Good Design - the benefits of “white space”

Space can be used to make sound design, whether your making a website or magazine layout. Wider spaces separate elements from each other and narrower spaces connect elements to reveal relationships between them.

By controlling and shaping space in our designs, we create rhythm, direction, and motion and purpose. We create design flow through our use of space.

Whitespace does many things in design from;

1. Creates groupings of elements
2. Creates emphasis and order
3. Improves legibility

Consistent use of white space across pages connects those pages. Space is layout. Like when your logo is in the same spot on every page.

You can also show difference and balance. Use of negative space is a sign of a good designer. Look at any design that strikes you as amateur. I can almost guarantee little thought will have been given to the space within the design. Lots of blocky text, big solids, sick colours, etc. See my pic below:

bad design

If you arrange white space well your elements fall into place and look great, but if you only arrange the positive elements, your white space will most always be ineffective.

Whitespace gives a place for the eye to rest, which it needs in order to absorb the message you’re trying to communicate. It’s a visual cue that there’s a break in the content or that the content is finished. Whitespace makes your page and site easier to navigate. Please see below:

This is Mark, signing out. Just remember next time you start layout out a magazine spread, think of “whitespace”.

Composition and functionality are key to good design especially when going by a brand guideline.

Mark Jope is a Graphic Designer at London based printer PrintHouse Corporation.

If there is a query in regarding design and print please contact me here.

… 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.

—

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

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!

_____

Aleksander Lenart is Graphic Designer at PrintHouse Corporation and has a typographic doormat.

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

Annual reports may be a legal requirement for some companies but they are also a fantastic way to impress the shareholders too. A beautifully designed and printed annual report not only enhances a company’s brand but is an excellent means of advertising its accomplishments and future goals.

Here at printhouse, we produce a number of annual reports each year. From the design, through to the printing and finishing, we understand the pressure of a deadline; and annual reports tend to be one of the most demanding of jobs when it comes to timescales. Thankfully, our experience means that we are more than able to cope. Our design studio and reprographics department are available to make those last minute but absolutely crucial changes that are so often needed in documents of this kind. We also have two B1 presses that run all day and into the night. That means your deadline is always safe in our hands.

British Mining Annual Report recently printed by Printhouse Corporation

We like to think of ourselves as one of the best London printers for fast turnaround and yet with such tight deadlines, we still manage to consistently produce quality printed publications. Our repeat client base confirms this and we see the same jobs placed with us year after year. Needless to say, the design and print process gets easier too,  the better we get to know our clients and how they work. Our testimonials speak for themselves.

A common question we are asked is whether we are FSC approved, for environmentally friendly printing. The answer is yes! Currently, we are part of a very small group of around 5% of FSC approved printers in the country.  That makes us feel good. We want our clients and their shareholders to know that we care about their concerns for the environment and we believe in making a difference as a company too.

Not only do we design and print annual reports, but we can also produce for you a full range of marketing media to complement your publication. Whether this be corporate folders, business cards, letterheads, compliment slips and all types of stationery through to packaging for your anuual report such as a wallet or folder to present your newly printed annual report in. We can also handle all of your packaging, mailing and despatch requirements and can deliver to all of the addresses on your database buy a given deadline should you need us to take care of that too. Basically, whatever your needs are, we are pretty confident we can meet them.

So, think you are ready to talk through your design and print requirements? That’s one of the great things about Printhouse. We are here to give you the best impartial advice on the paper, printing and finishing methods which are completely tailor made and just right for you. It’s a completely personalised service to meet your own criteria. Just contact us for an quote or just call 020 8963 0128 to talk through your ideas.

Now, you’re expecting me to say that if you want to get more achieved during your working day then get up an hour earlier and maybe get to your desk in time to pack in one more hour of work.

Well you’d be wrong!

In fact my view is that this is almost completely counter-productive if you skimp on sleep all the time. Let me explain…

Get more done by adding to your sleep, rather than skimping on it!

When you’re tired, have you ever noticed that there are a lot more stupid people around? They’re everywhere. On the roads and trains as you travel to work. And once you get to your desk you meet dumb folk all over the building. Making your life a misery.

