Learning Outcomes for This Class

This class had to be one of the most frustrating and beneficial classes I have had this semester. Before this class, I knew a miniscule about file building and how important it was to practice in order for my designs to be outputted. I learned a great amount of information pertaining to RIP’s (Raster Image Processor) and how serious it is to understand the process to “safe” file building in the designing world. The RIP is the bridge from the digital world (or what you create on your screen) to the real world (final printed project that you can physically handle). The whole reason for this class was to show the correct way to prepare your digital file so that the RIP can smoothly translate our design so that it can be reproduced. This includes many rules and guidelines to follow.

            One of the first segments we covered was resolution for any Bitmaps, JPEG’s or other raster files. Raster’s hold pixels that are measured by resolution as ppi or pixels per inch. The more pixels you have in a raster image, the more you have to work with when resizing an image. While you may not run into any problems downsizing an image, a raster image becomes blurred and blocky when stretching an image due to the given amount of pixels in that image. So while a photo may look great on the computer screen, it’s better to check the image’s resolution and make sure it is at least 300, otherwise we wouldn’t be too happy with the printed results when its all said and printed.

            Another thing that I have learned in this course was about Pantone colors. I had heard them before but never really realized why someone would pay $400 dollars for a bunch of paint swatches you can take free at the Home Depot paint department. Well, I came to find that these $400 dollar books are the only things holding consistency between the colors on your screen to the colors printed out in print services. A great example of this was when I did my final project. On my screen, the accent color I choose in my design looked orange digitally, but when printed it was more of a red orange. My professor even mentioned if I had chosen that color on purpose and my reply was “Yep! I picked pantone color number 1788 because I didn’t want it to be orange, but I didn’t want it to be red, it’s the color right next to warm orange.” And although I was very confident in my answer then, I wouldn’t dare say a word about 3 months ago because I would just choose colors that just looked good on the screen ,come later to find when printed, it look completely different and way darker; it was upsetting at times.

            Third thing on the list for how much this class really made me feel like I was on the path to becoming a great designer, was InDesign file packaging. This practice has really saved me a great deal of headaches in the future, and I only regret not learning it sooner. As a designer and a poor college kid, I cannot afford a fancy awesome MAC computer and fancy Adobe Suite software (not yet at least!), so I was constantly working on multiple computers while transferring my work with a tiny flash drive. Well, I can’t tell you how many times I had brought in my file to another classroom and found my Links palette blowing up with red bubbles with a huge question mark in the middle of it, saying I had missing links or fonts; One of the most frustrating things personally. Well after this class, I conveniently learned to practice packaging my designs in a nice folder where I can take all elements of my file with me. It beats having the worry of forgetting to drag over an Illustrator file I just added to my design on the E104 computer and later while working in E211 find that I left the Illustrator file on the computer in E104 and the door is locked. So now anywhere and everywhere I go, I always package and repackage a file so that I can be worry free of missing links or fonts, and even have the luxury of not having to worry if a file I had sent to an output service (printer) had all the elements it needed to reproduce that design.

            Last thing that I thought was very insightful for my future career to understand bleeds, crop marks, scores and gutters. All have a HUGE impact on a project, and I already knew what each one was, but never really understood how important they were until I was the one setting them up and having to print the actual design. “Respect your bleeds” is probably one of my favorite lines that Professor Benson had said all year, because on the first project, I did not and there was this ugly white gap all around my business cards when cut out where the crop marks had indicated. I usually acknowledged my margins, all up until my final project, where I think I forgot to check my design in relation to the margin when I resized the entire design from 4.5” to 4.25” but at least I know how to go back and fix it!

            Overall, this class did have moments where I wanted to just give up and become an Accounting Major. In the end I learned far more than I ever knew I would, and because of that, I feel like I can have better communication about my designs and be confident that what I put on the screen is going to come out like I expect it to. Thanks Professor Benson for a great semester and all the insight I will definitely use in my years to come as a designer!

Final Project

This project was designer's choice, so with unlimited possibilities it was a chance to really show our creativity. I really wanted to create something to show off to potential employers, like a creative resume piece for myself. Unfortunately with the semster crashing to an end and multiple classes winding down with it, my time was limited and tasks abundant so my focus and attention was spread thin for this project. So no crazy shapes, folds or multi-pages; I just focused my effort more so on the digital design rather than physical output. So I decided on a simple accordian fold, 4 pages and 3 scores. Below is a few photos of my roughs and quick brainstorming notes.

