{"id":1662,"date":"2012-03-14T10:45:16","date_gmt":"2012-03-14T10:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/?p=1662"},"modified":"2019-04-19T09:59:50","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T09:59:50","slug":"how-to-turn-your-printing-project-into-a-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/kpblog\/how-to-turn-your-printing-project-into-a-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"How to turn your printing project into a disaster!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following article was published in 2011 by Trish Witkowski, of foldfactory.com. Although written from the point of view of incorporating folding concepts in direct-mail campaigns, it contains some sound, solid advice about undertaking any printing project. The article was drawn to my attention by John MacLulich of Pure Colours Digital Printing<\/a>, with whom we partner very closely.<\/em><\/p>\n

Forewarned is forearmed. Once you\u2019ve gone through this list of strategic errors, you\u2019ll know what not to do when working on print projects with folds.<\/p>\n

Make the following mistakes and you\u2019ll cost yourself time, money, maybe even a client. Here\u2019s the good news: The errors are easy to avoid.<\/p>\n

Have you ever designed a gatefold and been terribly disappointed when you got the finished product back because the gap between the fold-in panels was huge? If what comes back is a surprise, it\u2019s usually because you gave up control. Maybe you didn\u2019t shorten your fold-in panels in the digital document and you casually asked the printer to trim them for you, or you didn\u2019t communicate how important a tight gap was; the point is, you let someone else decide for you, and it was a disappointment.<\/p>\n

Cost:<\/strong>\u00a0the respect of your printer and a quality portfolio piece.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned:<\/strong>\u00a0take control of your projects. Set up your file correctly or have a discussion with your printer, rather than leaving important decisions up to interpretation.<\/p>\n

You were pretty sure that, after feeling the page of a paper swatchbook, you had found the right sheet for your project. When the finished product delivered, it was floppy and lacked presence. Everyone in the office commented on how nice the design was but questioned the paper choice.<\/p>\n

Cost:<\/strong>\u00a0a frustrated client or boss, and the value of a first impression.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned:<\/strong>\u00a0Folding and paper go hand in hand. Choose the wrong stock and a great folded piece can look cheap and flimsy, or distractingly bulky and heavy. Don\u2019t take a guess at an important decision. Ask your printer or paper representative for a folding dummy in the weights you\u2019re considering.<\/p>\n

You had a special project, maybe a cool specialty fold with a custom envelope, and you sent it to your neighborhood printer, who ultimately had to outsource part of the production, or who had to do the finishing work by hand. Since your quantity was large, the per-piece cost ended up being very high. The end result was nice, but you feel like you paid too much.<\/p>\n

Cost:<\/strong>\u00a0extra money, potential reduction in quality and efficiency.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned:<\/strong>\u00a0For certain projects, it can pay to search for a specialty printer or bindery. \u201cExtreme\u201d printers and binderies love a challenge and may have additional resources, production tricks, technologies, techniques, and design services that can take your project to the next level. They also might be able to automate a process that would have been hand-folded in most mainstream print shops. I don\u2019t recommend shopping around every project\u2014I believe in loyalty and relationship-building\u2014but it\u2019s nice to know where you can go when you need specialized services.<\/p>\n

Trying a new or specialty fold can be intimidating. Maybe it didn\u2019t seem worth the effort, or maybe you didn\u2019t have the time to figure it out, or maybe you thought you\u2019d mess it up. But you talked yourself out of it and went back to your comfort zone.<\/p>\n

Cost:<\/strong>\u00a0a delighted client, a great portfolio piece, and a valuable learning experience.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned:<\/strong>\u00a0Next time, challenge yourself to take on something new. If you don\u2019t know where to start, ask your printer for help with file setup.<\/p>\n

At the start of a project, it always seems like there\u2019ll be enough time later to deal with the details of exact fold placement and format. It\u2019s much more fun to dive into the concept work instead. But time always gets tight at the end, and suddenly the printer is waiting for the file and you\u2019re scrambling to measure and make adjustments and critical details are overlooked.<\/p>\n

Cost:<\/strong>\u00a0stress, plus the expense of production edits or revised proofs.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned:<\/strong>\u00a0Next time, think finishing at the beginning. Take the time to nail the production details first so you can relax and focus the rest of the time on design.<\/p>\n

