Digital Asset Management
Jennifer | 3:38 pm | January 21, 2008 | budgets, ads, prepress, process, workflow, planning, plan, General
All of your electronic artwork - support files, final ads, standards manuals, etc…. Are digital assets. It can be difficult to keep your files organised and even more difficult to ensure your suppliers and clients have access to them. There are online sites that make this simpler.
If you need to have offsite backup (that is, you need your files to survive your office burning down) you can use simple storage facilities such as X-drive. If you want a more robust solution that allow not just file management, but full search facilities and the ability to have clients work off your files, there are wide-ranging sites such as Corbis’ Media Management service, which supplies the option of fully automatic file storage, archiving and retrieval.
Guess which service is more expensive.
There are a number of solutions available to you. As always, they’re only worth as much as you’re willing to work with them. It’s still up to you to ensure everything is kept up to date and proper search terms (if applicable) are generated for each shot. If your supplier is going to allow clients to customize art based on templates you’ve uploaded, test those applications over and over. Find the least tech-savvy person you know and have them go through the steps. You need to be sure it’ll work for everyone. Otherwise it’ll end up being an exercise in frustration for you and your clients.
More vocabulary
Jennifer | 10:19 am | January 11, 2008 | prepress, terminology, printing, process, workflow, General
Production works in acronyms, here are some you might come across:
- FSI - Free Standing Insert.
Those annoying flyers you get with your paper are referred to as FSIs. - GSM - Graphic Standards Manual.
This is the visual bible for your brand. Logo and tagline usage guidelines. - PMS - Pantone Matching System.
Pantone colours are specific ink mixes that create a colour standard. - CMYK - Process colour. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.
This is the most common colour printing. These 4 colours are combined to create all the colours you see in printed pieces. - RGB - Digital colour. Your monitor uses it - Red, Green, Blue.
This colour profile is often used for digital and new media work. - PSD - Photoshop file.
PSD files are photographic files created by photoshop. They are commonly used in press-ready file creation. - EPS - Encapsulated postscript, used for images.
EPS files can be vector art or photographic images, they are another common format found in press-ready files.
Other terms and phrases you might hear thrown around include…
Working files. When someone requests working files, they are asking for the files used to generate the graphics. This means fonts, images as separate files that are linked to the page layout file. Working files are necessary if adjustments might need to be made. For example, you would send your printer working files if there was concern that some photos might need to have adjustments made.
PDF/X1-a. PDF files can take many forms, they can be small files meant only to be used on screen, or highly specific files made to run on presses. The PDF-X series are common formats used in printing, and PDF/X1-a is usually the file type requested by most magazines.
I’ll keep posting more as I think of them. After awhile all these terms become a part of everyday language, it gets difficult to remember what isn’t common knowledge!
Outsourcing Ad Production
Jennifer | 10:00 am | January 7, 2008 | suppliers, budgets, workflow
Over the past year, several newspapers have sent their page layout, copyediting, ad production and in a few cases reporting, to Indian outsourcing companies.
It will be interesting to see how having people who live in a different culture handle the design and production of print media considered a crucial voice in a local market. Will they use starbursts? How will they feel about adding snipes? These Indian workers will be fluent in English, but the question remains of their skills with typography in Western lettering.
The question of whether or not design firms and ad agencies could follow in the newspapers lead is there. Certainly creating a brochure can be more complex, but not necessarily. Many Designers could build tight comps and ship those to India to have Production Artists there create press-ready files to match.
Of course, what gets missed in this is the ability for the Designer and Production Artist to work together to solve problems. Typically the Production department inside creative industries has been one of bridging ideas and realistic expectations. Outsourcing could mean that the generic 4c work goes overseas, leaving more complex pieces for Production staffers here to do.
I don’t think this system will be the death of many jobs. Already we’re seeing fewer applicants for Production artist positions as most head over to the area on New Media. It’ll be interesing to see what happens over the next few years - if this works, or if some work comes back to western copy rooms.
Spec’ing the project
Jennifer | 10:07 am | December 18, 2007 | budgets, terminology, process, workflow, plan, planning
When beginning a job, the best defence against cost overruns is to properly spec the job. To create specifications is to define the limits of what you’ll do for the price you charge. All too often I see vague specifications lead to misunderstandings between creative and client. Properly detailing the job will help prevent this.