Outside

Inside

Brainstormin'

The designing process proved to be challenging and at times stifiling, but managed to get the movement and sharp look I wanted in the end. The pricing for this project was actually not too bad for 1000 to be printed, cut and scored at print services, (I think this is where my simple layout came in handy into making things easier for myself and print services.)

There were a few discrepancies and minor flaws, but nothing I couldn't fix. Below is the fabulous final product. Very proud and very satified with the outcome.

Had a great time putting this together, but it was a relief to view my design in my hands on coated covered paper rather than on the computer screen.

Assignment #4: Publication Ad

Much like the newspaper ad, the publication ad also has variable measurements when designing for different magazines. So before I would even get to the designing process I needed to build my InDesign file based on the specifications provided by the magazine I would be planning on publishing my ad in. I decided to do a Canon camera as my advertisement, so I figured either a photographer magazine or even a design magazine would be appropriate to put my ad in. I looked through many magazine websites to try and gather the specs to build my ad; I finally stopped at GDUSA magazine's website and found the specs I needed to build my file. Here's what it said:

GD USA: http://www.gdusa.com/specifications.php

Specifications:

printed pages

FULL PAGE Trim Size: 8 ⅛" wide x 10 ⅞" high
Please set up your document size to 8 ⅛" x 10 ⅞" and add an additional ⅛" on all sides for bleed.

ACCEPTABLE FILE FORMAT High Resolution Acrobat PDF
FILES DUE:
15th of month preceding cover date
SHIP MATERIALS TO: Graphic Design USA
89 Fifth Avenue
Suite 901
New York, New York 10003
Attention: Rachel Goldberg
EMAIL MATERIALS TO: Rachel Goldberg
rgoldberg@gdusa.com


These specifications really didn't use the terms "live area" which we had discussed in class, which simplly mean that whatever is in the designated live area on your file structure is guaranteed to show up in the magazine and won't get lost after the trimming, bounding, or folding processes of the magazine. It is important to recognize this because most ads in a magazine are not cheap and if most the information is cut-off in the finalizing of the magazine, then you're simply out of luck. Below is my final design (bleed and trim marks are included in the photo).

Canon logo and T3i photo provided by Canon:
© 2011 Canon U.S.A., Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Photo provided by Lauren Renfrow and microsoft tag provided by http://tag.microsoft.com/home.aspx .

Assignment #3: Newspaper Ad

After a short break, we pressed towards our next project consisting of an ad in the university paper, the Collegio. First we had to figure out the demensions, and luckily our prefessor was open to helping us when figuring this out. The way newspaper sizes are measured are not as simple inches by inches; instead newspapers  measure columns by inches (width by height) and each newspaper has different sizes for thier columns. For example a 5x7 ad in a newspaper is 5 COLUMNS wide by 7 inches tall. 5 Columns doesn't mean 5 inches; in the Collegio the sizes of the columns are shown below.

# of Columns	1	2	3	4	5	6
Actual Size of Column (inches)	1.83”	3.79”	5.75”	7.71”	9.67”	11.63”

Restrictions to this project were based on price with a budget of $197 dollars. Running color for any ad in the Collegio costs $200 dollars alone, so this adds another restriction with only using black and white. The other obligation was to figure out a target market for the ad. Since the Collegio is only distributed only throughout Pittsburg, Kansas; I needed to find a local business to create the ad for. I decided on advertising for South East Kansas Recycling Center located here in Pittsburg, KS. So the only other factor to figure into my ad was how big of an ad I was going to create while keeping within my bugdet. To figure out the cost of my desired size ad I used the formula below:

#of columns(width)  X  #of inches(height) = B

B  X  $4.00 = Cost

I decided on a 3 column 7 inch ad. Cost figuration is shown below.

3 colmns x 7inches = 21

21 x $4.00 = $84.00

$197.00 - $84.00 = $113 left over in budget.

So with $113.00 left over, the same ad could be run for two weeks in stead of one. So for 2 weeks in the Collegio, a 3 column x 7 inch ad would cost $168, still under budget and with $29.00 to spare!

Now with the demensions decided and within budget, I could start designing my ad for SEK Recycling Center. I needed a call to action, so I used "visit us @:sekr.org" to get them to go to the SEK website to find more information to thier operation. I also needed to use a bitmap image (drawn and then scanned into my computer) in my ad which is shown below.

