Who is design for?

This is a matter of opinion, and this is ours: Design is there to serve the end user, not the designer and not (with respect to the purse-holder) the client. There may be one client and one designer, but there can be thousands or even millions of end users, this should be their focus.

Some design studios have a ‘house style’ and every project that they work on will have a similar look and feel regardless of the end user, some clients will have strong ideas of what they like and don’t like, ultimately, none of this matters, what matters is that the thing that is being created attends to the need(s) of the user.

The egos of designer and client must be left at the door. An experienced design studio and an enlightened client will make any potential conflict manageable, difficulty can arise where one party is insistent on a way forward based on something other than user-need; this is where a more experienced studio will be able to really help.

What’s the difference between a rough, a visual and a proof?

A rough is a sketch, with pencil on paper or a computer printout, that is usually of a low specification, used to indicate layout, design, or concept.

A visual is a more refined document, with a higher quality, intended to display the final look of a project. All details should be accurate, with the possible exception of colour, and this document will act as the approval stage for a job before it goes to production.

A proof is a very high quality document, produced in such a way as to emulate the print process as accurately as possible. Sometimes known as a ‘contract proof’ (often branded as Cromalin™ or Matchprint™) it is likely that you will be asked to sign directly onto the proof to indicate your approval of everything, including colour. The printer (the person actually operating the press) will use this document as a guide to gauge the accuracy of the printed material as it comes off the press, so it is extremely important that it is checked thoroughly; the person who signs takes responsibility for the job.

What are CMYK, Pantone and RGB?

CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black: the four ‘process’ colours that commercial printers use to reproduce the illusion of continuous-tone full colour. Using these four coloured inks it is possible to create a wide variety (or ‘gamut’) of colours on paper – known as ‘subtractive’ colour.

However this is a limited process and sometimes it will be unable to accurately reproduce some images. On occasion the work can be be supplemented by two more colours – a green and an orange – to create a six colour proprietary system from Pantone known as Hexachrome™. Green and orange are added as these are difficult colours to reproduce accurately using just the four process colours.

Note: K for black? Why is it not CMYB?
The K in CMYK stands for key, which is derived from the printing term ‘key line’, widely used prior to digital age, when key lines were drawn onto artwork by hand and printers then ordered to fill these spaces with colour or image.

If specific colours are needed in a printed work, it may be appropriate to use ‘spot’ colour rather than the CMYK of ‘process’ colour. The most commonly used spot colour matching system is called Pantone. The Pantone company has established a standard for spot colours and produce a range of swatch materials. The important distinction between CMYK and spot colour is that whereas with CMYK a particular colour is reproduced as near as possible by mixing together dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black, a spot colour is a solid colour, no dots, no mixing, no illusion – as someone once said: it does exactly what it says on the tin! This means that there is a much wider range of colour available to the designer, and that the printer and designer can work from the same reference material, ensuring consistency between artwork and printed job.

RGB stands for red, green and blue, a system of ‘additive’ colour used in TV screens and computer monitors. As with CMYK, the RGB system relies on mixing coloured dots to give the impression of something being full colour. The big difference is that CMYK does it with ink and RGB does it with light. It’s not possible to print with light, so it is not possible for commercial printers to accept artwork with any elements using the RGB colour system.

When on screen, even artwork being made using CMYK is represented using RGB (it’s the way that all monitors work). This means that reds, greens and blues can appear stronger than they will appear in print.

Is design expensive?

This is a case of ‘how long is a piece of string’. Not helpful I know, but there it is. On a job by job basis, a designer can spend as little or as much time as you can afford on a project.

Now, in order to manage this, you as a client must first determine your budget. It may be helpful to get a few quotes from design studios to help you do this, but be sure that each studio is quoting on exactly the same brief, otherwise you’ll be comparing apples with oranges.

Typically, a good design studio will be charging anywhere from fifty pounds per hour upwards. The studio will give an estimate or a fixed cost, based on the time needed to do a job in their experience, so it is important too that you give them as much detail as possible as the start, so there will be no nasty surprises later on.

As with everything, cost is relative. For example: a studio charging £70 per hour could spend 8 hours creating you a marketing leaflet, charging you £560; the cost of printing may only be £100 for a few thousand (depending on spec of course). Now compare this with the costs for a large, multi-paged brochure: the design cost may well run into the thousands, but the print cost could be ten or twenty thousand pounds. It’s worth paying for expertise, as the stakes are high and a badly prepared job could be very costly when it prints badly.

Beware of printers, or some studios, that will offer to design (or artwork!) free. Those who do either do not value design as a tool for developing your business, or are more concerned with making money out of you by printing your job. Print costs do not depend on the quality of design, so be cautious of this approach.

The rule of thumb is to pay as much as you can afford for design from a reputable studio that can offer experience of the kind of thing that you need. Don’t go for the cheap option unless you are prepared to pick up the pieces yourself if things go wrong. Remember that an experienced designer will be able to do a lot more in an hour than you might imagine!