You had an idea for a cool die cut on the front cover of your brochure, but you figured you didn\u2019t have the money because you were already pushing the budget with scoring. What you didn\u2019t realize was that your printer could have scored and cut in the same letterpress die, or that they were using an economical rotary score on the folder and you actually could have afforded your die-cut.<\/p>\n

Cost:<\/strong>\u00a0missed opportunities.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned:<\/strong>\u00a0It never hurts to ask. Maybe you have a project coming up and you want to do something unique on a tight budget. Ask your printer if they have any interesting dies in storage that you could look through. You might be able to cut the cost of making the die by finding a used one.<\/p>\n

Your printer suggested scoring and you gambled to save a few bucks. The result was a poor-quality product.<\/p>\n

Cost:<\/strong>\u00a0regret.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned:<\/strong>\u00a0We score for many reasons\u2014for 170gsm text weight and above, for folds against the grain, for folds through areas of heavy ink coverage, for critical fold placement, and for jobs that require hand folding. Next time, listen to your printer. If they\u2019re recommending scoring, it\u2019s for a reason. There are many economical ways to score these days, so ask your printer to explain your options.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t seem to matter what size the folded self-mailer was as long as it was within min\/max Letter Mail sizing constraints. The surprise was when you were told that the piece missed aspect ratio by 5mm and would require an extra 20\u00a2 per piece surcharge for nonmachinability.<\/p>\n

Cost:<\/strong>\u00a0unnecessarily high postal costs, paper waste, poor aesthetics, or even (gasp!) a reprint.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned:<\/strong>\u00a0The size of a printed project can make the difference between paying steep postal surcharges for direct mail, getting an extra piece up on a sheet, or fitting a standard envelope or holder. Depending upon what you\u2019re doing with the piece\u2014mailing it, putting it into a literature rack, or an envelope\u2014the size is an important decision. When in doubt, ask a project manager, postal representative, or printer for help in choosing the right format for your project.<\/p>\n

Printer\u2019s proofs are always hand-folded. Often designers look at the proof and assume the printer knows that the color break is supposed to be exactly at the fold, or that when the \u201creal\u201d job prints, the fold-in panels will trim tighter. They make an assumption and sign off on the proof. Then inevitably there\u2019s confusion and disappointment when the job delivers.<\/p>\n

Cost:<\/strong>\u00a0an imperfect product, a frustrated client.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned:<\/strong>\u00a0Always take the proof for exactly what it is, note any issues for the printer, and be very clear about folding intent.<\/p>\n

This mistake is number one because it\u2019s so common and unnecessary. Sometimes you have a great idea and you work on it and sell it to your team and your client, and you wait to talk it through with your printer until it\u2019s time to think about printing the piece. What\u2019s the big deal about a 10-panel accordion, right? It\u2019s just an accordion fold\u2014nothing fancy. What you didn\u2019t realize was that an accordion with more than 6 parallel folds will likely require hand folding to finish. That, and the fact that you have to jump to a larger press sheet, will bust your budget. Nobody wants to crawl back to the client to ask for more money, or to tell them that the solution they love is out of reach.<\/p>\n

Cost:<\/strong>\u00a0angry client, disappointment, time spent on an alternative solution.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned:<\/strong>\u00a0Talk to your printer early and often. In many cases, they can help you get whet you want, and offer production tips to improve the quality of the product. Think of the printer as an extension of your team\u2014that\u2019s the best money-saving tip I can offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following article was published in 2011 by Trish Witkowski, of foldfactory.com. Although written from the point of view of incorporating folding concepts in direct-mail campaigns, it contains some sound, solid advice about undertaking any printing project. The article was drawn to my attention by John MacLulich of Pure Colours Digital Printing, with whom we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,3,4,5,6,7,9,16,11,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-book-printing","category-booklet-printing","category-calendar-printing","category-digital-printing-services","category-flyer-printing","category-greeting-card-printing","category-postcard-printing","category-poster-printing","category-printing-company","category-printing-services","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/kpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/kpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/kpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/kpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/kpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1662"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/kpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1669,"href":"https:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/kpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662\/revisions\/1669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/kpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/kpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kainosprint.com.au\/kpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}