Year: 2014

A key component to creating outstanding work stems from clear communication between you and your supplier.

You’ve spent hours inspecting every detail. Polishing each pixel and picking the perfect colours. The design is complete and the client has signed it off. They’re tickled pink with the work you’ve done so far and now it’s time to turn your design into physical and functional expressions of their brand. There’s a deadline on the horizon and you’re about to release your work into the wild.

So what’s next? Here are five helpful tips to make sure you get a great result.

Do your homework
Find out how your tools interface with the tools of your supplier. Before you send off your work, do your best to gain a reasonable overview of how your supplier gets their work done. By understanding what happens with your PDF after it hits their inbox and before it rolls off the production line, you’ll be better equipped to not only avoid common pitfalls, you’ll also be more able to design in a way that produces results unique to that medium.

Ask questions
The only stupid question is the one left unasked. In a collaborative effort, this goes both ways. Be prepared to ask any and all questions you have about the project, and expect your supplier to fire a few back too. If they aren’t seeking a deeper insight into your work, they are not interested and they are not a collaborator.

Tell them what your expectations are
Clearly specify what you’re after, both in a physical sense (size, shape, colour, texture, quantity, quality) but also in a way that communicates the overall objectives of your brief. A good supplier will respond to all the information you give them.

From there – you should be able to get a reasonably accurate estimate for your project.

Visit your supplier
Shaking hands with the people that produce your work has immense value. Just like working with your client, you need to be able to trust and understand the people that you’re handing your baby (design) to. Bring your client if you can.

You’ll want to make a minimum of one visit, but two is better: before and/or during production. If you can take a look at the production process beforehand, you’ll be able to see the materials in the flesh, and pick up a slew of samples. If you can iron out the kinks before you begin, you might not need to visit during production.

Be prepared with a list of questions and a keen ear.

Keep designing
All the back and forth, questions and discussions over the project will be worth nothing if they aren’t actioned. Make sure you understand the responses to your questions. You may need to redesign your work to fit within the production methods and the production methods may need to be rethought to achieve the design.

Image by Magdalena Ksiezak

About Simon Hipgrave – he’s the co-founder of The Hungry Workshop, a design and letterpress studio in Northcote, Victoria.

Incu is well known for its selective fashion brands and generally cool threads. And their window displays are quite memorable too. We saw this post on their website recently about their recent collaboration with Dear Plastic aka Yumi and Taka, a husband and wife duo who are enviably talented. During September, the men’s QV store in Melbourne featured an installation called ‘Our Cosmos’. Their colourful cosmos was created with hand made POMs and paper crystals. You can check out more about the dynamic duo in their interview with Incu here and via their website www.dearplastic.com. They’ll be featured in Craft Victoria’s pop-up at the Melbourne Town Hall so look out for them there.

There’s no secret that we love dogs (we tried loving cats but it’s just not the same). We came across this awesome story on Mr Porter about five stylish New York men and their stylish pooches, so we couldn’t resist sharing these beautiful photos with you. The main is from the story about Angus McIntosh, a Sydney-sider now living in New York.

The story is by Aussie ex pat Caroline Clements (ex editor of Broadsheet). The photography was by Mr Bjorn Iooss and styling by Mr Mitchell Belk. The photo shoot was probably a lot of fun. We wish we had of been there!

For further details click through to Mr Porter. A very nice website for those with cash to flash.

Calling all printers and designers of Australia, it’s time to celebrate paper and print on a world stage. On 8 October 2014, share in the trans continental love using #IPD14 via any social media platform. If you’re not on the social scene yet, now could be a good time to start! You can share pictures, tips, hints, stories and more. Visit the dedicated Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages and learn more about the day here.

