PricelineNegotiator
Well-known member
Hey all,
This is going to be a catch all thread for the two topics posted above. I do believe they go hand in hand, so I didn't want to split them up into separate topics.
To start off, we are a commercial printer that houses multiple two and single color presses, full digital services, along with full bindery and some growing wide format services. Our town is smaller, but there are a lot of printers around. We differentiate ourselves with our customer services, industry knowledge, and high quality. Our pricing is pretty good, too. Recently, we received a job from a long standing client, who had their branding redone by a sign shop that is pretty well renowned in the area. We send some jobs their way that we can't do here, and they always come out amazing. However, this client of mine send over their new letterhead file, that was an Illustrator file, which had multiple boards, of their logos and business cards, all coded in RGB. The client asked us to print their letterhead but also needed some revisions. Along with the letterhead file was a brand outline of the client, which spec'd the RGB and CMYK values, but was missing any spot colors. Keep in mind, we have been doing printing for this client for about 5 years, previously they had a two color logo that was made very well. The new file was four separate colors, a dark blue, a light blue, a brown, and an orange. The first thing that went through my mind was "Wow, all of his prices are going to skyrocket, and we can only run his jobs in 4 color process now." Apparently the designers at the sign shop never bothered to outline the spot colors for the job, let alone keep the clients expectations in line and keep it to only 2 colors, maximum 3 if the client is willing to throw money at their image for shits and giggles. I know the rebranding was NOT cheap for this client either.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I see some huge issues with what has happened with my client:
They went from a 2 spot color logo to a 4 "spot" color logo. All designers I have talked to keep it to two, with an absolute maximum being 3, and even that color is usually black.
The letterhead and business cards were set up in Illustrator. This is a big no no in my book. InDesign is for layout, Illustrator for line art and logo creation, and Photoshop for image manipulation.
The logo, letterhead, business card and some other things were all crammed in one file. Who the hell does this?
Spot colors were not picked out until AFTER the complete branding and identity were completed, which the PANTONE book should be the very first guide for color as it serves as a reference for the colors, not CMYK or RGB as they view differently on almost every device.
Tell me I am not crazy, because this is the second customer of mine they have totally botched the branding for, and I am about to go to the owner of the sign shop and try to communicate these issues. All of this isn't to say the work that was done was bad, it just lacked successful file, color and client management.
This is going to be a catch all thread for the two topics posted above. I do believe they go hand in hand, so I didn't want to split them up into separate topics.
To start off, we are a commercial printer that houses multiple two and single color presses, full digital services, along with full bindery and some growing wide format services. Our town is smaller, but there are a lot of printers around. We differentiate ourselves with our customer services, industry knowledge, and high quality. Our pricing is pretty good, too. Recently, we received a job from a long standing client, who had their branding redone by a sign shop that is pretty well renowned in the area. We send some jobs their way that we can't do here, and they always come out amazing. However, this client of mine send over their new letterhead file, that was an Illustrator file, which had multiple boards, of their logos and business cards, all coded in RGB. The client asked us to print their letterhead but also needed some revisions. Along with the letterhead file was a brand outline of the client, which spec'd the RGB and CMYK values, but was missing any spot colors. Keep in mind, we have been doing printing for this client for about 5 years, previously they had a two color logo that was made very well. The new file was four separate colors, a dark blue, a light blue, a brown, and an orange. The first thing that went through my mind was "Wow, all of his prices are going to skyrocket, and we can only run his jobs in 4 color process now." Apparently the designers at the sign shop never bothered to outline the spot colors for the job, let alone keep the clients expectations in line and keep it to only 2 colors, maximum 3 if the client is willing to throw money at their image for shits and giggles. I know the rebranding was NOT cheap for this client either.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I see some huge issues with what has happened with my client:
They went from a 2 spot color logo to a 4 "spot" color logo. All designers I have talked to keep it to two, with an absolute maximum being 3, and even that color is usually black.
The letterhead and business cards were set up in Illustrator. This is a big no no in my book. InDesign is for layout, Illustrator for line art and logo creation, and Photoshop for image manipulation.
The logo, letterhead, business card and some other things were all crammed in one file. Who the hell does this?
Spot colors were not picked out until AFTER the complete branding and identity were completed, which the PANTONE book should be the very first guide for color as it serves as a reference for the colors, not CMYK or RGB as they view differently on almost every device.
Tell me I am not crazy, because this is the second customer of mine they have totally botched the branding for, and I am about to go to the owner of the sign shop and try to communicate these issues. All of this isn't to say the work that was done was bad, it just lacked successful file, color and client management.
