The cause of most of these problems is poor communication. Throughout your project’s life it has been scrutinised, redesigned, re-written, edited, typeset, illustrated and more. But when a project is passed into new hands it is often done so with little regard to the fact that the recipient will be seeing this job for the first time and will most certainly not know all the facts, parametres, specs and requirements the project has unless you take the time to spell it out.

To avoid incurring extra costs or engaging in rounds of “he said she said” when mistakes are made, try this checklist and the tips that follow when passing on your job to outside hands:

JOB SHIPPING CHECKLIST

• Check your work: Run a spell check, ensure your images are CMYK and of sufficient resolution, convert Pantones to Process if necessary. Taking a moment to ensure everything is fine will save your butt at some point.
• Put everything on disk: Collect your layouts, fonts, proof PDFs, images and art. Include PSD files and a READ ME with notes if your film house needs to do any work.
• Include Printouts: Make sure you have laser prints from every layout on the disk and an approved colour match proof, with Pantone® chips if necessary.
• Include Mockups: Mock up any job that is more than a simple one-sided 8.5 x 11 job. This clarifies what cuts and folds go where and also serves as a final check for you before it ships. Make an extra mockup for you to keep at the same time.
• Write your instructions: Have you re-summarised the job for your supplier? Have you added notes on the lasers of things that are important to you and the job? Are you clear when you need it to be finished? Write it down, and keep copies for yourself.
• Keep copies: Make a copy of what you send to your supplier. Include all notes, mockups and printouts as well as a copy of what was ON the disk (ie copy the disk, keep a separate folder on your hard drive for “shipped” material or burn 2 copies of the disk). That way if there are any questions or if anything is missing you and your supplier can reference EXACTLY the same things and solve problems quickly and efficiently.
• If you FTP: Ship printouts and colour proofs out as soon as you can. If you can’t, then AT THE VERY LEAST have a proof PDF generated and ensure it goes with the FTP’d files as a reference point for your supplier.

NOTES AND DETAILS
1) Include printouts and colour proofs with every job:
Even if you are FTP-ing the files you MUST make printouts of all the files you are sending as a reference point to the recipient (In the case of FTP’d files, ship them by courier immediately as a follow up).

And MOST IMPORTANTLY: make printouts from the disk you are shipping to ensure 2 things…
a) That everything on the disk has a printout and
b) That everything on the disk looks as you intend it to look.

2) Include Mockups:
Does your job fold? Does it have 2 sides? It is multiple pages? Are there dielines? If you answered YES to any of the above then your job envelope needs to include an accurate mockup of the final piece. Print it out on your laser printer, at a smaller size if necessary, and cut, trim and glue it to match the job as closely as possible. Even something as simple as a single fold or 2-sided print needs a mockup… If you do this you have expressed your intention clearly and that is the path to avoiding costly mistakes.

3) Spec your colours with samples:
If your job must match a corporate pantone colour, whether the job is Pantone or CMYK, you must attach the pantone chips to the printouts with instructions to “Match PMS Number___”. Remember though that not all PMS colours can be reproduced in CMYK but adding instructions like these can flag the printer to your intent and he will provide guidance from that point. Please send appropriate Pantone chips as well, send coated chips for reproduction on coated stock. DO NOT send printed samples on different media for your printer to match. For example: sending a PMS colour printed on matte stock with a job being printed in CMYK on coated stock and telling them to “match this colour exactly” will not yield you the results you are looking for from any printer.

4) Write everything down:

• Client: Do not discuss anything with your supplier verbally and then expect it to be remembered weeks later when the job arrives. Provide detailed follow up instructions in writing with the job when you send it.
• Suppliers: Take notes in meetings and if you notice job specs have changed from discussion to realisation, flag it to your client, especially if the changes have affected your quote.

5) Assume the recipient is an idiot:
Now this may seem insulting to some, but when packaging your job and adding notes to the package and instructions, write them in such a way that no one could possibly misunderstand. You may have full confidence in your contact at the print shop but who knows who will be first to open the envelope? Some shops run multiple shifts. Your supplier is NOT an idiot but leave no details to memory or chance, start from scratch and include notes on EVERYTHING… write all over your laser prints if you have to. Provide DETAILED instructions and your part of the job is done.

