by admin on August 31, 2010
… and actually get them done by the end of the same week!
Since yesterday was a bank holiday completing your many objectives this week may seem more challenging than normal.
But do you ever wonder how even regular weeks just seems to slip by without quite managing to get everything done? Could there be a way to help ensure that you meet your objectives from Monday to Friday?
Fortunately there are a few handy tips that you can follow to help make your working week a whole lot more productive:
Writing a "To Do" list. It could even include getting a print quote for our company brochure
TIP ONE: Start by actually writing down what you plan to get done this week:
This sounds blindingly obvious I know but holding everything in your head just isn’t going to cut it. Instead grab a pen & paper or use your PC or Smartphone and simply write down a simple list of those work jobs large and small that want to get nailed this very week.
TIP TWO: Prioritise your list:
You know that list you just produced? Go ahead and number it from number ONE to whatever. Where ONE is the highest priority and the largest number the lowest.
TIP THREE: Assign a day to each item on your list:
Sometimes my list will just turn up much longer than expected. So long in fact that there is no realistic chance of me getting all those jobs done in a week – especially a short one like this week. So starting from number ONE on your list go down and mentally work through what’s involved to complete each item. Number ONE might be extraordinarily urgent – phone a supplier about a delivery needed this pm – but in fact pretty fast to complete. While number FOUR on your list might be an entire day’s work on its own.
Now add a day name and am or pm next to each task. So, that phone call at slot number ONE is obviously Tuesday am, whereas that long job at number FOUR actually requires a whole day. I’ll do that on Wednesday.
TIP FOUR: Rationalise your list:
Right, now I’ve got a pretty good idea about what’s going to actually fit in my week; so I also know what won’t. I’m going to draw a line underneath the place in my list beyond which I won’t necessarily be expecting to complete the items below this week.
Now I don’t physically remove the items below that line because they are going to make up the start of my list for next week. Also I might just find that I either speed through some other tasks faster than I could have ever imagined, or some drop out because of external factors beyond my control. In either case I could then start working on next week’s items this week.
TIP FIVE: Just Do it!
I’m a big believer in getting myself organised, but there’s a point beyond which all that organisation – writing lists and prioritising – can start to become more onerous than the actual work that you’re supposed to be completing.
So my final tip is to say “Just Do It”. Get on with working through your new list. Keep it to hand throughout the week by pinning it on your wall or carrying it around on your Smartphone. Whatever makes you happy. But the main thing now is to take action. Oh, and crossing of each item as you go will provide you with a small sense of satisfaction and various points during your day 
Okay, since writing this print.quote blog entry was number THREE on my list this week, I’m about to cross that off and move onto number FOUR.
Have a great week.
Dan.
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Dan Jacobs is Sales Director for Design and Print company PrintHouse Corporation. If one of the tasks on your list is to get a design and print quote this week, then why not get in touch with Dan on 020 8963 0123 or via www.printhouse.co.uk
by Aleksander Lenart on August 26, 2010
With few dozen fonts installed with a popular operating system people are equipped with typography that is ready to be used across variety of mediums. These fonts can be seen everyday in office documents or while browsing the Web. But business is not only about printing spreadsheets and beyond office software a whole universe of Typography exists, ready to be employed.
Over 100,000 and counting
Indeed, much more than a hundred thousand typefaces have been designed so far by skilled type designers! Each and every typeface has its individual characteristics and has been created with different purpose in mind: some for exclusive wedding stationery, other for magazine headlines or general corporate use.
Make your brand stand out with unique typography
One or two for your business
If you look closer at myriad of different brands you will notice they differ not only by their key colour or logo. They also use distinctive typography that reflects their business’ personality and sets them apart from competition. No surprise here as Typography is one of the main components of Graphic Design which helps making brands visible.
Why would you need another typeface if you already have some on your PC? The main reason is that fonts too commonly used may create ‘generic’ look. With more sophisticated and unique typography your project will shine and your clients will consciously or subconsciously know you are one of a kind.
