Week 11!

I hope you've enjoyed the recent long weekend. I've just returned from installing two interactive works at the GeoCity Smart City Exhibition in Beijing at Beijing Design Week. Time to get back into our current project however...

This week's lecture is an Introduction to File Preparation. It's print focussed but should help you in developing your assignment.

Preparing your files for print can be a daunting task. There are many things to consider. This lecture establishes a checklist of the most crucial considerations at the moment. Technologies evolve rapidly so It's the designer’s responsibility to keep abreast of the latest developments adopted by the industry. If there were one maxim I can suggest, it would be to ALWAYS discuss your job with your printer. This seems simple but is sometimes overlooked due to "lack of time" or a feeling that "everything will be ok". The truth is that often things are not ok, and that in fact, much time is lost and possible considerable expense incurred (yes by you the designer) because the appropriate questions were not asked or a breakdown of communication has occurred.

 http://resources.printhandbook.com/pages/binding-guide.php

This week's links out include this little gem which relates to an important topic not covered in the lecture  - binding. You'll find some downloadable links to files that give you a lot of the basics. Very useful.

http://glia.ca/meanderings-wordpress/typography

The second link this week I hope reflects the diversity we hope will manifest in the group's approach to the typographic content of our publication and so it's a kind of digital wandering - a blog but a rich one - it's called Meanderings and has some intriguing content that I hope you'll enjoy and be inspired by...Check it out.

Finally, do remember the Discussion Point for this week - it focusses your attention on a self-selected aspect of production that you feel you need to learn.

Discussion Point: The digital desktop has shifted the responsibility of preparing artwork for reproduction to the designer. Identify an area of file preparation you need to learn more about and provide an overview (200 word max) of the process and its significance. Post your response to the Studio Blog.