Unfortunately, many have felt that they can add some X-Factor with clients and prospects and this is a one-way road to disaster. Clip-art has its uses but client facing documents and any document which is being used outside of a business is not one of them.  Clip-art is cheap and can be fun when it is being used for the club newsletter or to announce a family event such as a house move or a party.  Clip-art has no place in a document you seriously expect a potential customer to pick-up, read and then contact you with the intention of doing some business. Clip-art is free for a reason – it doesn’t sell your document, your business or your services and products. Using photographs is a double-edged sword.

Good photographs and images are usually not free; many images have a copyright restriction attaching to them and if you do not own the rights to the image or have permission to use it, you are in for a legal shock.  Using photographs without the copyright holder’s permission can lead to legal action for damages and compensation.  It can even lead to you having to go through the expensive exercise of throwing your document away in the trash because you cannot get permission at all. Very embarrassing and not recommended – always make sure you have permission or own the image. If you are taking the photographs yourself, makes sure they are of appropriate quality.  Nothing speaks “amateur hour” more than a slightly out of focus shot or one where the subject is not properly positioned.  Using a photograph of a product is important because this is establishing the visualization in the mind of the reader – it pays to take the time to get the product positioned in the proper setting and to ensure you are capturing the detail necessary.

It is usually cost effective to hire a professional photographer to perform the shots for you.  Getting the photographs wrong may render your entire document ineffectual and force you to incur extra expense and delay in getting the shots done again.  Frequently, design projects are up against deadlines and tight schedules, and making this mistake leads to additional costs elsewhere in the production process which will more than outweigh the cost of a professional. You must also ensure that the images produced are available in a format which will allow your print and design partners to manage and manipulate effectively.  Poor or incorrect resolution, ill-lit images or incorrect format can all lead to a significant deterioration of the finished product and may render them unusable when it comes to the final production run.

This just underlines how important it is to make sure that everyone involved in the creation of your document knows what they are doing and what is expected from them as well as the consequences of missing deadlines.

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Insist on Quality Images and Design When You Are Using Them

Here are some of the issues we frequently encounter when being asked to help out. Make Sure You “Bleed” The bleed is that part of the document around the edges which the printer uses to manipulate the document – imagine you need a space at the edge of a photograph which allows you to hold the photo – a printer uses the bleed to correct design inaccuracies and optimize print production. You may sometimes have to dig around your software package to find the bleed settings but it is essential you make sure they are set at an appropriate bleed.  Typically, a 3mm is fine for most pieces of work. Use Overprinting if the Budget is Tight

When the budget is constrained, it is usual for a client to restrict themselves in the use of color.  This can lead to a dull or lifeless finished product but many people, including printers and designers, forget that most of our color spectrum is actually a compound of three primary colors.  That being the case, try using overprinting to create great color effects using only the minimum of colors, you only need 2 colors to make 3! Using this technique you can create great image effects using photographs and other images, so don’t limit yourself. Expand the Mind and Think Outside the Paper Our minds will fill in information we expect to see, so play around with the print subjects at the borders of the paper and even though most of the image or text may be missing, the reader’s brain will complete the gaps.

Here’s an example of how the human mind can do this – try reading the following: “The hmaun barin si ecelxlnet ta flinlig gpas ni ttex” You should be able to read, “The human brain is excellent at filling gaps in text.” – as long as the starting and ending letters are in the right position, it doesn’t matter what order the other words are in – we can still read it. Don’t Be a Slave to Standard Paper Sizes Using a standard paper size can stifle creativity and the impact of your finished document.  How about using a square paper shape to create an interest, especially effective for booklets?  If you are looking to motivate and persuade people to take your document away with them, use a small paper size so it fits comfortably in their pocket or cane be stashed quickly and easily.

Don’t restrict yourself when it comes to getting your project off the ground, there are lots of different ways in which you can inject interest and vitality into any document.  It does require a desire and ability to let go of some preconceived notions and think, quite literally, outside of the “box”, or at least, the sheet of paper!

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Print Design Tips for Novices