Specifications on a job should note the following:
- What pieces you’ll do
- What the client will supply
- What rights the client is purchasing
- How large each piece will be (number of pages, size)
- How many versions there will be of each piece (i.e. names on business cards)
- What type of final art will be supplied
- Who is responsible for purchasing fonts, illustrations and photos used in the pieces
- Delivery dates
- Budgets
Keeping to the specification is important when developing a job, especially with a new client. Go with the motto that no detail is too small and this should protect you from a client demanding more than what you expected.
Learning to say “No.”….or at least, “I don’t know.”
Jennifer | 9:46 am | December 13, 2007 | process, suppliers, workflow, plan, planning, General
One of the hardest parts of managing any ad campaign is managing expectations. Unrealistic ideas of how long a job takes are a common reason for jobs going wrong. It is really important to have a realistic view of the length of time needed for a job.
The best defense against broken promises is to not make any before checking in with your team. Don’t make promises on behalf of suppliers or other departments; you don’t know their workload or capabilities. This goes double if you don’t have the technical background needed to truly understand the job.
A good example is in photo retouching. Many assume that this is a quick and simple process, when it’s one of the most time-consuming parts of a job. If you’re working with a large file (ie, outdoor signage) the size of the file ensures that even the simplest changes will take a long time. Complex changes, such as retouching portraits, will take a very long time to ensure that they’re realistic.
Another big area of confusing is finishing. Once a job is printing there can be special folds, die-cuts, foil stamping, etc…. This might be done by a machine or it could be an assembly line, but until you get your timing from your supplier do not assume it’ll be a quick turnaround.
Don’t promise your client a delivery date before you check your timing. Clients would much rather you get back to them with a well thought out plan, rather than quickly agree to their delivery date, only to have to change it on them later. The former gives the impression that you’re putting in thought and effort, the latter looks amateurish and disorganised.
Protect yourself and your client; put in the time to generate a proper, realistic plan.
Project management with Google calendar
Jennifer | 6:22 pm | September 18, 2007 | process, workflow, plan, planning, General
Using Google Calendar is a great way to keep track of projects if you’re just managing a small amount, and need to share information with your team. All you need to do is create an iGoogle account and you can generate calendars to track all of your projects. You invite people to view and comment on calendars, send emails to remind them of deadlines and you can access it from any computer with internet access. Multiple calendars can be created, and you control who sees which calendars. It’s a good free planning tool for anyone working on a team! To see it in action, go to Google and look at the calendars that people have made public.
Some vocabulary.
Jennifer | 10:34 pm | September 17, 2007 | terminology, workflow, General
Production has it’s own language (and it’s not all swearwords). Here are some common terms that you might hear someone in production say…
pubset - the newspaper will make the final change. Usually when a change comes in too late for the agency to make and ship to the publication, the newspaper does it. Sometimes the pubset isn’t noticeable, sometimes it ruins the design. You take your chances.
snipe - we don’t hunt them. These are usually those diagonal messages you see on ads and billboards saying things like “Hurry! Offer ends soon!” or “Only 3 days left!”. Designers hate them (not that you should care, I’m just saying).
camera-ready - a hold over from the olden days. Used to mean the publication would take your paper ad, place it on their layout, take a picture of the whole page and print. Now it means you send files to them exactly as per their specifications, so they can just drop it into their computer page layout software.
mechanicals - file specifications from the publication. Types of files, image resolutions, file sizes, ad sizes, all the stuff the person responsible for sending the file needs to know.
bleed - art that isn’t supposed to be seen. Many magazines run on shaky web presses (more on press types later). So they aren’t trimmed exactly. Bleed is the artwork that extends beyond where the page should get cut. That way if the press doesn’t cut right where it should, you don’t get a white border on the page.
live/safety - artwork area where all the important information goes. As with bleed, your live area relates to trimming. This time, it’s the space within the trim that the press, no matter how shaky, won’t cut away. All the important information in your ad needs to be kept in your live area.
Newspaper & Magazine advertising - spending the big bucks
Jennifer | 10:23 pm | | magazine, ads, prepress, newspaper, budgets, money, workflow, planning
Yes, running ads in print media is expensive. Your media rep will tell you that repetition is the key in print advertising and that adds up fast. So how do you find the money for producing the ad?
As always, a little preparation goes a long way. There is nothing more expensive than last minute ad creation. You’ll end up with lousy creative, which wastes all those advertising dollars. If you know you’ll be running in magazines and newspapers, you should be planning your media and production months in advance (for newsprint, get going on the production 4-6 weeks ahead of the first ad insertion).
One of the best ways to save money on the production end is by purchasing ads of similar sizes across your publications. Not only does this help solidify your brand look, it means less ad sizes need to be designed and produced. This can save you a lot of money.
