During a Facebook discussion thread today about Charles Burns, someone mentioned OK Soda — which I had NEVER HEARD OF, but now have an intense fascination with.

OK was a Coca-Cola product in the early 1990′s that never moved beyond it’s test release to reach a national audience. The can designs (done in collaboration with Wieden & Kennedy) are just awesome and a lot of the marketing tactics used to introduce it must have been downright bizarre for 1993 — but in todays social online world, seem pretty smart. OK. That’s all.

These cards where printed by a small shop in Bowling Green, Kentucky called Dave’s Printing (chosen by my client,) and they did a wonderful job. My favorite part is the subtle pattern we over layed on the front of the card. That was accomplished with doing a 2% Cool Gray transarency spot and then a UV Spot coating over top. LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

It’s been awhile, but here is part 3 of my series on Sending a Print Design to Press. If you missed the first two parts, we’ve covered Choosing the Right Type of Printing for your Design and Specing Colors For Your Printer so far and now — it’s time to think about paper.

For a quick and dirty print job that you may be sending out to a digital printer, chances are you will not have many choices where paper is concerned. But when you’re working with an Offset or Letteroress house, there are near endless possibilities — anyone who isn’t interested in paper would be shocked to know what a huge industry specialty papers are and you easily can (and I have) spend hours paroosing paper sample books feeling all the intesresting textures, marveling at the beautiful colors and weighing the benifits over all the various shades of white there are to choose from!

* WARNING: It wasn’t until I sat down to write this that I realized just how complicated this subject is… i think it is something you just get comfortable with as you deal more with it.

Paper Weight

This is a complicated subject, which I will not even attempt to cover here – but there are some great resources out there to learn more about the systems for determining paper weight, (check out the Wikipedia page and its resource list.) I will break it down to the basics as I understand them, there are text weights and cover weights… within those broad categories, papers are defined by a weight.

Text Weight : This is thinner paper, you may use this for letterhead, catalogue pages, books pages… “80 pound text” would be something I might spec for a letterhead.

Cover weight: You guess it! You would use this for a book cover, business cards, postcard, stuff like that…  ”110 pound cover” is something I might spec for a business card.

There are also other terms for these categories and different printers or paper manufactures may use variations, like the word writing instead of text.

Paper Samples

Aside from being porn for graphic designers, paper samples are going to make the job of choosing paper much easier. As time goes on, you will start to remember specific sheets you favor for different types of jobs – but having a variety of papers in front of you to look at and touch (and show your client!) is going to be invaluable!

So how do you get these? It’s easy — just ask! Call up your printer and get a referral to a paper respresentative in your area or do a Google search for a “paper distributor” in your city. Once you get a hold of them and let you know you are a designer they’ll get you sample books of the papers they distribute free of charge!

Paper Pricing and Usage (Get to know your Printer!)

I know I will talk about this more in part four of this series, but I think the relationship between a printer and a designer is very important. You need someone you can turn to for advise on projects who is knowledged in working with a large variety of papers and printing processes. No designer knows every single papers weight and sheet size and there is really no reason to waste your time with that type of stuff.

Talk to your printer as you develop the plan for your design and get their input on papers! They may know of a paper solution you weren’t aware of or if you are working within a budget they will be able to make recommendations to you that will bring the printing price down.

Do you have any tips on this subject? Leave a comment and share them with us! :)

Upcoming subjects in this series: Getting Estimates on printing and finishing, Getting a sign off on your print order, Reviewing a digital proof, Doing A Press check.

This could seriously be an entire book, so I am going to follow the tone I set with part one of this series and give you some informative, but general information.

