Packaging Design & Graphic Designers

Hi All - we seem to be experiencing a lot of issues with some graphic designers in regards to PDFs not being suitable for print and we are spending hours internally sorting all these files out (time we haven't allowed for when taking on a job from 'experienced agencies'). https://www.crownlabels.co.uk/

Do graphic designers tend to specialise in certain areas and does anyone specialise in print - with label designs in particular? If anyone is in the South Yorkshire area I'd be keen to know more
 
Jeez do I feel your pain!

I've worked in packaging but all done in-house so obviously all done perfectly. :D

I think the issue is when you're dealing with supplied artwork as I've found that many 'Designers' don't know their arse from their elbow when it comes to that.
Low-res or missing images, no bleed, missing fonts and the list goes on.

As the web has become more popular the art working skills for print seemed to decline but then Designers are expected to know everything now and they don't.
The amount of time I've spent in the past correcting issues from even larger, well known agencies is unbelievable. :(
 
Jeez do I feel your pain!

I've worked in packaging but all done in-house so obviously all done perfectly. :D

I think the issue is when you're dealing with supplied artwork as I've found that many 'Designers' don't know their arse from their elbow when it comes to that.
Low-res or missing images, no bleed, missing fonts and the list goes on.

As the web has become more popular the art working skills for print seemed to decline but then Designers are expected to know everything now and they don't.
The amount of time I've spent in the past correcting issues from even larger, well known agencies is unbelievable. :(

Thanks Scotty - yes completely understand what you mean in regards to a lot of designers focusing more on the internet side of things. Bleed, understanding CMYK and all other print basics seems to be few and far between ! We have made an artwork guidelines page but it doesn't seem to get us the results we need still! >>>>>>>>> Crown Labels Artwork Guidelines <<<<<<<<<
 
I've had it since about 2001 - you get files sent in in Quark, just the Quark file, no other info, no links, fonts etc. Of course back then it wasn't a PDF centric workflow at all, so you always received artwork files.

At least when you got artwork files it was easier to fix all the issues and make perfect files. It's a bit harder now when you receive artwork in PDF - as PDFs are supposed to be final files.

Basically since as far back as 2001 or even before - there's always been good designers - with terrible print knowledge. And that trend has continued.

Unless you spend time in prepress or at a printing place, you probably don't know how to correctly setup files, so you're just going on a wing a prayer and as long as it looks good on your screen and your print outs that's all that matters.

Finding prepress skills these is hard, as a lot has moved to digital, and that means even more mistakes can go unnoticed, which are fine in smaller digital runs, but moving to larger litho runs the files are treated differently on output and that's where real issues that show up.

It really is just about edumacation and if you receive bad files from someone, send them your .joboptions file for PDFs that suit your workflow - with a guideline on how to accurately create the artwork.

If not - then there's a prepress charge for fixing. So the way I do it is

1) Here's a .joboptions file with the correct PDF settings & here's a guideline on how to setup your artwork - you can do this part yourself for free

2) If you send me a PDF that doesn't work on output - you will be charged and Prepress fee - which runs at €100 p/h - with a guideline of how many hours it will take.


9/10 times the go for option 1.
 
You need to specify your requirements for print ready prior to commencing work at the contractual stage. In a scenario where print ready has not been provided as promised our practice is to offer handholding advice (for free) or inhouse design (at an agreed cost).

Hope this helps.
 
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