Print Design TipsTips and Information About Printing

Many printers and designers belive the design is the key to a good piece of printed media, however, this is not the case for many readers looking to find your message within the content – design is critical and the visual impact and style play a great deal in the success of your material but ultimately, do you wish to produce art or send a message that your target market will easily see, read and understand?

A sound principle is to place content first  and design second – assuming you are following this, let’s now concentrate on some design issues.

Inversion Impact

When you read a headline of a newspaper, you will frequently find it has been inverted, that is the headline is in white against a solid, black background.  This leads to a greater visual impact than simply printing teh headline in, say, larger typeface.

This can also be used for grapic imagery and photographs may be particularly effective but you need the help of a skilled designer to garner the most out of such complex imagery.

Less is More

Buy no means are we advocating the minimalist approach but if yiou are trying to pack as much content into one page or one document, you are going to overload your readers.  Marketing and company brochures in particular are prone to this common error and it pays for you to take a huge step back and look at what truly is vitally crucial for your readers to understand and cut out the extraneous pieces of content you are stuffing in.

Work with the Grid

The grid is a design technique for arranging layout and especially for simpler pieces it is best to “Stick with the Grid!”

You don’t need to strictly follow the grid and settle for the staid 3 column layout; try experimenting with different combinations and personally I find the 7-column setup expands the possibilities enormously with sidebars, 2-column overlaps and so on.

Designing your printed materials is something we all must face sooner or later, but whether you are experienced with the process or a first-timer, the results are truly only limited by your imagination and the ability of your printer to render the imagery created.

This is one area where good communications with your printer are essential as there will be some things that to you as the customer may seem a little off the wall and “out there” but to him are pretty straight-forward pieces to create.

To get your creative juices flowing and hopefully help you with your next meeting with your print partners, here’s a few hints and tips for you to use.

Think Outside the Paper

The mind works in funny ways sometimes and one of the quirks you can capitalize on is the m nd w ll f ll  n th  bla ks.

You can use this to your advantage when designing your marketing media so when you are looking at layout, don’t focus simply on what will fit in the space – use the borders too and don’t worry about overlapping the edges.

Paper Standards

Depending on the purpose of the printed communication you are likely to use the established paper sizes bu, there are times when you shouldn’t and there is no reason why you have to follow them religiously.

If you are looking to get your brochure noticed, use a non-standard size so it doesn’t fit precisely into a neat pile of letters and other documents – make sure it overhangs or peeks out of a stack of papers and this will help get it noticed in the sea of junk that everyone accumulates.

Content is King

Foxus on the content – this is where your message is contained and not within the imagery – don’t let design take over your project, it is important but remember people read so focus on that first and make teh design revolve around the content.

Finding a printer who delivers a quality product can be hard enough but finding one who delivers the same standards repeatedly as you order and re-order should not be a life or death issue that takes over daily life.

There are two issues with printing quality – the objective standards that can easily be measured and the more subjective aspects such as color tone, design layout and ideas that flow between you and the print shop.

When you are checking through the work produced, and particularly when you are making your selection for an initial print run, check out the objective issues first as these are straight forward and errors are simply and quickly found:

·         Are the pages in the correct order?

·         Is the binding straight?

·         Have the pages been printed positive with no mishaps with over-printing and the colors merge properly rather than casting color shadows due to misalignment?

·         Have the pages been properly typeset so they are printed with correct margins and footer and header spacing as well as appearing straight and true rather than offset at some angle?

Once you have this out of the way, you have to consider the more subjective issues which for the most part will be dealt with by a combination of your gut feel which will significantly improve over time and the feedback you get from others, especially the readers and users of your material.  In particular, consider the following:

·         Color scheme and mix; how the subtle use of color is brought to bear on your printed materials’

·         The ink coverage on your materials – is it acceptable across the whole spectrum of the publication or medium you are using?

·         Editorial and physical layout – make sure you do not allow the graphics to dominate your written message.

·         Compromises over colors and how your requirements are interpreted, this really comes down to how well you work with your print partner and the quality of communication between you.

This brings about one of the issues you need to consider; if the print quality is not up to the grade what is your position when it comes to getting the printer to accept responsibility for work that is not up to scratch.  You shouldn’t have to be looking over the shoulders of the printer at the shop, nor is it practical – you have every right to expect consistent quality, run after run, no matter where you happen to be situated and if a printer isn’t prepared to step up to your mark when it comes to quality they really have no justification for expecting your repeat business.

If you have ever taken a picture with a digital camera, you may have noticed that the quality of the pictures that your camera produces differs depending on the size that you print them out at. Because of this, you must be very careful to always print your pictures out at a size that will present you with the best possible quality of images.

Many people submit the photos that they have taken with their digital cameras to professional printers, only to get poor prints back. They are quick to blame the printer, but the reason why the print is of such poor quality is because the resolution was too low for the size of the image.

In order to make sure that you get the best quality of images possible, there are a few things that you should take into consideration: the number of pixels that are in the photo, what resolution the photos should be printed at, and what the best print possible under these circumstances is.

In order to determine how many pixels are in your photo, you will have to look at the settings of your camera. For an example, the typical 5 mega pixel camera has a 1944 x 2592 pixel count. The lowest recommended resolution is 240 ppi, or pixels per inch. Divide the pixels per inch into the total pixel count of your photo and you will get the maximum size in inches that your pictures should be printed at. Continuing the previous example, a 5 mega pixel camera with a 240 ppi should be printed at a size of 8.1 x 10.8. Whenever you try to print a picture at a size that is larger than the pixel count allows for, you are going to get a blurred and pixilated image.

Newsletters and Magazines are a great way to communicate, not only with customers but the general public as well. You will get your name out there and people will start talking about your business with others. You will not only be getting the exposure of the magazines but also word of mouth. Any business can benefit from these opportunities.

Newsletters

A newsletter is usually mailed out on a regular basis, giving up-to-date information. So what can a business newsletter have and do for your business? If you create a newsletter and publish it quarterly you will have repeated exposure to your clients and prospective clients. You want to keep you name in front of them so they do not forget about your services. This way when they have a need for them you are the first one they think of. You will want to create a layout for your newsletter and once you have one you like stick with it. If you are constantly changing the layout, it will be hard for your customers to find the information they are looking for. If they get used to specific information in one place all the time you do not want to be changing it in every newsletter. Be sure that your business information is in every newsletter. Talk about your product or services. Mention all new services and any specials that you are running. You can also consider placing a coupon in your newsletters, this will help you attain new customers and keep established ones. Remind them of any holidays or local events that your services or products may be relevant to; this will increase your sales during these time periods. Getting your newsletter printed professionally will give them the finish you need to represent your company the way it deserves. Try to make them colorful and fun for the reader.

Magazines

Magazines are a great addition to business communications. These can be a source of revenue on a few levels. You will be talking, of course, about your product or services and how they can benefit people. It is a good idea to target your area and stay with that topic rather than venturing too far off topic. Talk about how your products or services are going to be of great value for an upcoming holiday; Christmas or Labor Day for example. Include articles about various items, events or anything that relates to your business. You can run specials from time to time. Get businesses to advertise in your magazine will be an additional way to earn money from your magazine. Contact local businesses that may be interested in your field. You can also contact businesses that are only an online business; they may want alternate sources of advertisement from time to time. The last way you can earn from your magazine is by subscription. Creating a good magazine with a variety of reading, ads, specials, events and more will attract readers that want to receive your magazine on a regular basis.

Conquest Graphics specializes in newsletter printing and brochure printing.