The legacy web-to-print environment was no longer available. The requests kept coming.
Colora’s stores regularly needed materials for their own location. Some requests involved local campaign communication, advertising, displays or workshop information. Others concerned recurring stationery and routine branded documents.
The former FLO Suite environment already supported part of this work. Around 28 stationery templates could be personalized to produce store-specific output.
When that environment was no longer available, the business need remained. The templates already existed. What had disappeared was the controlled route from a store request to a correctly composed, high-resolution file. Routine variations therefore landed back with central marketing or production.
Known changes returned as production work
A different location, contact detail, image or message could turn a recurring request into another file that needed manual handling.
Store information had to remain dependable
Addresses, people and other recurring details could not be maintained in uncontrolled local copies.
Every version still represented Colora
A small local adjustment could not come at the expense of composition, typography or visual consistency.
Local variation does not require local design freedom
Many store requests were limited in scope: select the right location, add approved contact details, choose an image or include workshop information. Yet each resulting folder, advertisement or display still had to meet the same Colora layout and production standards.
An empty design canvas would have moved more than the work. Layout decisions, version risk and brand deviations would have moved to the stores as well. Colora needed a narrower form of autonomy, with local choices exposed in the interface and the composition kept inside the template.
Historical project documentation refers to local folders and advertisements, counter displays and campaign material, store and workshop communication, and materials representing one, two or three stores. The environment also covered recurring stationery such as business cards, letterhead, envelopes, address labels and sample cards.
Not every item from that historical scope is presented here as confirmed current output. The active formats are still being checked with the team.
From an approved template to local branded output
2imagine provides the governed creation layer between centrally managed templates, store information and the required output. Users do not rebuild the document. They only see the choices that belong with the local request.
Choose the material
The user starts from an approved Colora template or template group, not from an empty page.
Select the store context
The chosen store, person or combination of stores determines which centrally maintained information enters the layout.
Add the permitted local content
Depending on the template, the user can select imagery, add a short message, include workshop information or make another predefined choice.
Review the composition
The generated document can be checked before the final file is produced.
Generate the required format
The template applies its own dimensions, bleed and output settings. Depending on the intended use, the result can be a high-resolution PDF or image file.
The store supplies the local context. Decisions about grid, typography, image placement and production settings do not have to be reconstructed with every request.
Managed centrally
- Approved InDesign-based templates
- Typography, layout and brand structure
- Store and user information
- Editable and locked fields
- Available images and content choices
- Template-specific dimensions and bleed
- Output format and production settings
- Access to the relevant template groups
Chosen locally
- The relevant store or stores
- Permitted contact or personal details
- Approved images or local photographs
- Local messages and workshop information
- Predefined language or content options
- Final review of the generated result
- Delivery or ordering information where applicable
This boundary keeps routine local work out of the central production queue without turning each store into a design department.
Pixel-perfect does not mean every output is identical
Colora’s materials needed controlled variation. One communication might represent a single store; another could show two or three. Dutch, French and bilingual content can require different compositions. A local image may change while the underlying grid, hierarchy and typography remain intact.
Production requirements vary as well. Some templates need bleed and others do not. A high-resolution image for digital use has a different endpoint from a PDF prepared for professional production. Those rules belong with the template, not in a checklist that every local user has to interpret again.
Store-specific content
Approved local information enters the document without creating another uncontrolled artwork file.
Multiple store configurations
A configured template can represent one or several stores where the communication requires it.
Language variation
Dutch, French or bilingual content follows the appropriate composition and text behaviour.
Output-specific rules
Dimensions, bleed and high-resolution output remain attached to the template rather than to the individual user.
The resulting operating model is straightforward. Maintained store information replaces local copies. Reusable document logic carries the recurring layout work. Stores contribute the context central marketing should not have to mediate, while the generated file follows the production settings defined for that specific material.
No measured reduction in turnaround time, cost or central workload is claimed at this stage. Those results should only be added when the team confirms what can be substantiated.
Business caseWhy one local template can produce many valid outcomes
The value of a local template is not that it produces one rigid result. It is that the recurring differences are anticipated in the template, rather than solved again in a separate artwork file.
One or several stores
The same communication can represent one location or a configured combination of stores.
Dutch, French or bilingual content
Language choices affect text length and composition without opening the complete layout for editing.
Centrally managed store information
Contact details and other recurring data enter the document from a governed source.
Local imagery and messages
Users add the context relevant to their store without altering the underlying design system.
Template-specific production rules
Format, dimensions, bleed and output settings remain linked to the correct template.
High-resolution output
The workflow can generate the PDF or image format required for the intended use.
A limited set of centrally managed templates can support many local variations without creating a separate artwork file for every store, language or output format.