Mouse Mats

How often have you given a customer your business card and know that it is odds on that within 5 minutes it will have been lost, binned, used as a tooth pick or had some one else’s contact details scribbled all over it? There is a solution, give it to your customer within another product that cannot be used in such a multitude of different ways but will always stay on their desk. How you ask? The business card mouse mat is our solution; it is basically a standard hard top mousemat but with a pocket along one of the short edges, it can be made for any sized business card. It is of course possible to give the customer other promotional business gifts with your contact details printed on them, printed pens and printed mugs are always useful and keep the information in front of the client.

Desk sets are popular at the moment especially the crystal armadillo set. The basic set consists of a mouse mat, 2 coasters and a pen pot; the Desk Set Plus is a mat, 2 coasters, a pen pot and a Phone Home. This item is a very cost effective way to promote business and could be coupled with a pen for the pot! See our website http://www.top-pen.co.uk/ for lots of promotional pen ideas

Printed mousemats are not only one of the best canvases for presenting your corporate image to your clients but also an opportunity for imaginative design and the use of bold colours, or subtle tones and shades, within your images. Perhaps the most visually arresting of all the mouse mats styles is the lenticular mouse mat. It is difficult to explain exactly what all the effects are that can be produced but they fall roughly into 5 categories summarised as: Flip, Animation, Morph, Zoom and 3D. Your design can incorporate 2 or more images and an illusion of movement is created by the special lensed surface of the mat. The artwork guidelines for these mats need to be followed very closely. Of course none of this mouse mat art will rival Tracey Emin’s latest piece which I gather is a sparrow stuck up on top of a long pole, apparently based upon a Roman Standard, see www.bbc.co.uk/arts .

Coasters are possibly one of the most cost effective ways of promoting your company. They provide a good sized advertising area but are also really useful so they stay on your customers’ desks for a long time with your corporate details always in view.

Within our range of coasters we have all the standard mousemat varieties including the hardtop and crystal armadillo as well as some of the more visually interesting such as the lenticular and aqua coasters. All of these mouse mat coasters can be screen printed or four colour process printed.



Other types of coaster include the welded coaster; this is the traditional PVC over board coaster and still a favourite for many. Clear acrylic coasters are very hardwearing and the everlasting printed paper inserts retain their crisp colours. Solid coloured plastic coasters that can be screen printed are popular too. Bonded leather coasters, gold or silver foil blocked, are very pleasing and useful presents.
To view all of these products see our website http://www.juon.co.uk/

The original mousemat has come a long way in the last few years. From a simple printed textile top mouse mat we now have as many different varieties as there are of candies in a sweet store- well almost.

The original size mouse mats have grown so that we can offer A3 and A2 sizes, now called desk mats or counter mats respectively. Within these sizes we can also custom shape the mats, your designer’s imagination can explore the possibilities offered by these bigger than usual mouse mats. The usual methods of printing can be used, both screen print and four colour process.

The Hardtop mat, the Armadillo mat, the Softmat™ mats, Aqua Mats and See Through mats can all be produced in standard sizes up to 595mm x 420mm but sizes larger than this are possible too.

If you have an idea that you would like to bring from design to production call us on +44 (0)1256 470811 or email us at sales@juon.co.uk

As I sit here at my PC day after day blogging for my daily bread I try to gather little bits of ephemera to make life marginally more interesting. On my desk at present is a small volume of ‘Meditations’ by Marcus Aurelius, ‘Living, Dying and the Good Life’ is its title. He was born in AD 121 and died AD180, apparently a disappointed man although how any one can tell at this distance in time is beyond me, but I suppose that is what scholars spend their time on. In Book One he sets out what he has learnt during his life and I am struck by this: Not to waste time on nonsense – well sometimes I think that I spend my days on nonsense so perhaps I too shall die a disappointed person. Marcus Aurelius could never have guessed just how trivial daily life would become in the second millennium.

Today’s nonsense is about wrist rests as I have just dealt with an enquiry for these types of promotional mouse mat. Rather confusing things as they come in a variety of shapes, sizes and forms. If we start with the most expensive these are the translucent gel mat™ rests followed by the textile top gel mat™ rests. Both of these have the same basic shape and are fitted with a silcon filled gel rest which is quite pleasant to touch and really does support the wrist. There is also an aquamat™ version of this wrist rest. All of these mouse mats can be screen printed or four colour process printed. The textile mat is particularly good to look at and is my favourite of the three.
Stress rests are a different kind of beast. There are three kinds based upon the Softmat™ or ColourSoft™ mat backed with a soft foam base. The Matrest™ is a mouse mat with a built in wrist support formed from a wedge of foam bonded to the base of the mat at one end. Softrests™ are keyboard rests made from non slip soft foam with a smooth Softmat™ or Coloursoft™ mat top layer. Finally Stressrests™ are curved wrist rests that can be placed in front of your existing favourite mouse mat. These stress rests can all be printed by the usual methods and provide a very good area for advertising the company brand.

I don’t suppose it has escaped many people’s notice that today is St Valentine’s Day. Apparently, according to the Catholic Encyclopaedia, there were at least 3 different St Valentines, all martyrs. Another source informs us that in England and France the customs associated with St Valentine’s Day began in the Middle Ages whilst others would have us believe that it was during the Roman Empire that these rituals began. An article posted in today’s edition of ‘The Scotsman’ tells us that St Valentine’s remains are located in Glasgow and this city was in 1999 designated the ‘City of Love’. As usual myth and that good old custom of never letting the truth get in the way of a good story have become inextricably interwoven thus providing the purveyors of all things romantic, as well as bad taste, with an excuse to sell more ‘stuff’.

How does this relate to printed mousemats? Rather loosely is the answer unless you were considering the possibility of a custom shaped mouse mat – perhaps heart shaped, or tear drop shaped, depending on your state of mind and, or, the requirements of your marketing department. Whatever the shape mat you need, whether it is the standard 200mm x 235mm with radius corners or something special within that size, or bigger, we can produce it for you. Most of the other styles of mouse mat can be custom shaped as well and that includes the mats with special effects such as the Aqua mouse mat or Metallic Lustre mats.

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 –??

We have a great number of enquiries for mousemats and most people don't seem to specify exactly which type of mat they want. We usually start off by quoting for mousemats printed in one or more colours .

This blog may never see the light of day at the current rate of progress- third time lucky !!Brite-Mats are the subject of my thoughts at present - 'what' - I hear you say - 'you must get out more!!!'However, these printed mouse mats are just the ticket for use with an optical mouse and this type of mousemat also seems to be pretty indestructible. I have just sent some to a Community College for trial, although I won't take any bets on whether these mats will stand up to the kind of treatment school kids can devise. The print on these promotional mats is outstandingly good and some really great visual effects can be produced. Check out the website details.