6) Answer Questions:
Even after all of this your supplier may still have questions. Having worked on both sides of this equation I can say with bafflement that not all agencies like to answer questions from their suppliers. Sometimes it means they have to go back to their clients and perhaps there is an unwillingness to do so. I won’t speculate further here but I will say that how we handle mistakes, problems and crises during a job is as important as sending those invoices at the end of the day.

A FINAL THOUGHT
The best business partners I have had have been my suppliers. I need them, they need me. I berate them on their mistakes and admit my own, I push them only when i need to and they trust me on that. Together we deliver for our clients… having a poor supplier is a nightmare so work with yours, communicate well and your clients need only know they can trust you and your network.

david

Think of it this way… do you want the same buttons as everyone else or do you want to create unique graphics for yourself or your clients? Whatever the answer is there is no harm in knowing how they are built using Adobe Illustrator.

Finished Image

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Step One

Pick or sketch a reference image.
I chose an old fashioned button Coke® sign, photographed outside, so I can get a sense of realistic light and shadow to reproduce.

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Step Two

Draw a circle and fill it with a Radial Gradient.
I based the colours on samples taken from the image with the Eyedropper tool.

Fill the circle with a a radial gradient. Sample the colours from the reference photo.

Colours
The Centre Red colour is: 6C 100M 95Y 0K
The Shadow colour is: 6C 100M 95Y 69K
The Highlight colour is: 6C 100M 95Y 28K

Place the colours at these positions along the slider:
Centre Red at 75%. Shadow at 95%. Highlight at 100%.
Notice the midpoint between the Centre Red and Shadow colours has been slid closer to the shadow (approx 70%)

Duplicate the layer.

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Step Three

Create a new layer by Duplicating the Gradient Circle layer.
Lock your original Gradient Circle layer to prevent accidental changes to its settings.

Call the new layer “Lighter Side” and go to your gradient fill dialog box.
Change the colours in the new circle to the following:
The New Centre Red colour is: 14C 80M 90Y 0K
The New ‘Shadow’ or Near Edge colour is: 0C 60M 60Y 0K
The New Highlight or Outer Edge colour is: 6C 100M 95Y 0K

Again: I sampled some colours from the image and experimented in order to come up with these colours.

Step Four: Create a new layer and a new gradient.

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Step Four

Create an Opacity Mask.
Duplicate your latest circle by copying and pasting in front (Command-C then Command-F)

Offset the circle up and to the right so that the bottom edge approximates a position on the sign just outside the bottom shadow of the original art. You can always fine-tune its position later.

Fill the new circle with a Black to white linear gradient and adjust the angle to 60 degrees, the black slider to the 35% position and the white slider to the 75% position as shown in the image below.

Preparing an Opacity Mask

Make Opacity Mask

Your art should now look like this:

Opacity mask applied to vector art.

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Step Five

Create a new layer and call it “Reflections”.
Look at the original photo and you will notice the reflection of sky and buildings on the surface of the sign. Little details like this will separate your art from the standard clip art glass buttons.

Draw an outline of the buildings paying attention to the fact that the edges of your sign curve away from you. Don’t worry about the edges of the circle, we will mask that out later.

Fill the buildings with 0C 100M 100Y 20K and in your Transparency Dialog box set them to Multiply with an opacity of 30%.

Creating the reflections

Next, go to the effects menu and select EFFECT / STYLIZE / OUTER GLOW. Set your Glow mode to Multiply, Your colour to 19C 100M 100Y 10K, Your opacity to 75% and Blur to .05 in. All these settings can be tweaked and adjusted for your final art, they came to me through experimentation.

Adding an Outer Glow

Now, go to any previous layer and copy the circle and paste it into this layer with Command-F (not Command-V). It should now cover your reflection drawing. Select both the new circle and your reflection drawing, ensuring the new circle is layered on top of the reflection drawing. Now create a clipping mask by hitting Command-7 (Menu: OBJECT / CLIPPING MASK / MAKE).

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Step Six

Create the sun reflection.
The highlight on the top right corner is from your light source. This highlight helps identify your button sign as being smooth and reflective. If the sign were chrome it would be a very contrasty and harsh reflection. For this weathered sign we are creating a slightly softer highlight.