Choosing Pantone Colors

Depending on your clients needs and budget, you may have chosen to print in spot colors instead of doing a 4 color process. If this is the case, you need to choose your Pantone colors to hand off to the printer so that they are able to match the color on press to a swatch. Of course, the more spot colors you use in the design the pricier the job will be — think about this while you are designing and be creative about the way you use colors. A smart use of 2 colors can often have a stronger “wow!” factor than a more generic use of 3 colors

A Few Tips & Things to Keep in Mind

• Drop the doe and get a Pantone book! There is no way you can accurately choose spot colors by looking at your computer screen! You can get deals sometimes if you want to find some second hand books, but be aware that a very old book may have faded over time.
• When possible, look at the colors in sunlight. Pick up your book and walk over to the nearest window, looking at color in a windowless office under fluorescent light isn’t going to give you an accurate reading of the colors on the paper – sunlight will be the best setting to choose your swatches!
• Think about the design and how the color is going to be used. For example, if the typeface you are using has an ultra light line weight, consider using a color a shade or two darker than your initial choice. When you’re using more than one color – look at the swatches next to each other before making a final call.
• Consider the paper. Pantones books come in “coated” or “uncoated” books, you’ll notice the colors look different – these are intended to represent to you how the same ink color will appear on a coated or uncoated stock of paper. Know the paper you’ll be printing on and choose your colors accordingly.

Do you have any tips on this subject? Leave a comment and share them with us! :)

Upcoming subjects in this series: Choosing Paper, Getting Estimates on printing and finishing, Getting a sign off on your print order, Reviewing a digital proof, Doing A Press check.

If you’re doing full design and development on a web design project, it is likely to take the project from concept to launch and be the only person on the project, however — if you’re doing a print project for a client, unless you have an offset in your spare bedroom, (and if you do, I demand photos!) you’re going to have to send the design off to a printer in order to make the project a reality.

Over the next 3 posts, I am going to share some of my knowledge and experience on sending design projects to press and I encourage any of your with experience in this matter to chime in with some comments if you handle things differently than I do, or if you disagree with anything I have to say! :)

Choosing the Right Type of Printing for your Design

If you really are interested in learning all the ins and outs of these options, check out the Wikipedia pages on each, but here I am just going to give a simple explanation of each and what you might want to use it for.

Offset Lithography

Offset Printers lay down solid colors of ink and different printers offsets may be able to do more (or less) colors. You can do a full color image (like Photographs) on presses that run 4 or more colors, or do spot color projects on presses that offer less that 4 colors. Offset printing gives consistent quality and had great color accuracy on spot colors and the for presses with more than 4 colors you can get stunning quality on full color images! The drawback is that small quantities of offset can be very pricey (especially full color work!)

Digital

This is the least expensive option, and you can find some really good quality digital presses — I had my very first business cards printed through JakPrints on their digital press and they turned out beautiful! But, a word of warning that I have also seen digital presses turn out awful stuff that looks like it was printed on an old ink jet desktop printer or something. So if you go this route, do your research! Request a sample pack from the printer.

Letterpress

With Letter-pressing, ink is laid down one color at a time. This is only used for spot colors – no full color photographs with this! In letterpress, each color of the design is made into a block that is then hit with the ink color and “pressed” onto the paper. (Imagine a high powered, automated stamp.) Letterpress created a look that cannot be achieved any other way, great textures and a “hand made” quality that just makes the piece feel so special! Because letterpress does requires blocks to be made for each color printing, it is a bit pricier than Offset or Digital, also it’s less automated than these other types of printing, which can cause for more variance and require more close monitoring (again driving the cost up.)

Upcoming subjects in this series: Choosing Pantone Colors, Choosing Paper, Getting Estimates on printing and finishing, Getting a sign off on your print order, Reviewing a digital proof, Doing A Press check.

I didn’t realize this was a secret, but when I posted a photo today of the paper samples I got in the mail, enough people emailed, DM’d, @ Messaged and commented to make me think maybe it wasn’t common knowledge. How do you get a library of paper samples for your home office? It’s REALLY EASY — check out my video below for the (not anymore) secret! ;)

I noticed this about 3 weeks ago on a trip through the grocery store and it caught my eye. Crystal Light has updated their packaging and I give it a thumbs up! What do you think?

The end of the year is approaching, and many people are taking this time to reflect on the year past and the people in their lives who have made it so memorable.

