How to use, (not abuse), a designer

One of the best facets of my job is the chance to work with graphic designers. I have a tremendous respect for creative people, not being one myself, but a lot of what they tell me is painful to hear. Consider this post a collective "open letter" from the graphic design community to their clients, via your friend in the printing business. (Please note that I use the word "client" to denote the person in overall charge of any project which requires design services.)

"If you begin to think this is just a lot of whining, try not to pass up a chance to improve a relationship which is crucial to the success of your project. Keep an open mind and read on".

I have been around long enough to appreciate the liberation afforded by design software and the personal computer. Inside the print shop we have also been liberated from scores of tasks which once incurred large costs. No one misses the old days...but a look into the past can be instructive.

Once upon a time a city the size of Tallahassee might have had only a few "type houses". These were small businesses who took in copy from ad agencies or publications, marked up with typographical formatting, and created "galley type". These "gallies" were then, literally, "cut and pasted" into layout form by graphic designers armed with X-acto knives and adhesive waxers. The galley type cost about $1 PER LINEAR INCH, plus the expense of paste-up. This brings us to the important point.

Gone are the days of painful and laborious type and paste-up, gone are the constraints of film and darkroom technology, but, unfortunately, also gone is the careful attention which used to be paid to copy on its way to the designer. Because the costs were prohibitive, back in the day it was inconceivable that copy editing would be done via trial and error. I don't think I'm out of line to observe that, twenty years ago, if you submitted unedited and/or unproofread copy to the typographer once, you would be warned. Twice might get you fired. Therefore, the following sentiment on the part of designers begins to make sense:

70% of the responses I got to a survey of my designer friends relate to the haphazard way in which the design jobs come to them. The other 30% relate to a feeling that they are being micromanaged. The overwhelming sentiment is "PLEASE do YOUR job and let ME do mine".

With that in mind, I've developed the Ten Commandments of a Client/Designer relationship. If you are sensitive to these issues you will be amazed at the quality of creative work you receive in return. You will free up your designer's creative talents instead of burning them out. Removing unnecessary obstacles from their path is just good management practice, and will save you time and money.

1. The Designer shall be the lead creative person on the project, and it shall be their responsibility to apply their talents and efforts fully to the task at hand.


2. The Client shall remember that criticism is ineffective unless it is expressed in terms of the project goals. Therefore, "I don't like that color" might become "Our target audience is men, do you think pink is really appropriate". (I jest, but you get the idea.)


3. The client shall not shirk from their duties to provide complete, edited, proofread copy to the designer.


4. The Client shall establish a project schedule which reflects the fact that design is a creative process, and takes time. Often a design, like a new good idea, takes reflection, and everyone loses if the timeline is too compressed. (The Designer shall also be realistic about what is actually possible.)


5. The Client shall not withhold any important details about the project from the team, or release them piecemeal.


6. Production schedules shall reflect some semblance of actual reality, with input from outside vendors as necessary.


7. Proofs, especially just prior to release of the project to outside production, shall be given the full attention they deserve to avoid costly rework. All team members shall review and physically sign the proof to avoid passing the buck. In return, the Designer shall be diligent in their attention to corrections which have been noted.


8. The Internet shall not be seen as a grab bag of free goodies, and copyrighted images shall not be used without purchase and/or release...it's called stealing. Likewise, low quality images shall not be used in place of a genuine effort to obtain good ones.


9. The Client shall buy the design/vendor team chocolate and/or fine coffee when the project succeeds! (Someone insisted on this one.)


10. The Designer shall not exhibit passive/aggressive behavior.  The project shall remain a team effort, and success or failure seen as in terms of the group, not any individual. To that end, all team members shall be up front about their roles in the project, and not allow events to just take over the process.

There are few experiences as exciting as participation in a creative endeavor. The process of bringing a new project to life, and watching it realize the goals you have established is enormously satisfying. However, the interface between the creative and practical aspects, (where I live professionally), can be an unhappy place. The person who is in overall control of the project can take positive steps to make a change! Design pros have amazing talents, but it's not as simple as flipping a switch...give them an environment where their talents can flourish and it will pay you back many times over.

As always, I look forward to your comments.  Until then I hope you're enjoying this wonderful spring weather.

Hugh Butler
Your friend in the printing business

Many thanks to the fifteen graphic design pros who responded to my survey, and, as always, to my wonderful wife (and editor) Melinda. ~HB

Spot Color, Process Color, and the Color Bridge

Let's tackle the single most misunderstood area in all of printing terminology. Let's see if we can get our minds around the different ways color is handled in a printshop. After this, let's go have a cup of coffee, because I am BEAT from making all these graphics. (Speaking of the graphics, click on any of them for a full size version.)