Draw a small oval in the upper right corner and fill it with white. Go to the menu FILTER / DISTORT / ROUGHEN and play with the settings until you have a nice uneven edge around your oval. Experiment. See the image below for my settings.

Roughen Filter Settings

Next, go to the EFFECT / WARP / ARC dialog and play with the settings there to add a bit or an arc to it to match the roundness of the button sign. Once you are satisfied hit OK and then make this transformation permanently by going to the menu EDIT / EXPAND APPEARANCE (ensure you do not have any stroke on your oval first, only fill.)

Warp Options: Arc Settings

Rotate and distort your roughened oval into position on the edge of your button.

Next, using the EFFECT / STYLIZE menu add a Feather and Outer Glow using my settings as pictured below or your own experimental results. I then tweaked the scaling and duplicated the glowing oval, playing with various transparency settings, for my final result. Never hesitate to go back and tweak any element again until you are completely satisfied.

Feather and Outer Glow options

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Step Seven

Final weathering.
The original sign has water streaks, cracks, and other reflections which you can cherry pick from to give your sign those final weathering details. The most important part here is your drawing. It can’t look too mechanical and must follow the curves of the sign.

The cracks I’ve drawn here were treated as follows:
Stroke Colours: 0C 80M 100Y 0K (again: EXPERIMENT)
Outer glow: Multiply, 100% Opacity, Blur .05 in of the same colour.
Transparency: Soft Light at 40%

Adding ageing

I added some other weathering or reflective details, which I will leave you to experiment with, by this point you should have no trouble. The point of this exercise is to teach you to find and re-create your own design elements.

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Step Eight

The Shadow.
I created the drop shadow in 2 parts. Remember that a shadow is not a uniform tone when doing photorealistic art. It softens a bit around the edges and is darkest near the centre. The closer the object is to the cast shadow the darker the shadow is in that immediate area. When an object is far away from its cast shadow, say floating in the air, the shadow is more uniform and its edges even softer.

Create a new layer and call it shadow. Duplicate your button circle from any previous layer and past it in place with Command-F. Offset it down to the left until you are satisfied with its position.

The outer shadow can now Coke® be filled with Black, and in you Transparency Dialog set it to Multiply and 40% opacity. Now the light is rather strong here and the object is close to its cast shadow but the edges of this circle are a little too artificial so I added a slight Outer Glow to it from the EFFECT / STYLIZE menu.

Creating a Shadow

I then pasted another circle in its original position with Command-f and distorted its top right edge away from the edge of the original button sign so that when i added an Outer Glow to it, it would not show up at the top right edges of the sign.
I filled this with Black, set the Transparency to Multiply at 100% and added another slight Outer Glow (see image).

Adding a darker edge closer to the sign

I am creating the shadow on a layer on top of all the other art so I can see what I am doing. Once done I moved the shadow layer to a position behind the sign to finish it off.

Finished Shadow

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Step Nine

Lettering.
I added a Coke® Logo and the word DRINK but found them to be too crisp for my liking. I applied a little FILTER / DISTORT / ROUGHEN to it.

You can choose to add a slight roughen to any reflection or weathering detail on the sign as well. It’s up to you.

Ageing the lettering

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FINISHED

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Please leave feedback so I can improve and expand upon these tutorials.

Finished Image

david

You can use a displacement map to make a graphic follow every contour or corner of an underlying texture or shape, such as a flag or cloth.

Note: This tutorial uses CS3 menus and assumes you possess some working knowledge of photoshop including using channels and layers.

You can follow along with your own images or use the texture and logo I supply here.

Download Assets (2.3MB)

Adobe Photoshop CS4 – Full Adobe Photoshop CS4

STEP 1: YOUR TEXTURE
Open the file silverpeak.psd, turn off the LOGO layer, select the CLOTH layer and ensure you are in RGB mode. Click on the CHANNELS palette. Choose the channel with the most contrast and click on it. I chose the RED channel.

You now need to “duplicate channel” in order to create a new document, which will be your “displacement map”. In your channels palette, with the RED channel selected, go to the drop-down menu and click “duplicate channel”.

Under “Destination / Document”, choose NEW. Click the OK button.

