8 Tips You Didn’t Know for Sending Your Design to the Printer

Along with all those years of theory learning and practical experience in creating designs, when you hire a pro designer you also get a whole lot of incidental knowledge about utilizing printing services to get the best result for a design. There is a purpose for all of the dozens of image file types, export options and print settings, though most of us are blissfully unaware of them! Today we tap into that pro knowledge to help you get the same picture-perfect result for your own company marketing materials.

- Provide native application files where possible

Yes, this does give the printing service the opportunity to change things around. However, there’s no reason to be concerned over this capability – they have no interest in changing your work! However, providing the native application file (like an Indesign package or CorelDraw file) does allow the printer to export it using their preferred settings, without back-and-forthing too much.

- Include fonts with native application files

Many people don’t know that unless a font is installed on a computer, it won’t display within a document. You’ll need to email your font files (located in Control Panel> Fonts in Windows) along with your pdf or your native application file.

- Include linked images with native application files

It is also easy to forget that although a picture displays properly in InDesign or Illustrator, that display is only good because it references a place on your hard drive. You’ll need to include any additional images that are linked to your application file as well, for the printing service – otherwise the picture will come out horribly pixelated!

- Include written instructions detailing file names, etc

It is always good practice not to assume that your trade printer knows which files are supposed to go where. Send a list (either in hard copy or via email) detailing how many copies you need of each document, including the file name, and the stock you were expecting to be used. Include your contact numbers in case there are any problems with the files, or clarification is needed.

- Confirm arrival by email

Ask your printing service to drop you a quick line to let you know they’ve received the files. If you don’t have this confirmation by a particular time, give them a ring to make sure your files haven’t been lost in the ether!

- Use Senduit or other file sharing site for large files

Email client timeouts often mean that it isn’t possible for printing services to receive large files (above 10 megs) via email. A great alternative are file sharing services such as Senduit, where you upload the file to a web server, and your printer downloads it.

- Compress your file if possible with Zip or Stuffit

You can make the entire sending process much easier by compressing the file with a program like Zip for Windows, or StuffIt for Mac.

- Do your own printout before sending

Do your own printout before you send the file to the printer. It is a quirk of the human eye that we often simply don’t see mistakes on the screen which are glaringly obvious on the printed page. If you don’t want to be making last minute frantic phone calls to the printer asking them to pull the plates because you’ve discovered you misspelt a word … print first!

Top 6 Easy-to-Follow Tips to Design Your Own Company Marketing Materials

If you’ve made the decision to design the marketing materials for your own company – letterhead, business cards, logos, swing tags, brochure printing etc – but aren’t a professional designer, you have probably already spent a while staring at a blank screen! One of the great skills of logo and graphic designers is the ability to make the end product look effortless. However, the process by which these gorgeous documents come about is far from effortless. Designing your own materials can be very rewarding, enabling you to truly bring out the benefits of your product and service as well as taking more ownership of your company. So today, we give you some tips to help you get the most out of this rewarding process.

- Give yourself time

Don’t plan to have your marketing materials designed two days before an upcoming trade show. It may not take a solid week to actually design them, but you’ll want to get feedback and incorporate it into the designs, check on file specs with the trade printer, and actually allow time for your things to be printed. In this case, giving yourself time means mulling over colours and concepts three weeks before you need to have something ready, designing and getting feedback the second week, and finalizing your printing services the week before material are needed.

- Go through design magazines, find inspiration

There are few designers in the world who can honestly say they don’t draw on ideas from other people in their own work. Using exact designs, colour schemes and tag lines is copying, but drawing inspiration for a wide variety of sources is not.

- Sketch your ideas

While the computer allows you to create a huge variety of visual effects, for some people the physicality of actually sketching a logo or a layout for brochure printing is a crucial part of the refinement process.

- Music!

Designing and music are intricately entwined in the mind. Unlike with writing a business letter or proposal, where the lyrics can be distracting, a completely different part of the brain is utilised in designing, and music seems to tickle it into action. It doesn’t seem to matter what type – anything that makes you feel good will work!

