A Reintroduction for 2019

It's 2019, a new year and a good time for a reintroduction to the Printed Rambler, here I focus on graphic design, art, and all manner of similar topics. I work for small family printshop and much of the content I post here is related to printing. I'll do my best to post a more regular basis, though work often takes it's toll on my free time.

Those of you who have worked in the printing business understand the somewhat chaotic nature of it, especially for a small one, it's an unpredictable whirlwind. One minute, everything is going smoothly, and the next a machine is down and the phone is ringing off the hook with customers looking for their jobs and giving you new one; but enough of me lamenting about the plight of a printer, like every profession it has it's ups and downs.

Back in 2017 I help start a YouTube channel as the main video editor, we've taken a bit of a hiatus, but we're planning on restarting this year. As amateur editor, i'll be sharing some of my insight into the process, what I found works and what doesn't work, and some of forays into editing that are more me experimenting with it.

Once more, welcome to the Printed Rambler, feel free to comment and enjoy!

Thanks!

The Gateway Printing Co.

508-295-0505

174 Main Street, Ma. 02563

www.gatewayprinting.org

The Irritating World of Color

What is color? It is defined, via Google, as “the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way the object reflects or emits light.” The result of this, is that color is a subjective concept, people will interpret it differently. In the world of digital printing this can be a very trying subject, from the way the printer and the customer interprets a shade blue for example, to the way your computer handles it. Unlike the press, digital printing can be a color nightmare.

A manual I was printing recently, for example, had color covers printed on card stock. When printed for the first time, the shade of blue on the paper was much darker than the actual color on the screen. There could be many reasons for this differentiation, such as the monitor, 4K versus 1080p, the difference between a matte and glossy print, and so on. In this case, it happened to be the difference between RGB and CMYK, and how each of those color processes interpret color.

Our own eyes, however, are the biggest culprit in our frustrations in dealing with color. Our eyes play tricks on us, sometimes the angle we’re looking at the print can distort the color, or simply the way our eyes are built can have an effect. The best solution for that is color books, Illustrator as a ton built in and using the settings, doing a little experimenting, and matching via the physical books is the best solution. As for dealing with customers and how they interpret color, a Tylenol is probably your best bet.

So, what is color? Color is simply how an object reflects or emits light, and we have harnessed that to create spectacular and beautiful brochures, business cards, and photographic prints. But, it’s also subject to interpretation, and until every human eye can perfectly be in synch, then color will continue to be a brilliant and irritating world.

Gateway Printing

174 Main Street

Wareham, Ma 02571

Gatewayprinting@gmail.com

http://gatewayprinting.org/

The Completed Mailer

If you recall a few weeks back I uploaded an image of a logo I recreated, here is the finished layout I sent out for proofing. The layout went through a number iterations before settling on this. The goal was to get the logo integrated with the name. Matching the text to the logo's colors and use of the font "Berthold City Bold", everything seemed to fit together. Whether the customer likes it is another story yet to be told.

Drawing Time

Technology is at the heart of the printing business. It allows the printer to do their job better, faster, and more efficient. We have gone from long and tedious type-setting by hand to computers allowing us to do layouts of business cards in less than an hour, but with all the advancements in technology, what is the best one to use?

Focusing on graphics software, we have a wide verity of programs to chose from. At the top of the list is “Adobe”; they are the standard that everyone goes by. Doing basic layouts takes very little prior knowledge. On the down side, they do tend to be the most expensive option. Even their new subscription service, the “Creative Cloud”, can run up you quite bit of money per month.

There are alternatives such as “Affinity”. Currently, they only have a “Photoshop” and “Illustrator” alternate. If you've used “Adobe”, the tools should be familiar making it easy to get started; and it will cost only around a hundred dollars for the whole set.

Where you want to be careful are the free programs and there are plenty of them. The three I have used for work are “Scribus”, “GIMP”, and “Inkscape” (alternates to “Adobe: InDesign”, “Photoshop”, and “Illustrator” respectively). All three are decent programs. They are useful and give you access to a graphics suite for cheap. However, while cheap, you may spend more of your time trying to learn how some of the basic tools work, rather than working on your project. There may be trouble just getting them to run in the first place, but in some respect, they are meant for the more technically minded.

