Proofing Your Print Project
You have an idea that you have been working on. It is a marketing piece for your business that you want to look a certain way. You go to your printer who has a Full-time Graphic Artist on staff. After discussing the details of what you had in mind, sending a couple of emails with the information you want included along with some images, the artist designs your project. Upon completion of the layout the artist sends you an email to proof before it goes to print. This is where things can go right or wrong depending on the level of attention to detail that is put into the proofing process.
Read Thoroughly
Upon receiving the email the recipient opens it excited to finally get to see how their vision came to life. They look at the artwork before them, see that everything seems to be where they wanted it, and that that the design looks as it should. “Perfect,” they think to themselves. Hurriedly they send a reply email back to the printer stating, “Looks great, print it.” They can’t wait to get the finished product in their hands. After all, they have been working on this idea for a while now. Why shouldn’t they be excited? In reality they have every right to be. What this particular customer doesn’t realize is that they sent the artist the wrong phone number and an old email address. Because they only looked at the overall design layout of their project they didn’t catch this when proofing it. They never really took the time to read the information carefully. Take a guess as to how this project turned out? Exactly, wrong!
How could this have been avoided? Proofing a project is something that should be done in steps. It should not be hurried just because you waited until you absolutely needed the item two days ago and ordered it today. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a long drawn out process either. The following are some basic tips that should help:
- Read the email once on the screen
- Print the Email out
- Read the printed version
- Give the printed version to someone else to read that knows the correct information
- Read the project backwards starting at the bottom right and working up to the top left
- Check for both spelling and grammar errors
A very brief article I wrote that explains this and provides some other tips as well can be found on our website titled “Proper Proofing Techniques.” It’s your project and you deserve to see it come to life the way you envisioned. But your proofing plays an important role in making that happen.
First To The Wall
The first one to the wall wins. What in the world am I talking about? Well, believe it or not I’m talking about Calendars. To be more specific I am talking about 2011 calendars. 
This is the time for businesses to start planning their calendar giveaways for next year. It may seem a bit early to do this, but actually this is a great time to get started. There isn’t currently a rush of calendars being produced, so turnaround time is relatively short. Having them made now can help to ensure that you get them in the hands of your customers before they receive those from your competitors. Why is this so important? The purpose of these calendars is twofold. First, they provide your customers with a useful tool that will help keep them organized. Second, if they are designed properly you can get 12 months of advertising out of them. Placing your name on the calendar in a specific location that is visible will allow your customer to see your contact information each and every time they use it. Let’s talk about design a little bit.
The design aspect of your calendars is a very important consideration. 
There are a variety of calendar types you can create. There are those that are placed in a booklet for daily planning, some are hung on the wall as a flip calendar with space enough to write important dates or appointments, and there are the wall calendars that have the entire year on them as shown above for getting a quick glance at a current or future date. Of course there are other types as well but we won’t go into further detail on that here. One recommendation is to place something of value on your calendar such as a coupon. Some business owners choose to place these on an extended flap where their contact information is visible in one location all year. Remember though, once this is cutout for use by the customer that is it. These are intended as a one time use item. A way around this is to place a coupon or special on each monthly page of the calendar. With a coupon, this would lead to the customer having to cut their calendar to use them. This doesn’t leave a pretty design behind. Placing a special on a certain day of the month may be a better option so they can leave their calendar intact.
Whichever way you choose to go, get your calendars made early. This way you can be the “First To The Wall.” If your not, what is the likelihood that your calendar will make it all? Probably unlikely. If it’s not your calendar they are using then it may be a competitor who is getting the 12 months of viewing.
Eric Johnson
Minuteman Press Colorado Springs 