1.
Can someone suggest a generic legal agreement (free or not) that I can use to before I give my client information to a print vendor.
2. Short of that can any print brokers tell me what they do to keep Print vendors from going around you.
Thanks
Hi There.
Print consultants, as they are sometimes called, are considered "parasites" of the print industry by some commentators.
This in part is true. When searching for the best "middle-man" between your company and your print provider, make sure you choose the right consultant.
If you are designing and your client wants to source the printing themselves in the dire hope they think it will save them money, consider offering them the complete solution so that you both can be confident that their/your work will look like it is supposed to every time. This is important in retaining their business.
Ensure that the company/contractor you select has a full understanding of the whole gamut of print, including offset and digital, and how your jobs will be on different substrates and make sure you ask what controls (if any) are in the workflow to ensure consistent accuracy of future re-runs.
If the "middle-man" is unsure or is unable to provide you basic information regarding your printing revenue queries, shop around.
Typically, there should be no "color management" as such on devices, yet simply passing thru a 1:1 or Direct workflow to the printing system. Upstream, i.e in your .pdf, you can embed alot of control information that can be honored on a correctly setup system and there are many tools as a designer available at your fingertips/mouseclicks.
Today, print companies usually have a good pre-press team to ensure consistency. In terms of negotiating competitive pricing with your print provider directly, generally most companies will naturally top-down sell under the assumption that you wont know any better. Questions like quantity breaks for plates/paper etc. Tell them you have done the market research, it will make them squirm, but generally they will come to a better price.
Remember, you pay for what you get so dont be too cheap nor dont let someone "get the better of you".
Just like buying/selling a house, check around the market beforehand to get a general idea.
I hear you say " but thats the print consultants job to do the running around....", yes but instead of paying
them the fee for that service to save you an hour of good legwork and relationship building, do it yourself.
The eventual cost saving of going direct to save you the percieved "hassle" of organising your print will pay off and as you are a direct customer of the print provider, your business becomes valuable to the printer and it also helps keep them "honest" as they wont want to loose your business. Also, you know what youre paying for.
The "middle-men" print consultants were utilized, markedly in the 80-90's as technology changed rather rapidly, because of the lack of print knowledge in the market at design studios, publication houses etc and were mainly used as a compromise for cost vs. time saving. Now days, most design studios and p/h's have an internal pre-press and printing manager that deals with the print provider direct, negating the need for the middle-man.
Studios, publishers and designers are becoming "smarter" with understanding the print world and it is formus like these which empower decision makers with the basic tools to decide for themselves and take ownership of the products they are producing. The advent of the internet and Web based submission is slowly eating away at the independant "parasites" market share.
Research. Talk and build relationships with your print companies, they are no longer the grumpy "offset operators" they were once thought of. Align yourself with a smart and clever pre-press operator/designer who will help you. It is in their best interests.
Todays economic market leaves little room for margins to be paid to middle-men when you can do it yourself in conjunction with decent print providers, who in-turn should educate their customer to produce the most consistent and error free printing solutions.
In short, knowledge is power.
Jeremy.
