Last Friday I began work on putting together a long overdue new brochure for the biz. For a few years now we have been sending stores a growing collection of product sheets, postcard add ons and desktop printed price lists with order sheets. Very agitating to my aesthetic and professional sensibilities but slick little booklets cost money and we still have lots of the other motley mix so we've put it off. Now that we have some new designs, I set to it with a fresh New Year's goal-busting attitude. I want to streamline. Simplify presentation. Pull it together with a consistency of design. An eight page booklet seemed an easy feat last week but it has waxed into a little hair pulling stress fest. I have decent Photoshop skills but when you are dealing with dozens of images of different dimensions, getting the color right, making sure code numbers are correct, accounting for full bleeds and trim lines, making constant design decisions which may or may not pan out a day later when you bring in another element, well...it can get a bit ugly. Adding to the mix is my shoulder's "stop clicking that mouse" pain nag, general household interruptions and desire to make it look more than just a bunch of stacked rectangles. I am reminded so vividly why I did not stay in the graphic arts field. So, I'm almost done. The brochure is... OK. But, boy, do I appreciate what you pay graphics folks for. I'd almost pay money not to do it. Maybe next time I should.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Brochure Torture
Last Friday I began work on putting together a long overdue new brochure for the biz. For a few years now we have been sending stores a growing collection of product sheets, postcard add ons and desktop printed price lists with order sheets. Very agitating to my aesthetic and professional sensibilities but slick little booklets cost money and we still have lots of the other motley mix so we've put it off. Now that we have some new designs, I set to it with a fresh New Year's goal-busting attitude. I want to streamline. Simplify presentation. Pull it together with a consistency of design. An eight page booklet seemed an easy feat last week but it has waxed into a little hair pulling stress fest. I have decent Photoshop skills but when you are dealing with dozens of images of different dimensions, getting the color right, making sure code numbers are correct, accounting for full bleeds and trim lines, making constant design decisions which may or may not pan out a day later when you bring in another element, well...it can get a bit ugly. Adding to the mix is my shoulder's "stop clicking that mouse" pain nag, general household interruptions and desire to make it look more than just a bunch of stacked rectangles. I am reminded so vividly why I did not stay in the graphic arts field. So, I'm almost done. The brochure is... OK. But, boy, do I appreciate what you pay graphics folks for. I'd almost pay money not to do it. Maybe next time I should.
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2 comments:
You should come over here. I'll click the mouse for you and you can point at the screen and tell me to scootch something a little to the left to see how that looks. I have gigabytes of current software, about 3000 fonts (although it's against the Law to use more than two or three per project) and experience.
Seriously.
You are SO COOL to offer that. Really. Last week I probably would have taken you up on it but now it is all but done. 3000 fonts??!! Wow. Now THAT is tempting. I love fonts and find the standard stuff sooo boring. I want to design my own.
Thanx, Molly :-)
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