I just received an unsettling email from a print brokering client today. She is a designer, and two small problems had occurred with a set of identity materials for her client.
When I first read Kodak's literature about the new PROSPER 1000 Plus Press, my first question was, “What about color work?” But then I reflected for a moment and thought about all the print books I'd designed or brokered that had black-only text blocks. I paused.
I was overjoyed to find an article on www.washingtonpost.com entitled, “Why Digital Natives Prefer Reading in Print. Yes, You Read That Right,” by Michael S. Rosenwald. I was even happier to find the same article on my list from the Goggle Alerts aggregator. And when I Googled the first few words of the story, I found (what turned out to be an Associated Press story) in about six Google pages of listings.
I just received three boxes of samples from commercial printing suppliers. Somehow the boxes look bigger in the condo than they used to look in the house, where I had a whole room for samples.
The three boxes contain specific samples from three separate printers for three separate print brokering clients. Here's why I requested them, what I'm looking for, and why they will be beneficial to my work.
One of the major benefits of rebuilding a house after a fire is looking through all the print catalogs of things you might want to buy for the house. (Another is being able to see through all the wood studs with no drywall in the way—it makes the house look like one big room.)
A friend of mine is a print book designer. She designs almost exclusively the multi-column, regularly spaced and formatted print books various government organizations publish to document their work. The consistency of her design is noteworthy, but she also has a flair for simple, elegant page construction that facilitates reading. When I was an art director, I would have hired her in a minute. And I am actually somewhat envious when she sends me page spreads to critique. She is that good at it.