UNION & POLITICAL CAMPAIGN PRINTING

With more than a century’s worth of experience as a union printer, Carroll Printing is equipped to serve political printing needs for a variety of clients. This includes a comprehensive variety of promotional items like caps, pens, shirts, buttons and lapel pins.

Perhaps more importantly, we can develop a full range of campaign print materials to improve voter outreach and brand recognition. This includes the following:

• Various political signage, like rally signs and yard signs
• Banners, including wall banners and pop-up banners
• Political mailers and push cards
• Letterhead, thank you notes and contribution envelopes

Together, these political print materials can drive your campaign to new levels of awareness and effectiveness, and it takes an experienced political printer to provide the necessary quality and reliability.

Union and Political Printing Materials for Campaigns

Campaign Print Materials: Signs, Mailers and Push Cards

Union commercial printers can produce a full range of political print materials, including the following campaign essentials:

• Political signage, including yard signs – Political printing is largely focused on producing various forms of political signage. This includes yard signs made from durable materials designed to resist weather and constant UV exposure. 
  

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  Political banners and decals – Political banners are popular for their large size and resulting visual impact. Banners are typically made from vinyl, as it offers a valuable mix of durability and strong color production. 
  

• Political mailers – Political mailers remain an effective outreach option for campaign managers because people trust print. In fact, some of the most enthusiastic voters trust print even more. Surveys show that people also spend more time looking at the print materials they receive, so incorporating print mail initiatives is still recommended for political campaigns.
• Push cards – Push cards are simple and inexpensive to produce and provide a quick summary of your campaign platform. They can be mailed out or handed out at campaign events to inform and persuade.
  
• Political letterhead, envelopes and notes – Any outbound correspondence from your campaign will be more effective on official letterhead. This, combined with custom-designed envelopes and thank you notes will convey the tone that your campaign is looking for.

Promotional Items and Branded Apparel for Campaign Outreach

In addition to print campaign materials, union printers can develop promotional materials and takeaways that can leave a lasting impression on potential voters. This includes branded apparel (caps and shirts), pens and pins (lapel), campaign buttons and other small items that can be produced and given away in large quantities.

There are a few reasons why political and outreach campaigns incorporate promotional items into their branding approach. For example:

• Promotional items are more likely to leave a positive impression of your political campaign – Promotional marketing is a proven winner in many industries and can be successfully adapted for political campaigns, too. It’s effective because people respond positively to getting a free cap, shirt, keychain or other takeaway. Political careers swing on voter sentiment, and something as simple as a promotional item can generate positive momentum on the margins. 
  
• Promotional political items provide a longer-term brand awareness benefit – Because they provide a function, promotional items have a longer lifespan than most other print materials. A branded pen or mug will be used repeatedly and provide an ongoing brand benefit, whereas most print materials are discarded soon after they are received.
  
• Promotional items can spread awareness of your political campaign beyond the recipient – Some promotional items (apparel, in particular) can spread your campaign messaging far beyond the original recipient. Shirts and caps turn people into walking billboards, potentially reaching hundreds of people in a single day. It’s difficult to put a price tag on that kind of branding value.

Union Political Printing is a Powerful Tool for Building a Successful Campaign

Union-affiliated political printing has a long history of success in political races – a history of success that dates back more than 200 years. Although the technology has changed, the benefits haven’t. Expert political printing remains an effective way to generate campaign awareness, improve voter sentiment and achieve better results on election day.

Those benefits can only be realized with an expert commercial printer who has worked with political campaigns in the past. Carroll Printing is a well-resourced union printer that is able to scale up its operations to meet your campaign’s changing needs and deliver the kind of quality that will help your political print materials change hearts and minds.

If you have been told your job has to carry a union label, it is worth knowing what the union bug on a printed piece actually means and what to confirm with your printer before the run goes to press.

Union Printing in Houston and Along the Gulf Coast

Carroll Printing & Promotions is the Gulf Coast’s oldest Union printing company, and has been printing in Houston since 1921. For a labor organization, a campaign or a signatory contractor, that is not a marketing line. It is a sourcing requirement, and it is the reason most of the work on this page exists.

Buyers searching for union printing in Houston usually come to us for one of a few reasons:

• A bylaw or contract requires it: many locals, councils and political committees are bound to place printed work with a union shop. The requirement sits in the paperwork, and the printer either satisfies it or the job has to move.
• The audience will notice: a mailer going to union households is read differently when it carries a union label. Members look for it.
• The whole package needs to match: yard signs, push cards, mailers, letterhead and branded apparel and promotional items produced in one shop, under the same requirement, rather than split across vendors with different standards.

We are at 2907 Canal St. in Houston and we serve Greater Houston and the Gulf Coast directly, while producing union printing, campaign materials and direct mail for clients nationwide.

What the Union Label on a Printed Piece Means

A union label, often called a bug, is a small mark printed on a piece to show it was produced by union labor in a union shop. It is usually set discreetly along an edge or in a footer, and it is small on purpose. It is not decoration. It is a claim about how the piece was made, and it is the thing a member or a compliance officer looks for first.