Here is the important part. I realize it will be impossible to learn from this post everything you need to know about color issues. What you can do, however, is understand enough to have an intelligent conversation with your print vendor(s) before you begin detailed work on your layout. The situation we must avoid is that your file goes through the entire layout process in CMYK, (or RGB, God forbid) and then it turns out that spot color printing is the compelling choice. It is often a huge amount of work to "retrofit" a CMYK file into spot colors. (The reverse, on the other hand, is easy.) This is a common trap that designers fall into if their primary focus is web based graphics, and their program of choice is Photoshop.

"SPOT" Colors: The most simple color model is the spot color, where we make one plate to print one color. Each plate we make incurs a cost, so the lowest price job is one "spot" color. There is no "wash-up" charge to print black, so it's the cheapest of the cheap.


Spot colors are mixed according to guides published by Pantone, Inc., and have designations such as "Pantone 186 C," (where the "C" refers to a color shown on a coated stock, see here for more). These colors are mixed much like paint at Benjamin Moore...component mixing colors are weighed out in precise amounts and the whole mass is blended into a single color. You can think of the plate which applies the ink in a similar way because, like a paintbrush, it can be "dunked" into any color you want to put into the ink tray on the press.

By this reasoning, the exact same plate image above could be mounted on the same press with blue ink in the tray and the result is below (Good Dog, Sammie!):


The addition of a second color seems like it would be simple, but, often, it's not. You must be sure your file and all linked graphics are capable of separating into the colors you have defined, and only those colors. Raster based graphics (ie. from Photoshop) are most often incapable of performing this seemingly simple trick, unless you know a lot about channels. Regular, run of the mill JPEGs just won't do it. Beware.


If you want to verify your file will behave in this fashion, "print" it to Adobe PDF writer and specify "separations" as the output mode. For a two color job, the resulting PDF will have image on only two pages, etc. (You may get CMYK pages as well, but they should be blank.)

I will make you a bet right here...the first time you try this, you will end up with image on extra pages because something in your file will have a CMYK piece or part. No joke, I'll actually buy you lunch if I'm wrong. We fix files ALL DAY LONG that have extra colors, and it costs time and money.

Process Colors: are defined from multiple sources but are all encoded the same way...as percent values of the four "process" colors Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK). They can be stored as the color values within a digital image, defined (again by Pantone, Inc.) as CMYK equivalents of the Pantone Solid (Spot) colors, or translated on the fly from the native RGB colors which drive many digital devices. (The latter is the instance which often causes problems which I referred to as "Lost in translation".) Regardless of how they get in the file, however, they always come the same way...four distinct images, one for each of the four process colors:


Why spot colors? The chief advantage of process color, the ability to reproduce photographs or other full color graphics, is so easy to understand let's look instead at the unique ability of spot colors. The main advantage is a question of Gamut, or the range of colors which may be achieved with a certain color system. Look at the following graphic and imagine getting this selection in a box of crayons:


Now imagine your box of crayons contains the Spot Color palette below, and the effect it would have on your ability to precisely blend colors...the "Gamut" is obviously much larger:


The Color Bridge is the intersection of these two color models, and is the one indispensable product you must own from Pantone. Each page shows a column of Pantone Solid (spot) colors on the left, and the best CMYK blend that can be achieved to replicate the same color on the right.


This guide (available here) is where you MUST look when you are choosing colors to build into your layout because it shows the colors as they will actually be printed. It allows you to know with certainty how the colors will print regardless of how they appear on your monitor or inkjet prints. Most important, if you have established a Pantone Solid (spot) color as part of your identity or layout, and consider switching to CMYK, this guide will alert you to a possible problem if the color doesn't render well in the new color model. Remember, the CMYK gamut is much smaller...not every spot color has a good CMYK match, and some are actually terrible. Beware.

Digital printing mixes it up. It used to be simple to determine the choice of spot vs process because, in a conventional offset environment, the cost of four process plates vs., say, two for a two color job, was decidedly higher. In today's mixed offset/digital print shop the distinction isn't so clear and the Color Bridge question is especially important. It may be that a CMYK digital device can render a small quantity of a two color job, converted to Process Color, less expensively than actually making two plates. The decision will depend on the quantity, (digital machines favor short runs) and the resulting quality of the Process Color that results from your file on that particular device. (All digital printers are CMYK and the colors vary a LOT from machine to machine. Insist on a proof copy.) In a longer run, (over 1,000) offset production with conventional plates, in either color model (offset presses can run either, or even both at once!) will start to look attractive.

The important part, again. Use this information to have an informed discussion with your print vendor as you begin serious work on your layout. In addition to cost, be sure to discuss consistency between this project and other collateral material which may have already been printed with specific colors. Be sure you understand, in detail, what colors you've chosen and how they will appear when printed via the most economical and quality-appropriate method. Then be sure your file is capable of rendering those colors and only those colors. It's both as simple and as complicated as that.

As always, I look forward to any questions or comments you have. Until then, see you online!

Hugh Butler
Your friend in the printing business