With a few revisions after on-screen critiques, I was really satisfied with the outcome of the project. I was really proud of having the design of the bitmap go off the ad to where it pops more. Once again a very good project to learn from, but a lot easier than the direct mail piece.

Missing you already...

 We miss you Suzy Q. You will always have a special place in our hearts.

March 1998-October 2011

Inpiring Typography...

I was at Gordmans just shopping around and looking at some of thier home decor when I found "something unexpected"... a whole section of sayings with great use of type and spacing. Each sign was completely different than the others: different sayings, size of canvas, size of type, spacing of the letters (kerning) or words (leading), and type of font used. It just goes to show you that by just changing some simple elements of typography, you can create many different works of art .

Direct Mail Piece Assignment #2:

This project turned out to be more challenging than the previous projects but turned out to be really helpful for file building with a variable database. The first step was to decide on a product that would appeal to TWO target markets. I decided to pitch towards young singles and older married couples a resort build to entertain both audiences (more information provided on my previous post). Restrictions for this project: had to be a 5” x 7” card with a .125” bleed and a .25” margin. The most difficult part of the project was that I had to create ONE template for TWO different designs. Therefore, the only variables to my project were content and images, but the layout of both cards HAD to stay the same.

I decided to go out on a limb and use a double pun with the toast images, It was a far reach but I figured that most successful marketing ideas are usually huge and either sink or swim. Another risk I took was deciding the color. I wanted contrast and something to draw to BOTH markets’ eyes so I decided to use a bright yellow (Pantone 108) and black with an accent of white. Another way I attempted to pull in my target audience by using a personal call-out by using a database that would plug in their first name on the front of the card to personalize that piece of mail to the receiver.  I used a variety of images, 3 eps files and 2 ai files. The toast images came from istockphoto.com and the palm tree images were taken from wegraphics.net (click on web site name for copyright information).

Since I used a database for the first name on the front of the card, I could not just take this project to Print Services as a pdf and expect each card to come out personalized and correct. Instead I would have to create the database of first and last name, their address, and what demographic (single or married) they fall into an excel table and specific instructions in a word document.

These files, a pdf of what all pages are suppose to look like, a packaged Indesign file of just one front and back (with added links from the other file), and an idml file would be sent to Pittcraft to analze and print each card according to the information sent to them.

The project overall was stressful, but I think worth it in the end. They looked really good on the printed proofs (Printing Services) and I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out in the final product.

Target: Young Singles

FRONT:

BACK:

Target: Married Couples

FRONT:

BACK:

Market Segmentation for Direct Mail Piece

Product: Resort

Target Market Sequence: Differentiated Targeting: 2
A) Married Couples (Romantic Getaway)

B) College Students/ Fresh Graduates (Spring Break)

I. Demographic:
A/B) Race: Open to all Races
A/B) Gender: Both Male and Female

A) Age: Born in 1965-1976; 35-46 years old; Generation X: Self-reliant and value-oriented.
A) Class: Middle to Upper/ More Mature Savings = More Money

B) Age: Born in 1982-1990; Age 21-29 years old; Generation Y: Echo Boomers
B) Class: Middle/ Less Secure Job/ More Debt (loans) = Less Money

A/B) Geographical Location: [given] Pittsburg, KS
                -Landlocked (no beaches, ocean) = cruise a great escape
                - Seasonal changes in weather (one extreme to the next)

II. Psychographics: (AIOs)

A) Activities/Interests: Marriage, Solid Occupation, Kids (grown)
A) Opinions: More cynical towards marketing, more responsibility,

B) Activities/Interests: Drinking, Games, High Activity (Exercise), Late Nights, Clubbing, Socializing,
B) Opinions: More open towards new/change/innovation

III. Influences on Consumer:  (*= most influential)
>Social:
A) Family, Friends, Coworkers
B) *Friends, Family

>Internal:
A) *Motivation: Escape and Relax = Entertainment
B) Motivation: Party and Relax = Entertainment

>Situational:

A) Restrictions: Vacation Time Away From Work + Money
B) Restrictions: Money + School Calendar

Notepad and QR Code Assignment:

   Our next project for our Digital File Preparation class was our first actual assignment outside the safe zone. The specifics of the project consisted of a black and white 5"x7" self-promoting notepad.The specifics were to use only black ink, 50 sheets per pad, and have a chipboard back. The first step I took towards this job was to create thumbnails of ideas that represented me, and artwork that I could design with the many skills I already have. Below are just some of the thumbnails I had sketched out to begin the process.