A few points worth knowing before you order:

• It has to be earned, not added: a label is only legitimate on work actually produced under the relevant union’s terms. It is not artwork you can drop onto a file.
• Which label applies depends on the job: confirm with us on the specific run rather than assuming, and we will tell you exactly what will appear on the piece before it goes to press.
• Tell us early: if the label needs to sit in a particular position, or a committee has to approve its placement, that is a layout decision and it belongs at proof stage rather than after.

If you are weighing whether print still earns its place in a campaign at all, printed materials can benefit an election campaign and political printing that makes an impact both make that case.

Direct Mail for Campaigns, Locals and Member Outreach

Direct mail is the part of this work with the most moving parts, and the part where a printer who has done it before saves a campaign the most trouble. A mail job is not just a printed piece. It is a piece, a list, a postal format and a delivery date that all have to agree with each other.

• Push cards and mailers: the core of most outreach programs, and inexpensive enough to repeat through a cycle.
• Contribution and reply envelopes: the response mechanism. These want to be designed with the reply path in mind, not added at the end.
• Letterhead and thank you notes: the correspondence that goes out over a candidate’s or an officer’s name.
• Member and meeting notices: the routine mail a local sends all year, which benefits most from a printer who already holds the format.

Alongside mail, most campaigns need yard signs and banners, decals and signs on the same schedule. Bring the whole program to us at once and it can be planned as one run rather than four.

Send us the piece, the quantity, the list and the date it has to land, and we will come back with pricing and a schedule.

Political Campaign Printing for Candidates and Campaigns

Carroll Printing & Promotions has printed in Houston since 1921, and political printing has been part of our work for decades. Our political printing services cover city council, school board, judicial, county and state legislative races, ballot initiatives and the political committees and labor organizations that support them. Campaign printing produced in our union shop can carry the Allied Printing Trades Council label.

A campaign runs on one message repeated everywhere a voter looks. When your campaign signs, mailers, push cards and apparel come from one shop, the candidate’s name, logo and colors match on every piece, and one team keeps track of every deadline between now and election day. For the union side of our work, see our union printing page. Running for office locally? See political printing and campaign signs in Houston.

Campaign Printing Products

The political printing products candidates order most, all printed in our union shop:

Every Political Printing Product Your Campaign Needs

Campaigns use different pieces at different stages. These are the political printing products and services we produce most, all in one union shop:

• Campaign signs: yard signs, rally signs and large campaign signs on coroplast, vinyl or aluminum. See our signs and banners.
• Campaign banners and posters: vinyl banners for headquarters and rallies, posters for windows, offices and events.
• Political mailers and postcards: postcards, letter size mail pieces and folded brochures for voters, members and donors.
• Push cards, door hangers and flyers: the walk pieces that put the candidate’s message in a voter’s hand.
• Brochures and booklets: platform brochures and longer booklets for endorsements, slates and member communications.
• Stationery and business cards: letterhead, envelopes, contribution and reply envelopes, thank you notes and business cards for the candidate and staff. See our commercial printing.
• Stickers, buttons and decals: bumper stickers, campaign buttons, window decals and lapel pins.
• Campaign apparel and promotional products: caps, shirts, pens and other takeaways for volunteers and supporters. See our apparel and promotional products.

Tell us the paper, size and quantity you have in mind, or describe the piece and the election date, and we will recommend the stock, finish and print method when we quote. Every order gets a proof before it prints.

Planning Campaign Printing Around the Election Calendar

Every election has fixed dates, and printed pieces have to be in hand before them. This is how most campaigns we work with stage their orders:

1. Announcement and fundraising: letterhead, contribution envelopes, business cards and thank you notes, so the campaign looks official from the first donor letter.
2. Block walking and events: push cards, door hangers, flyers, buttons, stickers and campaign shirts for volunteers.
3. Before early voting: yard signs, campaign banners and the main run of political mailers and postcards, timed to land before voters head to the polls.
4. Election day: rally signs, extra yard signs and reprints of the push card that worked best.
5. After the election: thank you notes and postcards to supporters, donors and volunteers.

Bring us the calendar at the start and we will plan the print schedule backward from each date, so nothing is ordered in a rush.

Political Advertising Disclosures and the Union Label

Most campaign materials have to carry a political advertising disclosure, such as a paid for by line naming who paid for the piece. The rules depend on the race and the state, so your campaign treasurer or attorney should confirm the exact wording. Send it with your artwork and we will set the disclosure and the union label in the layout and show both on the proof, so neither one is forgotten on a sign, mailer or push card.

Design Tips for Campaign Signs and Mail

• Lead with the name: on campaign signs, the candidate’s name and the office should be readable from the street. Keep the rest to a minimum.
• One look everywhere: use the same logo, colors and fonts on signs, mail, door hangers and apparel so voters connect them.
• Speak to your voters: many Houston campaigns print in English and Spanish. Plan both versions at the start.
• Make it easy to act: put the election date, early voting dates and the website or phone number where they are easy to find.

Our designers can build the full campaign look from your logo, or create the logo itself through our logo design service. Artwork specifications are on our artwork guidelines page.

Union and Political Printing FAQs

Get a quote on union and political printing

Union printing, campaign materials and direct mail from the Gulf Coast’s oldest Union printing company. Send the piece, the quantity and the mail plan and we will come back to you with pricing and a schedule.

Or call 713-228-9331. Have a question first? See our union and political printing FAQs.