Another money saver relates to ad sizes. If you get ad sizes that are similar you can “float” the ad. If your first ad size is 5″ x 7″ and your next size is 4.75″ x 6.5″, you simply build the smaller size ad, and let the ad “float” in the larger area. This is commonly done in newspaper advertising, where no bleeds are involved.
If you have an image you want to use in your ads, make sure you plan how and where you will use it, then send mechanicals for all publications along with the image to your service bureau or designer. This way any scanning is done once and the prepress supplier can build multiple files all at once, bringing down your prepress costs.
Suppliers: good relationships make for great work.
Jennifer | 10:11 pm | | printers, printing, budgets, workflow, money, planning
The best way to make sure your job goes according to plan is to pick the right suppliers - people who will work with you to ensure a good product. There are several ways to make sure you get a good supplier:
* Check with other businesses that have had good printing done. Ask them who the printer was on a piece you liked and for the salesperson’s name as well. A good printer rep is the best insurance against a bad job.
* Check all references provided by the printer. Remember to ask questions about what is was like to work with the printer both during and after the piece was printed, not just about the quality or price of the job.
One supplier does not fit all
Suppliers specialize not only in the types of printing they do (offset, screenprinting, etc.), but also in the markets they seek out. Some printers specialize in large pieces like annual reports and high-end art printing. Others concentrate on business cards and stationery packages. If you use a printer who isn’t suited to the type of job you need done, you could pay more.
When you are getting references and meeting with suppliers, make sure to get their equipment lists and ask what they specialize in. Good reps will let you know where they fit in the local market.
Press size and colour determine your ideal printer. If you are doing 30,000 annual reports that are 4 colours throughout, a big press is a good choice. If you are doing 5,000 postcards, a smaller, cheaper press will do the job.
Dealing with suppliers
Once you have a good list of suppliers for your projects, you need to start working on good relationships with the salespeople assigned to you. A good client-supplier relationship will save you money and time.
At the start of the bidding on a job, let suppliers know that they are in a competitive bid situation. Most suppliers know where they stand price-wise and knowing they’re in competition will get them to sharpen their pencils. Don’t send one printer’s quote to another printer and tell them to try to beat the price, they’ll just take $50 off the price and it prevents you from getting honest prices.
One red flag to look for when working with a new supplier is the low-ball quote. These quotes are designed as loss leaders and usually have the objective of getting you in the door. Remember these printers have to make their money somewhere. You will find that the low price you get once is never seen again. Even worse, you could find yourself watching charges rack up once they have the job, due to changes that weren’t specified in the final price. If you think you have a low-ball quote, talk to the supplier a bit more. Sometimes they’re trying to get rid of an overstock of paper or their presses are quiet - the low quote may be genuine.
Timing: planning is key.
Jennifer | 9:49 pm | | process, workflow, money, plan, planning
Campaigns can get complex. But it’s easy to keep track of it all if you can follow the general flow of the job.
Reverse Engineering: plan back from your deadline
The best way to get a campaign out the door is to begin planning as soon as you can. This is a very simple breakdown of the stages of the job:
* Scope and budget for the project is laid out. Date needed is also set.
* A creative brief is sent to the creative and production teams to start work. {This brief is used by production to negotiate with suppliers and set creative limits.}
* Suppliers are contacted about everything from design to printing.
* Creative is completed and job is made ready for the printer.
It gets a lot more detailed than what I’ve laid out, but that should give you a rough idea.
The best way to make sure you have a realistic deadline is to look at your deadline and work backwards. A great way to do this is to create what is known as a Workback or Critical Path This workback should be given to all team members. This is their opportunity to let you know if they don’t feel they can stick to the workback deadlines.
A workback is a handy tool for discovering where bottlenecks might occur. If you are working on a group of collateral pieces for a trade show, you may discover that the designer would need to supply 6 designs in 2 days. That probably won’t happen, so now is the time to move things around.
A workback also has the advantage of giving you an opportunity to buy yourself time before the job begins. For example, your printer has told you he needs 4 working days to complete the job. You allow 5 days on your workback. This now means that should something go wrong (and it often does) you have given yourself some time to fix it.
Managing the Job
With or without a workback, you’ll still find plenty of people miss their deadlines. The best way to avoid big problems is to ensure that small delays don’t start backing things up. Watch the amount of time that is getting eaten up and put a stop to delays and missed deadlines before you run out of time.
If you think you are getting into trouble, you need to flag it to everyone involved and either get it back on track right away, or begin to discuss new delivery dates. Sometimes telling people the job will deliver late is a good way to get them to pay attention.