- Stick with classic fonts

If you have discovered any of the awesome free fonts websites on the internet, you’ll quickly lose several days just deciding on the right typeface for your logo and brochure printing. Don’t even go there! They are intriguing, but if you are new at designing and trying to work to a schedule, they will only sabotage your timetable.

- Don’t second guess yourself too much

There are a hundred little details (like the font) that you could spend weeks debating over with your own brain, as well as with colleagues. After a certain number of revisions, it is smarter to simply leave the design as it is. Don’t keep second-guessing your choice of colour, your line placement, your photos or your copywriting. Just let it go. If you want to make changes later on, it is good to maintain an ongoing list of what you would like to update about either design or wording, and do them all at a future date.

And if it all seems like too much … remember that most trade printing services offer a very economical logo and layout design service!

What Not to Do – Company Logo Design

If you’re designing a logo, many of the things you shouldn’t do can be extrapolated from lists of those that you should. If you should keep it simple, you know that you ’shouldn’t’ make it complicated. However, the rules aren’t always so clear-cut! Whether you want to refresh yourself on the best practices of logo design, or simply get a feel for the skills for your first time, we’ve made as list of some of the common mistakes made when designing logos for business card printing, brochure printing, and general company branding.
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Designer’s Own Tips for an Awesome Logo

For a tiny little graphic, there is a lot of creativity, passion, thought and love that goes into a logo! Even the company name in a select font can take days to develop, as different possibilities for colours, angles, wrapping, gradients and shadows emerge, are considered, and either incorporated or not. As different as many popular logos look at first glance (contrast Coca-Cola with ABC; Virgin Airlines with Pizza Hut), many share common characteristics either in their design, or the process used to create them. Here we give you insider tips on creating an effective logo for your business card printing, brochure printing and other corporate materials.
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Booklet Binding Options – Which is Best for You?

While the range of different binding options at printing services often looks intimidating, in reality the choice is usually clear cut. Binding style is just as important as the design in the quality of a booklet printing job; today we are taking an in-depth look at each of the main styles of binding for booklet printing to help ensure your job turns out as planned.
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8 Easy and Effective Design Ideas for Swing Tags

The single most important factor in the creation of a brand is the atmosphere in a store. Advertisements can only go so far – it is the real, physical interaction that people have with your products and the space in which you sell them that goes furthest in creating a positive impression. One of the final steps in that branding exercise is the swing tags for your products! Today we are looking at design strategies for swing tag printing that can really individualize your store and set your brand apart from the rest.
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Tips for Using Custom Printed Posters as an Advertising Tool

Posters are an extremely high impact form of in-store advertising and cross promotion. Designed effectively, and with quality poster printing services, they can double as part of your shop’s interior design and atmosphere. However, it is possible for posters to go horribly wrong … at quite a large price tag! Here we look at some tips for getting the best value out of your poster printing as an in-store advertisement.
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4 Reasons to Get Professional Office Letterhead Printing

Self-printed office letterhead, or using no letterhead is actually quite common. Many businesses see it as an ongoing expense that they can do without. For those that make the small investment in professional letterhead printing though, the branding and marketing results, and cost savings over self-printing can be enormous. Today we look at the top 4 reasons that professional letterhead printing finishes ahead of self-printed letterhead, and even ahead of logo-less letters.
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Using Your Business Cards Effectively

Contrary to what your grandfather may have told you (as mine did!), business cards are not simply an expensive replacement for the Yellow Pages. They are a brand-building opportunity. Business cards are a way to personalize your contact information to a greater degree, at a lower price than phone directories can offer. They are a way to jog memories in your contacts, and can be associated with your pleasant, professional personality. Today we are looking at tips for creating your cards, business card printing and use that can make your business cards a profitable part of your marketing strategy.
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Do You Want Flyers That Get Results?

The ‘noise’ within the marketing industry that flyers create is incredible – all you have to do is own a letterbox that doesn’t have a ‘No Junk Mail’ sign on it to understand that truth of this statement! There are plenty of flyers getting about, and many of these are created by big companies, with professional design and flyer printing and compelling offers. Despite the high level of competition among flyers for the consumer’s attention, a well-though out flyer is still an amazingly effective lead generation tool. Here we’re looking at the design elements, offer elements and flyer printing elements that really make a difference to your business’s success with flyers.
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