Thursday, February 10, 2005
Of Mice and Mats
Well we had to call it something slightly odd!
My boss has asked me to blog away about aqua mats today, not the most inspiring of subjects perhaps but let me see where I can end up with it.
Starting slowly, and in the corporate vein, aqua mats are mouse mats with a two colour liquid sandwiched between an opaque base and transparent mark resist PVC surface. The top surface of the mousemat can be screen printed or 4 colour process printed as can the surface beneath the liquid. So far so good, now comes the more interesting bit as far as visual effects are concerned. The liquid fill can be 2 colours or more, glitter can be added to the liquid for a sparkling effect. Plastic inserts can be digitally printed and added to the liquid fill so that they move around under the pressure of a roving mouse.
The aqua theme has been developed recently and you can see aqua key fobs, (very tactile little beasts), aqua CD holders, aqua ring binders, aqua party invitations, aqua business cards on this website http://www.aquapromotions.com/
Whilst writing this piece I began to wonder who made the first so called mouse mat and a search on http://www.google.co.uk/ and http://www.ask.com/ revealed zilch except that the first mouse mats were textile top mats. Nice mats to look at, and they feel good too, but they do have a tendency to fray around the edges.
A great deal of time and effort goes into the selection of the best mat to represent the corporate image whilst not denting the bank balance too badly. The good old standard hardtop mouse mat still seems to be the winner for most but don’t forget that the armadillo mousemat is just as good for hard wearing properties and has perhaps a better, more clingy, base.
Hmm, these mats are beginning to sound like people –??
Well we had to call it something slightly odd!
My boss has asked me to blog away about aqua mats today, not the most inspiring of subjects perhaps but let me see where I can end up with it.
Starting slowly, and in the corporate vein, aqua mats are mouse mats with a two colour liquid sandwiched between an opaque base and transparent mark resist PVC surface. The top surface of the mousemat can be screen printed or 4 colour process printed as can the surface beneath the liquid. So far so good, now comes the more interesting bit as far as visual effects are concerned. The liquid fill can be 2 colours or more, glitter can be added to the liquid for a sparkling effect. Plastic inserts can be digitally printed and added to the liquid fill so that they move around under the pressure of a roving mouse.
The aqua theme has been developed recently and you can see aqua key fobs, (very tactile little beasts), aqua CD holders, aqua ring binders, aqua party invitations, aqua business cards on this website http://www.aquapromotions.com/
Whilst writing this piece I began to wonder who made the first so called mouse mat and a search on http://www.google.co.uk/ and http://www.ask.com/ revealed zilch except that the first mouse mats were textile top mats. Nice mats to look at, and they feel good too, but they do have a tendency to fray around the edges.
A great deal of time and effort goes into the selection of the best mat to represent the corporate image whilst not denting the bank balance too badly. The good old standard hardtop mouse mat still seems to be the winner for most but don’t forget that the armadillo mousemat is just as good for hard wearing properties and has perhaps a better, more clingy, base.
Hmm, these mats are beginning to sound like people –??
