5 Print Marketing Design Mistakes to Avoid
While it may seem easy enough to sit down at your computer and pound out a well-enough design for your Lake of the Ozarks print marketing material, you may not realize all that goes into creating a visually stunning and print worthy product. As a print design company at the Lake of the Ozarks, we've seen our fair share of cringe-worthy print errors come through our door, and have had to educate many people who thought designing their print would be as easy as throwing together a design in Microsoft Office and sending it to the printer. To help you avoid some of the common print errors we see, we're sharing with you 5 print marketing mistakes to avoid when creating your next print design. Take a look:
Mistake #1: Not Leaving Bleed Room in Your Artwork
Bleeds allow you to run artwork to the edge of a page. On a press, the artwork is printed on a large sheet of paper and then trimmed down to size. If you do not allow for a 1/8 of an inch bleed, any misalignment while cutting will result with the artwork not running to the edge of the paper, thus leaving white space at the edge of your print. Bleeds ensure you get the results you need.
Mistake #2: Using Small Text on a Rich Black Background
Using fonts that are too small can cause readers to pass by your print material because it's too difficult to read. Not only that, but it can also cause the text to blur. If you absolutely need small text on a black background, make sure that it doesn’t include large amounts of cyan, magenta and yellow. If you do, the text will print blurred. This will happen because of ink-bleed and possible slight misalignment of printing plates, even if digital print is used.
Mistake #3: Not Creating Your Images in CMYK
Most computer programs have RGB colorspace as the default when designing files because computer monitors use the emittance of light to create colors. Because of this, if a project is created using RGB colorspace, it may not print as expected. The reason why RGB designs printed in CMYK don’t look the same is because the CMYK colorspace does not include all the colors in the color spectrum that RGB includes. While there are ways to convert a file from RGB to CMYK, not all colors may convert, meaning your project may still print with mismatched colors. It's best to start off using CMYK colorspace from the beginning to avoid such issues.
Mistake #4: Designing Without Quiet Borders
If you have a design where your text or images run to the edge of the document, there isn't room for cutting deviations. A quiet border is a sort of “buffer” area, where no text or defined elements (such as logos) should be located. Generally, you should leave about a 5mm quiet border from the edge of the document to allow for cutting. This will prevent your images, texts, and logos from being cut off and will prevent your design from looking uneven.
Mistake #5: Not Hiring a Graphic Designer
There's a LOT that goes into creating a print-approved design. If you're not familiar with the logistics of printing and how each part of your design can affect another part of it, you may be better off delegating the job. Especially if the last 4 mistakes sound like a foreign language to you. Even the smallest errors can cause a lot of print problems, take up much of your precious time, and cost you a ton of money. Save yourself the headache of finding out the hard way that print marketing design isn't as easy as it looks, and hire a Lake of the Ozarks graphic designer to handle this task for you. This will save you time, money, and your sanity!
Mistake #1: Not Leaving Bleed Room in Your Artwork
Bleeds allow you to run artwork to the edge of a page. On a press, the artwork is printed on a large sheet of paper and then trimmed down to size. If you do not allow for a 1/8 of an inch bleed, any misalignment while cutting will result with the artwork not running to the edge of the paper, thus leaving white space at the edge of your print. Bleeds ensure you get the results you need.
Mistake #2: Using Small Text on a Rich Black Background
Using fonts that are too small can cause readers to pass by your print material because it's too difficult to read. Not only that, but it can also cause the text to blur. If you absolutely need small text on a black background, make sure that it doesn’t include large amounts of cyan, magenta and yellow. If you do, the text will print blurred. This will happen because of ink-bleed and possible slight misalignment of printing plates, even if digital print is used.
Mistake #3: Not Creating Your Images in CMYK
Most computer programs have RGB colorspace as the default when designing files because computer monitors use the emittance of light to create colors. Because of this, if a project is created using RGB colorspace, it may not print as expected. The reason why RGB designs printed in CMYK don’t look the same is because the CMYK colorspace does not include all the colors in the color spectrum that RGB includes. While there are ways to convert a file from RGB to CMYK, not all colors may convert, meaning your project may still print with mismatched colors. It's best to start off using CMYK colorspace from the beginning to avoid such issues.
Mistake #4: Designing Without Quiet Borders
If you have a design where your text or images run to the edge of the document, there isn't room for cutting deviations. A quiet border is a sort of “buffer” area, where no text or defined elements (such as logos) should be located. Generally, you should leave about a 5mm quiet border from the edge of the document to allow for cutting. This will prevent your images, texts, and logos from being cut off and will prevent your design from looking uneven.
Mistake #5: Not Hiring a Graphic Designer
There's a LOT that goes into creating a print-approved design. If you're not familiar with the logistics of printing and how each part of your design can affect another part of it, you may be better off delegating the job. Especially if the last 4 mistakes sound like a foreign language to you. Even the smallest errors can cause a lot of print problems, take up much of your precious time, and cost you a ton of money. Save yourself the headache of finding out the hard way that print marketing design isn't as easy as it looks, and hire a Lake of the Ozarks graphic designer to handle this task for you. This will save you time, money, and your sanity!
Lake Printing has been creating print products for businesses locally and nationally, and we specialize in large AND small print orders. Our top of the line presses can handle projects of all sizes, including wide format pieces to large runs. From your small business cards to large banners and signs we can make your print ideas become a reality. Give us a call at 573-346-0600, or submit a print quote request on our website!
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