Clients from Hell
From the desk of: Clients from Hell – A collection of anonymously contributed client horror stories from designers.
Client: ”When this gets printed, what sort of colors get mixed together?”
Me: “Well, anything that gets printed is basically a combination of black, yellow, cyan, and magenta ink or toner…” Continue Reading Clients from Hell »
RGB vs CMYK
“Could we print the brochure in RGB? You know, it would be cheaper if we use one color less…”
To those who are unfamiliar with the world of printing; offset and digital printing requires 4 basic colors to make up the wide range of colors that are represented in the natural world: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.
In the digital/computer/television world, it is all made up of 3 colors, Red, Green and Blue. The combinations of these 3 colors are an interpretation of the actual natural light colors on your monitor.
If you look closely at your monitor, it’s made up of tiny RGB lights and if you look closely at a full color printed material, it’s made up of CMYK dots. This is what makes printing work.
RGB – Good for computer/digital use. Bad and not usable for printing (paper or clothing)
CMYK – Good for offset and digital printing. Bad and not interpreted correctly on the computer
Logo, who needs one?
I found this amazing adaptation by Neil T. McDonald of the generic CMYK formula. This is a great use of a letterform mark.What is CMYK?
CMYK stands for: C = Cyan; M = Magenta; Y = Yellow ; K = Key or Black
What happens if you do not have a reliable logo for your brand or your marketing materials?
- Your business will not look stable.
- You will look like a very small business.
- You will look unpolished and rough.
- You will look unfocused.
Your business logo is the most important element of your brand and it is essential for creating a great brand identity and will show your business’s reliability. When having your logo designed by a professional, it is always a good idea to try to decide on which type of mark would be the most powerful and effective for your business so it can help you achieve a stronger and more focused direction. There are 5 basic types of marks.
- Word Marks – A word mark is a logo comprised of text only featuring a unique typographical treatment used to convey the brand’s message or positioning.
- Letterform Marks – Letterform marks use one or more letterforms as a symbol to convey the brand message.
- Marks – A mark is a literal and often pictorial representation of a company or product. The image is usually a reference to the company or a brand attribute.
- Abstract Marks or Symbols – Abstract marks and symbols use visual form to convey a concept that is relevant to the brand message.
- Emblems – Emblems are a complex mixture of pictorial elements and type that are linked to the organization and its positioning.
Head over to Positive Space Blog for logo examples in each category.
How do you hire a graphic designer? You have two choices, hire David Airey or read his FAQ’s on what questions as a client you should be asking potential designers. David Airey is just a shameless plug because I follow him on twitter and enjoy reading his blog 
Do not try to create your own logo. Always consult a professional, not your 13 old nephew that knows Photoshop. You will thank me later, I promise.
Digital PrePress Checklist
Digital Prepress…the most complicated part of printing for both printers and designers alike. Common Problems: missing fonts, low resolution photos, files saved and packaged incorrectly. Oh my!
The next time you design a project and submit it to your local printer, take a peek at this list and your life and your printer’s job should be much easier! It might even be cheaper because your files were submitted correctly.
When creating documents to send for digital output, please ensure that:
- The document dimensions are correct and at the right size for output.
- All images are correctly positioned and linked.
- Logos or graphics created in programs like Illustrator, have all type converted to paths or outlines.
- In your page layout program, the status of all imported pictures or links should be “ok.”
- You have only used fonts that you intended to use for output.
- All unused colors have been deleted.
- The pasteboard’s surrounding all design pages are empty.
- All document bleeds have been extended at least 1/8″ beyond the desired finished size of your project.
- All documents have been proof-read and double-checked before submission. Have a friend proof read it!
Design & Pre-Press Checklist:
- Do not use Publisher or Quark. Stick to Adobe Products for ease of use.
- Remember, Photoshop is for photos. Illustrator is for illustrations. InDesign is for Page Layout.
- Do not enlarge images beyond 120% of original size when placing it in your document.
- Do not use images downloaded from Google. Read second sections of post.
- Do not use compression methods (i.e. LZW or JPEG) on placed images for output.
- Do not use RGB images whenever possible. Convert them to CMYK.
Before submitting files, please make sure that you have included:
- All fonts required to process and print the document.
- All attached EPS and/or TIFF/JPG files.
- Final laser prints of all document pages.
Common Misconceptions in Graphic Design and Printing
“Why does it always look different on my screen?
A client might ask for a specific Pantone color from their own Pantone swatch book. The designer sets the file exactly as it is required, yet when the client sees an example on their computer monitor they are very disappointed that the color isn’t the same or even close. Why is that?
Brightness, contrast, color settings… all monitors have them. Unless two monitors are calibrated to the exact same settings then the colors will always appear very different. The best way to color-match is to use printed proofs, and even then, your choice of paper can critically effect the color of your printed product.
When printing digital, ask your printer for a pantone swatch color sheet. This sheet will include all the pantone colors to give you a chance to see what the pantone colors look like when printed digitally. Remember, Pantone is a standard for offset printing to standardize the color reproduction system such as CMYK or spot colors.
“Can you use the image from the web for our brochure or rackcard?”
Sourcing images can be very time-consuming. Many people believe that an image they find online is perfect for any print job. However, in order to look clear, web images must have a minimum resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi). Digital or Offset Print work, on the other hand, requires images to have a minimum resolution of at least 300 dpi.
“Why does graphic design cost so much?”
The client doesn’t often see the process involved when a graphic designer takes on a design project. In fact, on most occasions the client will only see a few computer-generated proofs or design examples. It is always best to give your client a timeline of your design process so they can understand the steps that are necessary in the creative process.
For example: A designer typically only use a computer at the end of the design process. Beforehand comes clarifying the design brief, research, brainstorming and logo sketching.
What problems do you find cropping up again and again when dealing with graphic designers, clients or printer?Print-Ready PDF files
Print-ready PDF files Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) is great for a multitude of uses. It has caused a revolution in printing. Everything needed for high-resolution printing can be packed into one file that can be opened and printed using Adobe’s free Reader on almost any computer. The trick is, because a PDF can be created many different ways, to create it the correct way and pack it with the essential information for high-quality digital printing or a file that can be used for make-ready, for offset printing.
Here are a few of the minimum requirements for a PDF file to be usable for high-resolution printing using a digital print process.
- All fonts used in the document should be embedded in the PDF file. The preference for “Subsetting” the fonts should be set to 100%.
- For CMYK printing, all color in the document should be CMYK. This goes for ink colors as well as photos and illustrations.
- Make sure that the photos and line art in the document do not have their resolution reduced (downsampled) when the PDF is created. Photos should retain their 300 dpi resolution.
- The compression should be fine set on “automatic” but some say “zip” is better than “jpeg” for quality. You can also choose “none” and the photos will not be compressed when the PDF is created but, this will result in a larger PDF.
If you follow these guidelines, your PDF will work for high-resolution CMYK printing. The same PDF will also work in all the processes that require less resolution as well.
The term “make-ready” refers to everything done on a press to prepare for the final print job. This includes selecting the proper colors, getting the image placement correct, setting up the plates, and preparing the printer for the chosen paper size and weight. Getting everything right during make-ready helps to ensure a quality print run. This step would be considered finished when the printer is satisfied with a print, and can therefore begin the actual run.Pantone Cans
C M Y K, Spray Cans
When old school pantone ink is not enough for your next personal or school project. This would have been a great addition to my local art store when I was in college. A boy can only wish.
[Source] DavidAireyPantone cans: http://bit.ly/hqRen (via @LovelyPackage)