You now have a new document. You can choose at this time to increase the contrast with your curves (see image) and apply a slight Gaussian Blur to it in order to smooth things out. How much Gaussian blur you use will depend on your image resolution and the amount of texture in it. The higher the resolution the more blur you need to have any effect. Please be sparing, for this tutorial use a 1.0 pixel blur.

optional curves settings to increase contrast

Save your document as displacementmap.psd and close it.

STEP 2: YOUR LOGO
Now, return to the original silverpeak.psd document, turn on the logo layer and click on the RGB Channel at the top of the palette to ensure all channels are selected.

ALTERNATE CONTENT: TEXT
If you want to use text on your displacement map you need to rasterize it. To do this go to the menu LAYER / RASTERIZE or right click on your type later and choose “rasterize layer” from the menu.

STEP 3: DISTORT
With your logo layer selected, go to the following menu FILTER / DISTORT / DISPLACE. Use the settings as you see in the image below. Click OK.

You will now have to find your file displacementmap.psd. Navigate to it and click OPEN.

Your artwork is now distorted to fit the underlying texture and folds.

If you don’t like the effect, click UNDO and you can play with the vertical and horizontal settings to suit your creative… I have used Horizontal and Vertical Scale up to 10.

STEP 4: BLEND
You can now use different layer styles and blending modes to further refine your image.

You can choose OVERLAY, or indeed experiment with them all, to see the colour come through a bit more. If your texture is very rough you can also add shadow layer effects to your logo too add more depth. Experiment.

Logo with OVERLAY at 100% opacity selected.

However, I like to use masks to keep the white of the logo and further blend it with the folds.

Turn off your LOGO layer so that you only see the background. go to CHANNELS mode and again select the RED channel. COMMAND – CLICK that channel to create a selection.

Click on the RGB Channel at the top of the palette to activate all channels again and return to the LAYERS view. Turn on your LOGO layer and click on the “Add Layer Mask” button at the bottom of the palette.

Your layer should now look like this in NORMAL blend mode.

Select the layer and go to the drop-down menu and DUPLICATE LAYER, call the duplicate “screen layer” and choose SCREEN, 100% for the blend.

Select the original LOGO layer and set it’s blending to SOFT LIGHT at 50% opacity. Then, duplicate the LOGO layer, calling the new layer “lighter layer” and selecting it change the blend mode to LIGHTER COLOUR at 100% opacity.

You can experiment further by changing the contrast or opacity of any of the layer masks, adding more blended layers or other effects. It’s up to you.

Your final image for this tutorial should look like this now… and this is where we’re done!

david

When setting up a die-cut piece, one of the most common errors that can occur is having the dieline knock out of all the pieces of film.
When this occurs you will get a nice white line around the edge of your piece

What happens next is up to your relationship with your service provider and how much you had asked or expected of them. Regardless of who is responsible financially, you have an issue of timing now as it needs to be re-run.

So – rather than finger pointing – the best solution is to get into good file set-up habits and stick to them.

3 Steps to Dieline Bliss

Follow these 3 quick steps every time when creating dielines in any software package:

1. Create a spot colour and name that colour “DIELINE – does not print”
(don’t forget to include this colour in your slugs to flag your suppliers of its existence)

2. Stroke your dieline with a 0.5 pt stroke of that “DIELINE – does not print” colour, fill of none.

3. Set the dieline to overprint.

How do I set Overprint?

You can find trapping and overprint controls in all your graphics software titles:
Illustrator: Under the menu WINDOW / ATTRIBUTES set “Overprint Stroke”.
InDesign: Under the menu WINDOW / ATTRIBUTES set “Overprint Stroke”.
XPress: Under the menu WINDOW / TRAP INFORMATION set Line to “Overprint”

david

It could easily be one of my images, or yours.

After finding out how widespread the use and abuse of Flickr images are, I have taken steps to minimise my risk. Not allowing all sizes to be viewed and watermarking my images. Some people subscribe to the “Creative Commons” philosophy, but as someone who has built a career around my ideas and my production or finishing work, I must confess to being a little selfish in that regard. I have mouths to feed.

you are sending editable proofs

Which brings me back to my point. Not only do you have to take precautions with your photography but also your creative. I know design firms who have found their portfolios on other people’s websites – out of country. I also know that when you send a digital proof to someone not only do they have a clear image of your creative but you also may be unwittingly sending them editable files, which may leave you out in the cold.