Whether you’re celebrating a holiday or just celebrating the love in your life, finding a unique gift for that design nerd closest to you just got a little easier — here’s my 2009 gift list!

Days of the Week T-shirt Set

A new color for each day! These shirts could be fun for any color lover in your life – and on those hectic work weeks — they could come in handy when you can’t remember what day it is!

On sale right now at Cotton Factory for only $65 for the whole 7 T-shirt set!

Pop-Up Cards

You don’t even have to be a designer to appreciate these beautiful pop-up cards at PubliqueShop. At $4.50 per card, these may not be something you will want to send out to everyone on your mailing list, but will make a real impression on those who deserve something a little special! These aren’t just cards, they’re tiny works of art!

Typography Coasters

Coasters are perfect for any designers desk! Looks like a set of 4 will run you $45 for these Bamboo letter jumbles set in Baskerville Semibold.

Would it be over doing it to pair these coasters with the typography coffee table I featured last year?

Helbotica T-Shirt

No gift list for designers would be complete of course without a Helvetica Fan item! This tshirt is specifically for the nerd in your life who has cross over nerdisms for typography and robots! Meet Helbotica!

These shirts are available in sizes for Men, Women and Kids and multiple colors starting at $20.

Shirts For Coders

ShirtsForCoders.com has a whole store of shirts with silly slogans that show off your code nerd status. There are only 14 items on the site right now, but you’re likely to find something there that will make your favorite Web Developer chuckle. Prices start at just $19!

The Ruler Gun

Here’s one that’s sure to make a BANG! (Sorry, I had to say it!)  This wooden office ruler shaped like a pistol may not be something you’d put in your kids pencil box, but that special someone in your life who spends their days sketching will get a kick out of having this on their desk! It’s $12.49 from the Paris boutique, Atypyk. Ammunition not included.

Typography Soap

This gift will give a whole new meaning to “clean type,” its the Typography Soap from Charles & Marie and since the site is offering FREE shipping this week, I would head over there and pick this up now if you want it. It’s $20 per bar, which is a lot for some soap — but I can’t image anyone would actually USE it, more something you can display on your bookshelf next to your design books! :)

Well that’s it!

7 gift ideas for you to share with your loved ones, whether  you plan to grab one of these for them or you want them to get them for YOU! Is there something amazing I didn’t include? Leave a comment and let me know about it!

You can check out my 2 gift lists posts from 2008 if you are looking for even more nerdy schwag! 7 Gifts for the Design Nerd in your Life and More Gifts for the Design Nerd and Internet Geek in your life

So what is Concept Feedback?

Concept Feedback is a free professional design review community. You post your website design, logo design, brochure layout, etc. and the community of designers comments with feedback on layout, color, usability, etc.

The service doesn’t require any money to get started. Creating a profile and posting feedback is free. If you would like to post work for the community to critique you have to earn it by giving feedback to other users. Depending on how valuable others find your feedback you get “reputation points,” which help those in the community gauge the value of your comments.

When I first looked over the site, I was expecting to just see comments like “nice job!” or “i don’t like that blue,” but there were some thought out, well reasoned and highly valuable criticisms being made! Don’t take my word for it, go check it out!

The Giveaway

Concept Feedback is now offering a “Premium Concept” feature for users who want to get maximum exposure for their concept.  Once a premium concept is live, it is featured on our homepage for 1 week, giving users maximum traffic and reviews.  We also personally invite our top members (highest reputation scores) to review the concept, ensuring top quality feedback.  You can find more details on premium concepts here.

1. Sign up for an account at Concept Feedback and add me as one of your contacts.

2. Tweet out a link to this Giveaway as follows: “RT @cmdshiftdesign 5 FREE Featured Spots on Concept Feedback, the Design Review Community! http://bit.ly/92FLln”

3. Leave a comment here with your name, email and a link to your tweet and Concept Feedback profile!

You have until Thursday, December 10th at Midnight PST to enter. 5 lucky readers will be chosen at random the following Friday and will be contacted via Twitter!