In fact the basic truth is that all of us have shorter fuses when we’re tired. So cutting out yet more sleep and consistently arriving at your desk an hour earlier might not only fail to improve your workflow – it could also contribute to your achieving less, rather than more, in your working day.

Now a better solution could be to add an extra hour to your night time sleep. And whilst at first sight this idea would seem to give you LESS time to work or play, in reality as you’ll be functioning much better, it will make you a good deal MORE productive. Your decisions will be more focused. Your people management skills much better.

And best of all, all those stupid people who sometimes surround you will have just seemed to have disappeared. Funny that.

Dan Jacobs

—

Dan is Sales Director and chief philosopher at PrintHouse Corporation. What he doesn’t know about producing good business printing he makes up for with his pearls of wisdom around the office. Give him a call today about your next Design or Print job on 020 8963 0123. Or just to chew the fat about why tiredness makes you less productive and tolerant.

Turns out that a lot of people head off on holiday in August. Yeah, I know you’re already familiar with that trend.

However it’s also true to say that not everyone does.

Not every printing company is on holiday

Some people prefer to miss the holiday rush or if you don’t have school aged kids then perhaps you’ve figured you don’t need to spent two weeks crammed into a hotel with a bunch of other people’s children around the pool.

Or maybe, in keeping with the age of austerity you’ve decided to stay local this summer.

Anyway, back to the printing point and August turns out to be a great time to get that design or print project that you’ve been meaning to start under-way.

At PrintHouse Corporation we don’t pack up shop for the summer, meaning that you’ll still find us here and ready to help by providing a design or print quote for your latest leaflet, brochure, company folder or whatever it is that you’ve been meaning to get printed.

So if, like us, you’re still around this summer then get in touch on 020 8963 0123 or by clicking here and we’ll be delighted to help you get your printing done.

Dan Jacobs
(okay, I am taking a short break at some point, but you’ll always find Andy or Rupesh here to help too).

Exporting an Indesign Document to HTML via Flash

This article will show you how to export an indesign document to flash and open as an html web page with interactive buttons.

Indesign Web page

First you create a web page in Indesign CS4 or later. Make sure that you split each web page onto different pages within indesign.

converting indesign text box to an interactive button

Then simply right click on a piece of text and go to “interactive/convert to button”. You will be prompted with a dialog box.

rollover button

Name it “My work (in this case)”, make “Event”, “on click”, add an action, “go to page (SWF only)”. Then put the page number in you want this button to link to in your Indesign doc. For each button you can create a rollover option,  by changing the text colour for rollover by double-clicking on the state appearance below.

next page

Once you have gone through all buttons within your Indesign document you are now ready to export to html, via flash.

export to swf

export to swf 2

Go to file menu/export, then in dialog box “save type as – swf”. Make sure you name your swf file as “index”, also save locally to your C: drive.

The next dialog box you get, make sure ticks on on the following boxes: Scale:100%, Pages: All, Generate html,  Text: Indesign text to flash,  Include Buttons, Include Hyperlinks, Include Page transitions, Image compression: Auto, JPEG Quality: Maximum, Curve Quality: Maximum.

Thats it, when you ready simply drag your index.html file over into a web browser (preferably Safari or Firefox) and check it out. Of course the finish file may have compatibility problems with certain browsers and you may have to tweek in Flash, but I’m sure you’ll agree its very useful if you are used to indesign and you dont have time for any programming or scripting.

Mark Jope is a Graphic Designer at London based printer PrintHouse Corporation.

If there is a query in regarding design and print please contact me here.

When I was first contacted by David Tregunna from IAP Fine Art in early January 2010 I was genuinely excited about the prospect of working on the project outlined, this being a book on the life and work of renowned British artist Chris Gollon.

The book is written by leading art historian Tamsin Pickeral, published by Hyde & Hughes Publishing and to ensure the quality reproduction of the 180 paintings, Chris Gollon and David Tregunna were allowed by the publisher to choose and liaise with the printer for the book, in which they chose PrintHouse Corporation.

