is that different printing processes use different methods for creating colors, so different processes, trying to print the same color, will look different depending on the process you use. Furthermore, the color of the paper on which the ink is printed affects this! ... and there are even more factors. So it was a great learning experience for us, we hope you're happy with the colors! 

We did a "two color" job, that's where they just mix & print two colors on the piece. Most "full color" jobs will do ... well, "full color" - which requires doing 4 layers of color that blend together to make the full spectrum of colors (the four layers are cyan, magenta, yellow & black, CMYK you may have heard of).

...

Once they print the first side, they have to let the ink dry before they run each one thru again to print the other side. Then they have to let that dry very well before they cut it (the edges need to be cut-off, they use the edges for some kind of print checking. I wish we didn't have to cut the edges so we could make the calendar 1" larger).

Below I have some pics & a video of the process, just for fun. I like these kinds of details, I hope you do too!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT@!!!!!!!1111

PROOF CHECK!

This update is long over due. It's taken longer than we hoped to fix the bugs in our design file, BUT! We sent our file to the printer on Tues & we looked at proofs today!

We made a few last minute changes and we approved the colors, so we should print by the end of next week. Which means we'll ship the week of Nov 1st, so you should get your calendar no later than Nov 11th. (for our 6 international backers, add 2 weeks for shipping).

I took several pictures w/ my phone of the proofs & fixing the problems, but we had a celebratory lunch w/ margaritas ... and ... yeah, I can't find my phone. 

Look for an update next week w/ lots of pictures of the printing process!!

CHEERS TO YOU! THAnk you for your help! WE LOVE YOU! Let us know if you have any questions or anything.

- Jesse & James

P.S. we are working on a webstore that should be up in a couple weeks. So if you're friends ask where you got that awesome calendar, you can send them to http://www.neuyear.net - but not yet!