Any design student that has ever taken a class on Print Production has most likely tackled projects that requires a creative solution for a very tight budget. What’s amazing is how quickly we forget those lessons once we start working for a company with vast resources or for clients who have very deep pockets. I’ve been guilty on many occasions for being so forgetful. We all need to be reminded every once and awhile that there are creative ways to produce fantastic designs with just one type of paper and only one ink color. The true test of any designer’s ability is when they have very little to work with and can still create something visually stunning.

Here are some thoughts to ponder that may help you think of ways to produce good design on a budget:

1. Know your materials and outputting options. For example, if you’re going to use a color copier to output a brochure on the cheap–make sure you test the design on the printer and check to see that the colors look good on the stock you’ve chosen. Do not just go by what you see on your gorgeous computer display.

2. Photography doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. There are plenty of great stock photography venues online that have professional looking pictures at a very low cost. For some ideas, see Nomi Altabef’s recent post about iStockPhoto.com: http://www.notesondesign.net/?p=253.

3. This particular point in time has never been better time to get something printed. If your budget doesn’t allow for the print vendor down the street, there are some online overnight printing vendors that will give you a high-end, press quality look. Just like with anything, research the limitations of those vendors and work your design to compensate for them.

4. Sometimes it is more cost effective to offset print 1, 2 or 3 colors rather than 4. Let’s say the budget only affords you 2 colors, you can mix those inks to make a third. Similarly, you can use various halftones of the 2 colors to create the illusion of a 3rd color.

5. Utilizing a colored stock can save money as well and add some impact to the overall design. Any space on the paper where the ink is not printed, the color of the paper shows through and in a sense can be used as an additional “color”.

6. As we all know, choosing certain paper stocks for a print job can either raise or reduce the printing cost. Talk to your print vendor about what stocks are readily available from their distributors so you won’t get saddled with special order costs. Additionally, expensive colored stocks from one source may have a cheaper substitute available from another—ask your printer to check.

In closing, when you start a project know your budget and work with it. There are plenty of ways to cut your costs while still ensuring design excellence. You simply need to rely on your creative instincts and understand the multiple ways the printed product can be produced. Explore possibilities with your print vendor. They’ll be appreciative that your seeking out their expertise and can help you realize options you may not have been aware of previously. Don’t ever be fooled into thinking that you need big bucks to make something look amazing.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Design, Design Careers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.