On sight of the specifications I knew that this was a perfect project for the team and set up here at PrintHouse Corporation.  From the proofing process we use, ISO colour standard using FOGRA certified paper which simulates litho coated materials (perfect for when replicating works of art and the colour consistency required for such an item,) to high grade papers and printing one of the latest Heidelberg B1 presses on the market.

After meeting with David and Chris to discuss aspects of the book and to confirm that we were the book printer they were after, the next stage involved was to get some dummies made up in various stock weights to get a feel of the final product.

Having a dummy helps with getting exact measurements for the design and layout; for example having an exact spine width for the cover design.

After seeing the dummies it was confirmed that the book would be printed using a 170gsm triple coated silk stock for the inner pages with a cover weight of 350gsm in the same range.  This particular silk stock is extremely smooth so has excellent reproduction abilities and as it is FSC we were able to print the FSC logo due to the fact that Printhouse Corporation is indeed a FSC printer.  Special finishes to the cover are a gloss lamination to the outer with front and back throw outs that finish flush with the text pages.

It is important for such a book to fit within a certain ilk and after comparing various binding options it was decided that a thread sewn finish would be best. As a professional London printer, having had these details confirmed, I knew that this book would look absolutely amazing once completed.

Our next step was to run a set of scatter proofs of the images to be used in the book so David and Chris would get an idea of how they would reproduce once printed.  Producing scatter proofs also reduces delays at the final proofing process when a tight deadline has to be met.

With artwork being supplied in InDesign and all images now approved to be used in the final file, a full set of imposition proofs were run for approval and to use in colour matching when the book went to press.

One thing that I welcome with my clients especially for such a project where colour accuracy is extremely important, is to pass on press for final approval of the actual printed product.  Being a London based book printer means we are easily accessible if a pass on press is required.

The team at Printhouse Corporation, from repro to press are easily approachable and are able to offer advice and answers to any queries that you may have on the more detailed aspects of print.

So once all queries have been answered, book sections are passed on press and approved with words like ‘spot on’ (music to our ears) it is then prepared for finishing.  Having now seen the completed book my earlier thoughts have been confirmed and the book looks brilliant, a professionally printed and finished item that is definitely to the standard for selling on Amazon and most importantly Chris and David are also extremely happy with the end result which makes everything worth while.

Amber Bantatua is a Senior Sales Executive at London based printer PrintHouse Corporation. If there is a query in regards to a print estimate or receiving a quote contact us here.

“Decorative finishes”, just like when sprucing up your house, plating a meal or simply decorating your Xmas tree, are the small elements that can make the difference between something simply “doing the job” or something really standing out from the crowd.  Spend £100k on a home extension…..well won’t look like it if you don’t pay a professional decorator the final £5k to skim your walls, tile your floors or paint your walls and think you can do it yourself (and I sadly speak from experience!).

Same goes with your next Marketing Brochure.  Whilst a printed and nicely bound A4 document will be perfectly functional and will impart all the information you mean to get across, ask yourself the question; what will make my brochure more memorable than that of my competitors?  There are a number of simple but highly effective “print finishes”, usually applied to just the outer covers, that will do just that for you; none of which cost the earth.  And each one will provide a look or a feel that will set your’s apart.

• Lamination: A plastic coating that will not simply help protect the cover of your brochure but also gives it a silky feel
• Spot UV Varnish: Allows certain areas to be picked out in high gloss, usually done in conjunction with a matt lamination for increased contrast.  When cleverly used transforms the look of any item and makes it look “expensive”.
• Foil Block: have your logo, key wording or decorative pattern in a foil.  And not just gold or silver, there are several high impact colours out there.  Stunning.
• Embossing: Much like the foil block, have your logo or the like pushed through the back so it sits proud.
• Die cutting: Have a corner, a hole or a shape cut into the front cover to reveal something on page one.  Simple but effective.

In short all the above, based on 1000 units, will cost between £100 and £250 with run ons pretty low in all cases.  This small additional cost really will though make all the difference and can be the deciding factor in ensuring it is your brochure, and therefore your company, that your clients and prospects remember.

To get a price for your next brochure or discuss any of these processes, call us on 020 8963 0123, or email me at dan.jacobs@printhouse.co.uk