Type PrintHouse
We can suggest perfect typeface for the job, confirm your choices are suitable for print and consult anything typographic. Whatever your design- or print-related needs, we at PrintHouse will happily advise you. Just call 020 8963 0123 or type www.printhouse.co.uk in your browser now!
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Aleksander Lenart is Graphic Designer at PrintHouse Corporation and has a typographic doormat.
by Tom Clark on August 19, 2010
There are no two ways about it – colour management is a complicated area. How do designers and those working in the graphics industry ensure that the results they get are what they are expecting, when they are, variously, viewing designs on screen; as proofs (which can produced in a number of ways); and as final printed product?
To address this, in recent years much of the printing and graphic arts industry has moved to adopt a common standard for colour management, whereby colour accuracy can be measured against an externally published set of criteria. This has the enormous advantage of allowing colours being able to be verified externally – or by both printer and designer – against a known and published standard. In Europe the standard that relates to offset litho printing and which has been adopted most generally is ISO 12647-2:2004. Adoption and implementation of this standard across a workflow should help all parties achieve consistency of digital information, proofs and print throughout a project.
(Interruption: I feel the need to define some organizations that I don’t think I can avoid mentioning. Sorry – can’t see a way round it.
The ISO (International Standards Organisation) publishes standards relating to many things; company procedures, environmental practice and so on. It does not supply or endorse colour profiles, proofing systems, or individual print companies. Instead, organizations in the relevant field work with the ISO to produce data sets such as colour profiles which are incorporated into the ISO standard. In terms of colour management in Europe, this means the ECI (European Colour Initiative), which is a body to which other organizations such as FOGRA (the German Printing Industries Research Organisation) and UGRA (the Swiss equivalent) may belong. These bodies publish datasets (such as profiles) which help industry members (such as printers) achieve the standards to which they contribute. Just to keep things simple, the profiles themselves are often written to ICC (International Colour Consortium) specifications, which is why they are often called ICC profiles. Interruption over.)
Anyways, there are a number of areas where this relates to print. The first and simplest thing a printer can do is to introduce the standard into their proofing. Many designers and colour printers these days tend to work with high performance inkjet proofing devices. As a relatively closed system, it is fairly easy to calibrate these devices to meet the requirements of the standard. This will generally involve including a test strip on proofs, which can be measured, using a spectrophotometer, to assess whether or not the device is producing colour to the required tolerances. For example, if the printer is working towards the part of the ISO standard that deals with litho printing on coated materials – which is the most commonly adopted part of the standard – the proofs will include a media strip based on the FOGRA39 profile, which is included as this part of the ISO standard. Once this strip is measured, and assuming you have the relevant software, it can be assessed against the profile and either passed or failed.
If the proofs pass, and if all parties in this project have adopted the standard as their method of working, you now have something that can be independently assessed anywhere in the world as either conforming or not conforming to the ISO standard. So a designer in Italy, for example, can send digital files to a printer in the UK, and as long as both parties can produce a proof which passes the test, both parties can be confident that they are to all intents and purposes looking at the same thing.
If they are keen to take their commitment to colour accuracy further, the next stage of the process for a printer is to adopt similar measures in their printroom. This means measuring elements of printing such as ink density, trapping, grey balance, dryback, and dot gain, and then adjusting them against the targets of the standard. This process is more complex and time consuming than those involved in proofing, and the fact that there are many more variables in printing than in the closed system of an inkjet proofer – variations in paper whiteness, for example – means that the assessment of printed sheets against the ISO standard involves a larger number of tests, and is not quite the simple “pass/fail” judgment applied to proofs. It is generally accepted that a score of 80% or over against the standard on all criteria is “working to ISO 12647”. To meet and maintain these standards requires the commitment and understanding of everyone involved in the production process.
PrintHouse Corporation has produced proofs to the ISO 12647-2:2004 standard since 2007, and began working to the standard in the pressroom earlier this year.
Tom Clark is Operations Director at PrintHouse Corporation. If you have a job on which about how colour is managed, contact PrintHouse on 020 8963 0123 or email Tom Clark at tom.clark@printhouse.co.uk