The right technology can save you time and money. That is the balance we are always trying to find. What is easiest isn't always the cheapest and what is the cheapest doesn't always save money. There are many options out there, for all different levels. It all comes down to how much you are willing to spend, as well as your level of experience, and what you are most comfortable with. That's what matters in the end: what makes you money and saves you time.


The Gateway Printing Co.
174 Main Street, Wareham, MA

http://www.gatewayprinting.org/

“Convenient” doesn’t always mean “convenient”

(Originally posted on my other blog, http://thementalrambler.blogspot.com/ )

We’ve all seen the ads on tv and heard the rhetoric, “support your local business” and “support main street, not wall street”. But what does all this mean for the average person? How is it beneficial to them? Is not not more convenient to go a big box store that has everything you need? Small businesses and local businesses bring opportunities and vibrancy to a community. They support local events and organizations, and in many ways are much more convenient with location and familiarity. But some would argue that the big box stores and online retailers are even more convenient because they have everything in one location, and in the case of online retailer, you don’t even have to leave your chair. But are they really more convenient?

When you go to a big box store, you are likely to meet a different person each time you go in (and in the case of online stores you will meet no one). This doesn’t the people working there are bad, some of them can be quite knowledgeable, but they have so many people that it’s hard to have a relationship with any one person there, when you come back for help, you may get lost in the system. At a small business, however, there is a sense of familiarity, the same people are there each time you visit. You establish a rapport with the people there, they know what you like; the way you like your hair cut or your coffee order.  Here at the print shop we save all your files, so that when you come back to business card after five years, we can can get it done faster and exactly he way you had it before, without having to recreate the wheel. Unless, you really want to.

Ask yourself, is it really worth going through all the hassle of “recreating the wheel” each time to get a job done at a big retailer, just because you think it might be cheaper? Is it not better to have a sense of familiarity rather than having to deal with someone new each time? If you think about it, “convenience” doesn’t always mean “convenient.”

The Gateway Printing Co.
174 Main Street, Wareham, MA

http://www.gatewayprinting.org/

What’s in a name?

(Originally posted on my other blog, http://thementalrambler.blogspot.com/ )

When you open up a new storefront, what do you want prominently displayed? A complex list of what you do? A long history of your business? A lot of people tend to overload spaces, such as business cards and ads; with way more information than is needed. Too much information could overwhelm a potential customer, as the phrase goes, “Keep It Simple Stupid.”
When designing a business card, or any small advertisement for your business, you should look at the space you have, which isn’t much, and allocate to it what is the most important. But what is the most important? Again, simplify; your name and contact information are probably two of the most important items that you can put on a business card. Your Contact information is obvious, how else is your contact supposed to get a hold of you? The name of your business can say a lot about your business and give the customer an idea of what you do. Our name “Gateway Printing” for example, just by looking at the name, you can tell what we do.
Simplicity is a good start, but then comes how you position it on your card or ad. When we read a book, we start at the top of the page and read down and across from left to right. That should be how a business card is set, your most information on the top and everything else below. But you also want to format it in such a way that customers read the most important information first. Your name should be large and bold, again your name can say a lot about what you do. However you don’t want it so big that it overpowers everything else on the page, your contact information should be large enough to see, but not so much that customers know how to contact you and don’t know who you are. Our eyes are always attracted to the largest object on a page.
Business cards, signs, ads, and storefronts all tell who you are and what you do. There is a balance to what you display on these items, as humans, we lose our attention when there is to little to hold it, or too much that it overwhelms us. Simplicity is always the best policy, remember “Keep It Simple Stupid” and customers will be more apt to come see what you have to offer.

The Gateway Printing Co.
174 Main Street, Wareham, MA

http://www.gatewayprinting.org/

Logo Recreated

The image above shows is a comparison of the original versus the one I have redrawn in "Illustrator" using the Pen Tool. Using two layers (the original on the 1st layer, locked), I traced over the original scan of the logo. There are some discrepancies between them, but over all their pretty close. I should use less points with the Pen tool and future attempts.