When I first started in this industry, proofs were presented to clients via marker rendings, faxes, laser prints. The idea of sending electronic files is relatively new. Did you know that if you create a PDF in InDesign, XPress or Illustrator you can also re-open that PDF in Illustrator, and it is fully editable? In other words, if a client wanted to, they could use and re-use your creative or production files without involving you. There goes your income!

protecting your PDFs

I have developed a habit of protecting my PDFs and I always know when someone is trying to “use” my creative as they complain their artist cannot open the file in anything but Reader (“to make some changes or tweaks” they say). The simple extra step I take is PDF SECURITY which can be implemented while creating your PDF or you can do it later through Acrobat Professional.

Here’s what I do:

When creating your PDF go to the “Security” tab as shown in the above Image. Click on the “Use password to restrict editing” radio button and enter a password (I use the same private password for all my creative so I don’t forget). Then Choose the following options:

• Printing Allowed: Low Resolution so no one decides to send your piece to final print.
• Changes Allowed: Commenting, filling in form fields, and signing. This allows your client to mark up the PDF but not to edit it or open it in anything but Reader or Acrobat.
• Enable text access of screen reader devices for the visually impaired. You never know who needs to proof it.

You will have to re-confirm your password when you go to save the PDF and you are done. You now have one NON-EDITABLE PDF proof.

Acrobat Professional
In Acrobat Professional you will find the same menu under FILE/PROPERTIES/SECURITY (see below).


other protections

• Another good habit to get into would be to create low resolution versions of your images for layout during production and then subbing them for high resolution when you are ready to go to print. The added bonus is that it speeds up printing and saving time while you are tweaking the layout.
• Add a watermark of your logo in the background of your creative and slug everything with your company name, docket number, logo etc.
• Be clear with your client what your expectations are about your creative. Add this note to your slugs: Ownership of Conceptual work: All designs and or creative concepts remain the copyright and property of YOUR COMPANY NAME unless otherwise specified in writing.
• And of course you could also export your proof as a JPEG but that’s not as practical for mark-ups or multiple pages.

david




]]> http://www.silverpeak.ca/spblog/2008/04/08/pdf-security/feed/ 0 http://www.silverpeak.ca/spblog/2008/01/09/batch-processing/ http://www.silverpeak.ca/spblog/2008/01/09/batch-processing/#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:46:18 +0000 admin http://www.silverpeak.ca/spblog/2008/01/09/batch-processing/ Note: This Photoshop® tip assumes a basic knowledge of photoshop. I have found that this time-saver has worked over the last 3 versions of Photoshop.

This TIP is one of my most used, and has saved me hours of computer time.

If you have to do the same thing to a great number of files use your ACTIONS palette to record the changes and then BATCH process either an entire folder of images the same way or just one at a time. Either way it’s a great time saver that I have used for watermarking, resizing, adding effects or whatever to large or small groups of images at the same time or – since the action is saved – at a later date. You can even export the actions to transfer to other computers.

HERE’S AN EXAMPLE:
You have thirty CMYK EPS files and you need to change to thirty 800-Pixel wide RGB JPEG files.

Step One:
Open you ACTIONS Palette (Option/F9 or Window > Actions)

Open one file and select “New Action” from the palette options… name it “800 Pixel RGB” and click “Record”

Perform the following steps on your image:
a) convert to RGB
b) change image size to 72pixels/inch and 800 Pixels wide.
b) go to File > Save As > JPEG
c) Close

Stop recording (click the square button at the bottom of the Actions Palette).
Your actions palette should now look like this:


You can now delete your new JPEG file as the BATCH processing will create another.

Step Two:
In Photoshop choose the menus:
FILE > AUTOMATE > BATCH
Set up your options like the following image, all you need to do for yourself is to choose your source and destination folders.

Notes Re Options:
1) Always Click “Override Action “Save As” Commands” This allows you to keep the original filename of the image with only the new .jpg extension and gives you the option of adding a notation to the filename as I have done here with “_800pix”.
2) If you have an “Open” command in your recording you will need to click “Override action “Open” Commands”
3) Never use the same folder as your source and destination. Use separate folders to keep things organised and to avoid over wrighting files.
4) The destination folder can only be within (but not the same as) the root folder if you do NOT click “Include All Subfolders”.

Your batch dialogue should look like this:


david




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