   After deciding a thumbnail to design, I went into InDesign to set up a .25" margin with a .125" bleed. The Design calls for a bleed on the bottom and the right size of the page.

Document set up for Adobe Illustrator

   Next, I created a greyscale vector of the arrow design in Adobe Illustrator using the rectangle tool, polygon tool and pathfinder tool to create the arrows. I exported the design to a .tiff file and placed it into the Indesign file.



creating my greyscale vector in Illustrator

The project also required a call to action, which in this case is a QR code. QR codes are pixilated squares that can be read by a mobile device (with a software or app reader) that can directly take my audience to an indended destination, in this case I'm going to send my audience to my personal blog, because the purpose of the project was to market myself. I created this QR code using qrcode.kaywa.com and downloaded the larger size to get a better chance at a higher dpi to put on my notepad. I saved the file as a JPEG and placed it into my Indesign file.

QR code to my blog site

I tweeked some of the elements on my page while adding font in Indesign. I used Cantoria MT for a sophisticated yet lively look to display my information.  Afterwards, I packaged my file and saved it as a pdf to take to Printing Services and get proofs printed before I got a final copy of the project.

placed my Illustrator file and QR code into InDesign



Business Card Remake

The other day our Digital File Prep class was asked to recreate a business card based on the dummy given to us. The business card consisted of a two-sided card with an offset fold. The print job also consisted of two colors (pantone color and black). The other requirements for this job were to set up a .125'' bleed and .125'' margin.

Before even opening any designing software, I created a new folder with a certain name to identify the job. This way, everything that I would need to design for this one file would be all in one folder, decreasing the chances of a failed output on the design. Next, before even thinking of my design for this project I measured the model card given to find the specifics. I had found that the card was a 2" x 6.4" and had an offset score set at 2.9425" from the top. After gathering this info, I quickly set up a two page, one spread layout of the diameters in Adobe InDesign to give me the correct layout of the remake.

Second, I created a more personable logo to replace the one on the front in Adobe Illustrator. I exported that into a TIFF file in my special folder for this project, then placed it into my InDesign layout.

(rotated in native file)

Later, I decided the fonts that would apply in my design for the information on the inside of the card. I used the software Suitcase to activate the fonts so they would be displayed properly in InDesign as I worked on the job.
The tricky part was to keep all my elements (such as fonts and graphics (my TIFFS)) in one specific folder for this particular job so there would be no missing links and eliminate problems from appearing if they were to print.

The project was very helpful and taught me the importance of time constraints while practicing correct building of a design to avoid problems down the line.

Chapter 2: Ink on Paper

•Halftone Dots: Are very small ranging sized dots of ink on a page to manipulate different tones or shades of a single colored ink.

McCure, 28

Units of Measure :

•DPI (Dots Per Inch): Refers to the amount of dots in a squares inch of a design. Typically the more dots on a page the better the quality and sharpness of a photo printed.

•LPI (Lines Per Inch):  also affects the sharpness of print (higher the better), but measures not the dots within an inch but the frequency of halftone dots appearing in a square inch. One regulation that LPI has to follow is the thickness of the paper, the thinner the paper print is going to appear on, the lower the LPI number should be to reduce the risk of  inks absorbing into unwanted areas of the print.

McCue, 28

•PPI (Points Per Inch): is another important practice in print. This tells a designer and printer the points per inch on a specific image, or resolution. Once again the higher the number, the better the resolution, and the clearer the image. PPI can be reduced by increasing the size of an image so it is better to downsize when designing than to expand to avoid bad resolution.

Color Printing: CMYK vs. RGB

•RGB (Red, Green, Blue): These colors pertain to the tiny dots of visible light that make up a display on a monitor. These colors consist of Red, Green and Blue and practice the same rules of PPI Resolution.

•CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black): relate to the process colors that use halftone dot  system of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black but also layer these colors during print to create a wide range of colors for an illusion of an image.

McCue, 30

•Color Management: Matching RGB (design on display monitor) to CMYK (design on printed page) is too difficult to guess at how the final job is going to turn out, so a designer must use Pantone color swatches to view what a color looks like when printed. Each Pantone color has a specific formula of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black and have a specific number to identify that specific Pantone color. This number can be used for located the specific color while designing on the RGB screen, so the designer has a closer chance at getting the exact design colors when processed.

•Spot Colors: Sometimes CMYK cannot reach all the colors of a design because CMYK does not contain all the colors of the color spectrum. In order to receive the colors desired for a job, sometimes a processor will bring in spot colors which are specially formulated inks that cannot be reproduced by CMYK (example: metallic colors).

