Print Production

Throw it over the wall, and let us worry about the details.

Production for design has two sides: page layout/file construction and final file prep for press. We can execute pieces following an established style, such as the many versions often needed of informational brochures or ads. Because we are also designers, we are adept at maintaining the original look and feel within a series of pieces. We also produce books, catalogs and magazines, we excel at long-document formatting, and are expert with using the indexing, table of contents and cross-referencing functions. We take advantage of productivity techniques to create correctly and cleanly structured pages quickly. We can also re-purpose your publications to electronic versions including interactive PDF which have click-able links to referenced pages and web sites, and can also include embedded video.

Final file prep for press includes going over every element of a file to check that it will print correctly and making all necessary changes, rebuilding elements if needed. We take pride in constructing files that will not require costly intervention in the print production process. This lowers your overall cost and decreases the production time frame. We are specialists at creating press-ready native or PDF files in either CMYK, Spot Color, or Black & White.

Recent projects include:

We updated a 36 page, table-heavy brochure with almost entirely new content keeping the same style. We started with an 8-year-old Quark 4 file and converted it to InDesign, including converting static tabbed text with manually positioned rules and shaded boxes to InDesign tables that flow from page to page with rules and shaded boxes in place. This made the production much less time consuming and much quicker to incorporate changes to the table content.

A 24x36 poster was created in Photoshop with large gradients that looked great on screen but printed with very pronounced banding on press. We re-created that art in the program that produced perfect gradients on press.

We designed a 2-sided flyer that needed to be produced in many versions in a way that enables the client to update the content themselves. We set up the templates with type styles that their staff could use without the need to become experts with design software. They go through an internal revision cycle with the copy in position, then send the flyer back to us to make sure everything is correct for printing. This is a more efficient and cost effective workflow for our client.

A client's internal designer created a new look and feel for their quarterly publication, but needed someone else to actually produce each issue. We took it from there. We work with their editorial staff to place the new stories and photos for each issue, using the style guidelines provided by their designer, preparing the final files for delivery to their printer of choice.

A manufacturer created a new design for their product labels and needed someone to apply that new design to 16 different products. We converted the design to the software standard for labels and die cutting, and provided the client with several rounds of revisions while the new design was refined.

A research firm needed a format for technical reports. They provided the raw data and we produced a set of 28 reports that lay out the research clearly and consistently, with a professional presentation far above the word-processing and pie-charts look of many such reports.

A university needed their 500+ page course catalog produced ASAP after realizing their internal staff was too overburdened to do it in-house. We picked up the ball, starting from their Word files, following their established style format, and got it done on time.