We recently (virtually) caught up with Deb Corn from PrintMediaCentr in the U-S-of-A, the lady behind the idea. If you haven’t discovered PrintMediaCentr yet, take a look. It’s a treasure trove of good stuff about printing. Deb introduced us to the wonderful Stephanie Gaddin from DolphinWorxs who is the local contact and we also spoke to Kellie Northwood from Two Sides Australia/VoPP who had this to say: “The Australian print industry has a lot of great stories to share and learn from. Our industry is an effective and powerful media channel and we can use events such as International Print Day to share knowledge, embrace different thinking and continue to challenge and grow our industry for the future.” We concur and good segueway.

Us: Where did the idea come from?
Deb: Like all great concepts this one evolved over time, had several iterations and input from many dedicated members of the print and integrated marketing community who join in my weekly #printchat on Twitter (we HIGHLY recommend getting involved with this even though it’s a 6am start. It’s a great beginning to the day!). The current format was my suggestion, but without everything that came before it, it wouldn’t have been possible to get here.

Stephanie’s Aussie spin: I was also part of these discussions. The response from printers the world over was instant and loud. I would be very sad to see Australia miss out on the positive drive that this will create in the local industry.

Us: What’s the purpose behind having it?
Deb: To provide a space where the global community can come together and learn from each other, without the barriers of location and time. Using #IPD14 for one day allows people and companies to share their knowledge, products and services under one banner, and people interested in that information to find it ALL in one place! And better still, the purpose (or the hopeful side-effect!) is that #IPD14 will trend on social media and attract the curiosity of those outside of the industry to take a peek at some of the really cool and amazing things we do and can do, connect with us and want to learn more.

Us: Why social media?
Deb: Social media seemed the best channel to deliver content since it has few limitations as far as sharing goes. Social allows participants to use paltforms they’re familiar with, and network and grow their connections where they are, versus where we want them to be. It’s also important to show all the print industry social media nay-sayers (yes, they are still out there!) that there is power in these platforms and they aren’t just used for sharing vacation photos and updates about family pets. With a little effort and relevant content you can literally reach the planet.

Stephanie’s Aussie spin: There is so much to be positive about, it’s not all doom and gloom! We should celebrate that and we should show the world what we’re proud of.

Us: Who can participate? What do you need to participate?
Deb: Everyone can. You just need a social platform and some time. I would imagine that Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, G+ and Pinterest will be the most popular. Twitter in many ways will be the most important to achieve a documented world-wide trend, but #IPD14 used as a tag is searchable throughout the internet and within most of the social networks.

The concept is to attach #IPD14 to any and all information you share through social media related to print and integrated marketing on 8 October 2014. I encourage everyone to also add the tag to any relevant information they see in their streams and send it back out into the socialverse! Think of it as one big global game of TAG! And along those lines, the exponential possibilities are really huge… a post you create and share could be shared hundreds of times, in hundreds of cities across the planet – growing your reach and expanding your community along the way. Seems like a WIN for everyone!

Stephanie’s Aussie spin: Anyone can participate. More than anything else you need a positive attitude to participate so sooks and whingers, we give you permission to stay home for the day!

Us: What is a ‘social hot spot’ and what would be involved in being one?
Deb: In the spirit of community we are encouraging participants to have local meet-ups/tweet-ups, which is just another way of saying open your doors, invite your friends, customers and prospects to join in the fun. We want to help spread the word about those events and we will add them to our website.  Please contact us with your information so we can follow you and your event – and of course turn around and share it with everyone else!

Stephanie’s Aussie spin: We have a hot spot ie a regional social account in Australia @IntPrintdayAus which is followed by a small number of Aussie printers already. If anyone is interesting in being involved, like manning the decks on October 8, all the help we can get is welcomed with open arms. I am all about sharing! Also, DolphinWorxs is hosting an open webinar discussion all about print, your earliest memories of print and anything else that pops up during the chat. No registration necessary as soon as the meeting is scheduled in our webinar software we’ll post the meeting ID up. It’s an open event so please visit the website for more info.

That’s it folks. It’s a no brainer to get behind this one. You have nothing to lose and you can do it from the airport lounge, your bed or desktop. Too easy.