•Registration: simply is the alignment of a printers CMYK when layering. This isn’t so much as a problem when a variation of colors is present and trapping can be used, but can be especially damaging to a design that has a two colors that don’t have an ink in common or have break in color. Misregistration can make a design look messy and unprofessional so it is important for a designer to check the registration before printing a large job.

McCue, 37

•Rich Black: Large areas of solid black in a design can be difficult to produce with just regular CMYK dots, so sometimes it is necessary to use a specialized color of 60 cyan, 40 magenta, 40 yellow and 100 black to formulate rich black. This specialization will help make the large portion of black on a design seem thick and smooth, making a cleaner design when finished.

Source: McCue, Claudia. Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications. Peachpit Press: Berkeley, CA, 2009.

Chapter 1: Life Cycle of a Printing Job

Chapter 1:

Yesterday to Today:

Due to the innovations of technology, Graphic Designers today find themselves doing more diverse work than they would have 25 years ago. For instance, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop have replaced the way designers put a project together; back then, finalizing consisted of film and multiple proofs (page, color key, matchprint, and Cromalin) before even being sent to the printer! With all the manual labor and different departments of profession that ONE job had to go through turned to be very costly on time. The Figure below shows how the job would be divided by individual handlers for each specialty of ONE project.

McCue, 3

Within the late 1980’s the Apple Desktop Units were put on the market revolutionizing the world. This tool would continue to grow and help the graphic designing process combine multiple professional departments, decreasing the amount of places and stops ONE project would go, to conclude a faster pace of the entire process from start to finish. While technology has accelerated the time in which a job is processed, it has also brought along new opportunities like different finishes to a job like stitching, folding, binding, and die cutting, which is cutting unique shapes into a printed piece with a specially designed piece of metal. The overlapping of skills and responsibilities continues to grow due to technology’s expansion and innovation, jobs like Film Stripper, Dot Etcher, and Type Setter became obsolete from Laser Printers, Scanners, Page Layout Applications, Photoshop, and the Internet.



Created in Microsoft Word



Notable Employees in a Graphic Designing Job:

Each person part of a design job is important to the movement of the projects progress to the finish. We all know that the Designer is a huge part of an assignment, but here are just some more titles essential for a graphic design to be completed.

•Sales Rep/Customer Service: This side of the job tends to be the most involved with the customer by setting up the job, giving a price and time estimate, and answer any concerns or questions the customer might have. The Customer Service Representative works hand-in-hand with the developers of the job and customer, translating any information between the two properly and effectively to ensure a successful job.

•Estimator: The estimator may not be as personal, as they tend to be on the numerical side of the job, crunching numbers to find a price and timeframe at which the customer’s job will be completed. Estimating may seem easy but the Estimators have to take into consideration the costs such as direct and indirect supplies, overhead, manufacturing costs, variable and fixed costs, labor costs, etc. And that is just to compute the price, they also have to come up with a schedule including deadlines and how long the job takes to ship.

•Preflight Technician: This job is very important in ensuring that the job is done correctly with no problems that can be costly to either the customer or the vendor. Preflight technicians can either use a software such as FlightCheck Professional from Markzware or manually check the system themselves depending on the equipment available to them. Along with spell checking and seeing if the document contains the correct bleeds, margins, page size and correct colors, these technicians usually will organize the job so the process will run more smoothly. Preflight may even be in charge of imposition, which is positioning a file’s various pages in the right place before it is sent to print, but sometimes the prepress operator is in charge of taking this task, depending on the company pursuing the job.

•Prepress Operator: The prepress operator is one of the last people to see and edit the job before it is printed. The operator is in charge of relaying the baton from digital to print in the fastest and most efficient way necessary. This includes checking not only the project on file, but the printer as well; setting up the correct Pantone or CMYK colors along with running the correct type of paper, paper size, and thickness. Prepress is also in charge of RIPing the file or Raster Image Processing. RIP simply means to analyze the digital file, (whether it be a Postscript file or a PDF), and modify the information into a bitmap that is then readable by the output device (printer, film, or plates). Trapping may also occur during the RIPing stage, meaning the overlap of like colors will help close gaps to minimize show of little mistakes and errors not caught in the preflight area. Minor adjustments on either end can be crucial to how a finished product will look.

Sources:
McCue, Claudia. Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications. Peachpit Press: Berkeley, CA, 2009.