What is Design for Print

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

Studio Brief 1. What is design for Print?

Stock Weight
90 - 100 gsm - used for stationery, text for magazines and booklets, flyers and brochures.
120 -170 gsm - used for text for booklets, flyers and brochures. The heavier the weight, the more "upmarket" the feel.
200 - 250 gsm - used for magazine and booklet covers. Robust enough to give some body and stiffness when used in a publication, but not quite heavy enough to be used on its own for cards etc.
280 - 300 gsm - used for cards of all sorts and book and booklet covers.




Stock Types
brief look into paper stocks.

• Bond: writing papers, including ledger, that accept ink readily and can be erased
• Coated: book paper with a clay coating ensuring smoothness (dull, satin, gloss, matte)
• Text: uncoated book paper (often of an interesting color) used for announcements and the like
• Offset: uncoated book paper treated with sizing to resist moisture
• Opaque: uncoated book paper treated to be less transparent
• Cover: coated and uncoated; used for book covers, brochures, etc.
• Mill Bristol: a board grade receptive to folding, embossing, and stamping
• Newsprint: used for printing newspapers; highly acidic, degrades quickly
• Digital: for copiers and ink-jet and laser printers, as well as high-end digital presses like Xeikon and Indigo
• Coated One Side (C1S) - A cover stock that has a coating on one side and is dull on the reverse side.


• Coated Two Sides (C2S) - A cover stock that has a coating on both sides.

Colour Management

. CMYK(cyan/magenta/yellow/key black – 4 colour process) Subtractive.
This is used in the most common printed process called litho or offset litho
. RGB (red/green/blue – screen based) Additive.
Greyscale (Black and white continuous tone and any shade of grey, such as a
black and white photograph)

Paper Sizes



Printing Methods

• Lithography (Litho) PLANOGRAPHIC

Etched aluminium plates on a cylinder transfer ink to an ‘offset’ rubber blanket roller and then to print surface. This is the Most common method of printing which the majority of paper based product been done in this way. Mainly done in using CMYK inks it is very design friendly.

• Rotogravure (Gravure) INTAGLIO

Copper plates (with mirror image) transfer ink directly to print surface, usually rolls. Advantage, plates are more durable and so are good for long print runs such as newspapers and magazines where the quantity needs to be in the millions. it is a very quick and efficient was of printing huge quantities in a short amount of time.

• Flexography (Flexo) RELIF

A positive, mirror image rubber polymer plate, on a cylinder, transferi ink directly to print surface. Usually roll feed. This is used for products like sweet wrapper and drinks labels which are produced on huge rolls and cut down to size. Printing on surfaces other than paper it produced less of a quality than litho and which is also down to the detail achievable on a rubber plate.
. Digital Print
The reproduction of images by translating the digital code direct from a computer to a material
without an intermediate physical process. This is the simplest printing method and used only for low run prints, such as proofs, large scale posters and banners. can vary greatly in quality but this is usually down to what is wanted to be printed so not to waste ink on insignificant items such as letter which don't need to be of high quality.
. Screen Printing

A printmaking technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink
blocking stencil.

Mono/Duo/Spot

. Duotone is when an image is printed in 2 spot colours. this can be any to colours. This printing method can produce very different effects depending on the colours used and easily done on programs like Photoshop and InDesign. You can use more colours which are know as Tritones for 3 colours and Quadtones for 4.
 
. Spot colour is a specially mixed colour opposed to a result of CMYK or RGB. This can be usefull for a designer wanting to produce say a campaign for a company and wanting to use a specific colour all the way through. the colours can be put into the printers to create consistancy within prinitng. This technique is extremely popular with photographers wanting to highlight part of a black and white photo.


. Mono is only using one coloured ink and the stock its printed on. It doesn't have to to one tone the ink can be used at a persentage such as tints of the colour used. This creates a tonal image. Black is the most common colour used for monoprints but others can be used also.



Print finishes

Foils

A metal plate is produced which has been etched so what you are wanting to print is raised. It's then put into a machine and heated the foil. so between your product and the plate is the foil. when stamped the foil makes contact with the product then the raised heat transfers the foil from the reel to the product. 

Most foils are done in silver or gold, they can be don in different colours but the main attraction is the metallic surfaces. you get a much clearer colour than you would if using screen print and metallic paints. Embossing 
Embossing is where you areas of a surface is raised compared to the rest of a product. This is adds cost to printing but give a very professional effect. it is done by creating a stamp of what you wish to emboss. the area you wish to emboss is raise on the stamp and is simply pressed against the product on the reverse side leaving a raised imprint.
Die Cutting
Die Cutting is the process to cut out shapes which aren't possible with a guillotine. it is mainly used for things like business card and leaflets if they what to use an interesting shape. The die cut is made by using a metal blade shaped to the necessary design, placed into a wooden block. rollers go over the blade cutting the shape out of the product.


Preparing the file for print. 
When you are finished and ready to send work to a printers there is a few things you need to make sure you do. 
check that all your images are saved as a CMYK-Tiff/EPS, not RGB and no GIF's/JPEG's or PSD's. 
Bleeds that run off the page should run 3mm beyond the page except for binding where they should end at the edge of the page. 
it's always a good idea to send separate film containing images incase the corrupt. 
Make sure the printer has the fonts needed to print.
Check all the graphic elements to make sure they aren't in RGB.
Check if type and image overlap that they print correctly. 
Choosing stock and considering folding/varnishing and other print finishes and testing them before hand

Studio Brief 1. What is design for Print?

Information which i find you need to know about print.

