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Design Checklist

{ July 16, 2008 @ 6:35 pm } · { rant }
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Design Checklist

Things to do before sending a design off to print

 

  1. Check design over for spelling mistakes
  2. Ensure fonts are:
    1. Embedded in file
    2. Converted to outlines
  3. Make sure images are
    1. Embedded in file
    2. Properly linked and being sent with file
  4. Check file dimensions to ensure that they are correct
  5. Save file in format accepted by printer/client/whomever
  6. Check file size, compress if too big
  7. Submit work according to guidelines given
  8. Contact the recipient to ensure everything is ok on their end.
  9. Rejoice in being done of project

 

I’m sure there are other things that I’m forgetting. If I think of a crucial steps, I will add them later.

Step by step guide

{ July 14, 2008 @ 5:05 pm } · { rant }
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Design process, step by step guide.

 

  1. Decide you need to design something.
  2. Find out any limitations this project may have.
    1. Size (if it’s a webpage, make sure it will fit on the screen, if it’s a newspaper ad, find out which size they offer will best suits your needs, etc.)
    2. Colours (if it’s for the web you’ll be able to use full colour, but for printed products the number of colours used is often limited by price.)
  3. Look at similar designs and lots of them. Figure out what works and what doesn’t.
  4. Take out your sketchbook and start thumbnailing some ideas. (This means draw some very small, very messy sketches that represent what the final piece should look like.)
    1. Don’t stop at one idea. Force yourself to draw 30 or 40 thumbnails. They don’t take that long and it forces you to look at the problem from all angles. Even if you end up choosing the first sketch, more than likely you’ll be using some of the elements from your other sketches.
    2. Don’t get caught up in details. A squiggly line to represent text is fine. A blob that looks more like a coffee stain than a person’s profile is fine too. As long as you can go back and remember what it was meant to represent, that’s all that matters, no one else will be looking at these sketches.
  5. Go over your idea and make sure that it suits the product. Keep in mind who your target audience is and what they are most likely to respond to. Research is necessary at this stage.
  6. Take three of your sketches and develop them to the next level. At this stage you want to go full size (yup, that means measuring) and start adding some colour and detail. You can do this stage completely by hand–drawing an object where you plan to have a photo later–or you can go right to the computer and do the comprehensive there. But remember, you are doing three and so you don’t want to spend a ton of time on these. They aren’t meant to be perfect, just give you a better idea of what the finished design will look like.
  7. Now is when you decide if your wonderful idea is really going to work. Be brutally honest. Just cause you spent a lot of time on the design, doesn’t mean it’s going to look good or work. You may have to go back to step 4 or even step 3 to get to the heart of the design. Don’t feel discouraged though, everyone has had to scrap a project and start again before. Trust me, going back now is much easier than going back after it’s been printed and thinking, “Dang that doesn’t work at all.”
  8. If the project is for a client, this is when you show them what you have. They will choose one for you to continue with or tell you to start over.
  9. If you don’t have a client, (or if you are the client) look at your designs and choose which one is going to work the best. This choice is not necessarily your favorite.
  10. You’re head will probably be feeling pretty fuzzy by this point to step away for a bit. Do something else entirely if you can.
  11. Now sit down and do the design.
  12. Go back and check for mistakes (“Sweat the small stuff,” as my instructor used to say)
  13. Get someone else to check for mistakes, preferably someone who’s had no input into the design so far. They are more likely to see problems than someone who has seen the design half a dozen times.
  14. Get approval from the client. It’s quite possible they won’t like the design even if its one they chose from an option of three. People are fickle. Just remember they are paying you (hopefully) and that you need to smile, nod and make their changes. If there is anything you don’t agree with, try to explain to them why their suggestion wont work. But remember, the customer is always right, so don’t be rude about your explanation, and don’t talk down to them.
  15. Take a big breath
  16. Make any last minute changes.
  17. Get final approval
  18. Send to printer/publisher
  19. Pat yourself on the back for all of your hard work.
  20. Move on to your next project.

White space, friend or foe?

{ July 10, 2008 @ 1:44 pm } · { rant }
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A trend I see in a lot of new designers and even more often in clients, is that they don’t understand that less is more. You don’t need to have your entire company’s history, the name and face of every single employee, 15 different colours, and absolutely no white space for people to understand what you do. Say you’re a construction company, do you need to have 10 construction workers, the yellow and black stripes of construction signs, a construction site and every single bit of equipment on the same ad? No, just take one element and make it work..

Heinz Ketchup has this wonderful ad which is at least 50% white space, and it works. You might not get it at first glance, but if the image is interesting enough, almost everyone will spend the extra second to figure it out. On the other hand, an image that’s too busy will be overlooked entirely.

Just remember, just because you have a design out there, doesn’t mean people are going to stop and look. You have to give them a reason to. A trick when examining one of your brilliant designs, step back and say, “if I saw this in a magazine/website/banner/whatever/ and I had no idea who had made it, would I still like it?” Then be brutally honest with yourself. Truth hurts, but that’s the only way you grow. Please, please remember, white space is your friend and doesn’t need to be filled in with pointless images.

BTW, if you’re wondering why I’m not showing examples of bad design, it’s because I don’t want to accuse anyone of doing bad work. This would just cause trouble, and I’m not one for trouble. If I decide that I need to show an example of what I would consider bad design, I will make it myself. Hope that explains.

Oh and sorry about the lack of tutorial today, I will try and do one for tomorrow.

Design Programs and uses

{ July 6, 2008 @ 5:58 pm } · { rant, software }
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What program do you use the most? I’ve been asked this question a lot over the past few years, and I am always somewhat wary on how to answer it. I know a lot of pretty good designers, especially web designers, who do all of their work in Photoshop. At my current job I use a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator for every project. If I had InDesign I would use all three. All three, you might be asking? But why would you need to use all three? Well the answer is simple, each program is designed to do a different thing.

Photoshop is meant for photo manipulation. This means, you should probably open this one first to work on all of your photos and make them look as good as you can before going any further in the project.

Illustrator/Freehand/Corel Draw should be used for any graphics you need. From shapes and symbols to any elaborate vector drawings you may need for the final design. Try not to bring photos into this program as they can slow the program down to a snails pace and will probably not look as good as they do in Photoshop or Indesign. Illustrator also limits you to one page so it’s pretty much useless if you are doing booklets or multi-page designs. Freehand allows multi-pages, but as it is a dying program, it is better to use Indesign for later editing.

Indesign/Quark Express are the page layout programs most commonly used. Most of the places that have been around for a long time will probably still be using Quark, while newer companies and places that have recently updated are more likely to have Indesign. This is where you take all of the stuff you made in the other programs and put it together to make your delicious design. Personally I have never done more with Quark than a basic tutorial and prefer to spend my time learning Indesign as it seems to be where the industry is moving, but I have seen plenty of ads for designers that require that you know how to use this program, so I wouldn’t say that it is dead yet.

What program have I not mentioned? Word! Word processors are not design tools. I don’t care if they have those nifty little templates and can accept photos, if you are ever planning on sending the work to a true designer, or even a printer, do not expect them to be able or willing to touch a .doc (word file). They will almost always rip out their hair, cry a little, than have to recreate the entire design if you send it to them this way, which can be impossible or nearly so. So DON’T USE ANY WORD PROGRAM FOR YOUR DESIGN!!! Seriously! Or I will hunt you down and break your computer.