1. Stock wieght
2. Stock Types
3. Colour management
. Spot colour
. CMYK
. RGB
. Converting colour modes
. Pantone
4. Paper sizes
. A sizes
. Other intonational sizes
5. Printing Methods.
. Different printing methods in commercial printing
6. Duotone, Monotone and Tints
7. Print Finishes
. Die cut
. Folding
. Varnishes
. Foils
8. Costings
9. Preparing the file for print.

Studio Brief 1 - What is Design for Print?

BRIEF

Produce a ‘Top Ten’ manual of things to know, consider or remember in order to produce successful Design for Print. You should use the seminars and tasks from the module as a starting point for your own individual/independent investigation of the methods, processes and formats that can be used to create innovative but practical solutions to print based design briefs and all aspects of print- based delivery. You are required to document your research and visual material on your Design Context blog. For submission for assessment you will also be required to select, summarise and evaluate appropriate source material as a multi-page pdf. document that shows your understanding of print processes, conventions and creative options from the perspective of a graphic designer. It should also demonstrates your ability to effectively organise and present a body information in a designed format. This document should be uploaded to your Design context blog via 'Issuu'. See additional briefings for further information.

Background / Considerations

You are graphic designers, everything you produce should be designed, considered and effective. You need to be in complete control, even if it's carefully arranged to look casual! Don't ignore your knowledge of layout but expand upon it! The content should be ordered and informative with clear example of what you mean, the style your own, derived from the study of the work of other designers. Commercial print processes are of concern to you especially as, at times, you will have to relinquish the hands –on production control of your work for a more specification/managerial role. Your research will be informed by the seminars delivered as part of the module but how much more can you find out? What do you need to know about print production and what is relevant to your own practice? How do you communicate your research in a way that is reflective of your creative ambitions Your considered opinion is important. You should use appropriate examples of professional creative practice in order to demonstrate your breadth and depth of understanding.

Mandatory Requirements	Deliverables
To show a good understanding of print through an ongoing investigation. ‘Chapters’ might include, colour conventions, inks, stock, format and others. You will need to evidence research into: Production Methods. Stock considerations Colour systems Commercial costings Tagging of the categories is essential. Failure to organise your research effectively may loose you marks.	Postings to your Design Practice and Design Context blogs demonstrating your ongoing research and methodologies. Clearly tagged mandatory research areas will be used for assessment. An ISSUU document posted to your Design Practice blog . The number of pages will be determined by what you have to say and how you organize it.

Final packaging

These are my packaging designs which i wish to develop further. i chose the brown stock making it look natural and more friendly. in saying this i will choose a higher GSM weight as the one used was to flimsy and not very sturdy. The design is minimalistic and also the logo works well as a repeated pattern. 

The quality of the print out is something i need to look into as the colour isn't as crisp as i hoped. i will experiment with using a lazer printer next time and also experiment with similar stocks to see which works best. 

We presented our packaging examples to a group in the class and they were left to give feedback on what we made. 

the feedback which i received was to look into thinker and higher quality stock and print. i agree the printing standard is low and i don't think the stock i chose prints very clear as it's quite grainy. 

Another comment was that my logo looks like the "BP" logo. To be honest i looked at the bp logo straight after and yes there are vaige similritis but when i asked the group it was the opinion of one and knowone else aggreed and i don't think it's an issue as all.

Stock experiments

Here i looked into stock experiment to look at a different reage of weights colours and materials. I found this useful but the stock i have in mind is brown paper which has a natural feel to it. there was only one weight of this available so i will have to do some more experiments later on in the project when i have more time. 

Packaging designs

Here are a few drawings i produced experimentes with different layouts and arrangements of the packaging. 

Even More logo Deisgns

After this i then started to play around with leaf shapes and came up with this spiral pattern. i put the slit into the leaf to resemble a palm tree. Straight away i felt this was 100% better compared to the tacky spa  logos i was producing, it looks more professional and pleasing to the eye. 

I then played around with colours / tints and positioning. i really like it as the leaves get lighter which adds shape to the pattern rather than it looking flat.

I started to add different fonts and effects to the symbol. i like the ones with the shadow underneath.

More logo Development

I Decided i didn't like the initial idea of using the palm tree below so i went back to an older design of using the top of the tree.  again i feel it looks very much like a tacky health spa so i scraped this idea. 

Colour Development

I now wanted to look into colour for my logo. i decided to look at mainly greens and blues as they are the colours most associated with relaxing and the logo's and products related to it. 

Logo Development

Here i am attempting to develop the logo further but using colour to see which if i could uses tints or gradients in my logo. i will take this experiment further and look into colour more. 

Logo Designs

Here i took my drawn logos and put them into Illustrator and vectored them up.  I chose  my favourite 3 designs to work with and tried a lot of different variations.  

 

Above is my first design i looked at but i found it looked very childish and unlike a mature brand which is what im wanting to achieve.

here i have produced a few variations of some palm trees positioned in a circle which i ment to represent the sun. Again i wasn't happy with the way this has turned out as i feel it looks like a cheap health spa or something similar. 

Finally i developed the logo which was the initial idea which i was asked to develop. i like this better than the first 2 so i spent more time looking at variations and altering it to get it right. i also started to look at gradients and shading.

Logo development

150 logo designs

These are the 150 logos that i produced. i am extremely happy with the work i have done i nether could imagine i could draw out 150 different ideas so quickly. Many have no reference to relaxing but i still took something away from each . 

i found it didn't take me as long as i thought and generated a lot of different ideas quickly.  

the ones surrounded by pink are my favourite few and the ones a grouped looked at to pick one out of. 

Studio task. Logo ideas

Here we were given set time to do a verity of tasks to help us start producing out own logos. we had to do this such as using a different word each time and only using type for one whole page and spend a minute on each one. 

Then we concentrated on our favourite word and produced that in 8 different ways taking inspiration from our previous task. Concentrate on the first letter then draw 8 images relating to our subject.