Last week I attended the Manchester leg of the Insites Tour, a new web design conference. The event featured talks and interviews from prominent web design experts; Simon Collison, Dan Rubin and Patrick Lauke and was co-hosted by Keir Whitaker and Elliot Jay Stocks. The tour was held in the inspirational surroundings of digital design company, Magnetic North. The evening kicked off with plenty of time to network over a beer and burrito, overlooking the city centre from the studio’s balcony. There was the chance to talk openly and informally to the speakers, hosts and other attendees, in an laid-back and relaxed atmosphere.

The format of the evening was candid interviews with the speakers, the main theme being how they got to where they are now. Each had a different route into web design; Simon and Dan came from more of an art background and Patrick came from a marketing background. Because of their backgrounds, all of the speakers were passionate about the design side of the industry as well as the technical side.

It was really interesting to hear about the different routes into web design, but more importantly what the speakers are doing now with the knowledge they’ve built up over the last ten years or so. I think everyone came away from the conference feeling inspired. It was a really worthwhile event to attend, especially having the chance to chat with some of the industry’s greats. I hope to be able to go again next year.

It takes time to get a layout working well. The text and images must work together, the copy must be clearly laid-out  and every element has to compliment the other. It’s not rocket science but it is a skill which designers hone over their working lives. Below is an example (fictional) magazine/newsletter spread which has been laid-out to fit a 660 word article.

Removing 100 words from the layout

Say, for example, that the author/editor changes the amount of copy and decides to lose 100 words from the article. The designer can’t just remove the words as the design will look unbalanced.

As you can see, the article doesn’t have the same flow as the original. Is is apparent that text has been removed as the space in the last column doesn’t look intentional. What the designer must do, in this circumstance, is redesign the spread to make the copy fit once again. This doesn’t take as much time as designing the original layout but it takes much more time than just deleting the unwanted copy. After the designer has reworked the design, the page looks like this:

At first glance, the design is not obviously different. The main image and title have moved slightly to accommodate the amended article. The strapline has been repositioned and made deeper to distribute the text better and the quote has been moved and enlarged to balance the remaining white space. In most cases, the elements on the spread cannot change when text amends are made so they have to be repositioned to make an aesthetically pleasing spread.

Adding 100 words to the layout

Adding a few paragraphs to an article also results in a redesign. The designer cannot simply add more text to the layout as there isn’t room. Even by removing the quote, they still have 42 words that don’t fit.

Again, they must rework the elements on the page to accommodate the new text. There is no longer room for the quote to be an element by itself, so it has been moved over the image. Both of the images have been reduced in size to allow the extra text to fit. The reworked spread now has the balance of the original spread.

The redesigned spreads are not, at first glance, drastically different from the original spread. However, time has been spent rebalancing them and getting the amended text to work in harmony with the spread. It might only seem like a small amend, but to the designer, it needs care and attention – not just resizing text boxes. We know that copy cannot always be supplied that doesn’t need changes making to it later, but the closer the word count can be to the original, the less redesigning time goes on the job.

Every year there are thousands of graphic design graduates competing for comparatively few jobs. According to the Higher Education Standards Agency, in 2010, there were 59,290 students on design studies courses in the UK.¹

After surveying more than 2,000 design business teams, the Design Council’s  Industry Research 2010 factsheets reported that three quarters of design consultancies working in communications design were employing fewer than five designers – with almost all employing fewer than 10. Out of those businesses 29% recruited at least one designer last year. 43% recruited graduates/college students and 30% recruited professional designers from other design companies.

The rate of employers’ being ‘Completely Satisfied’ with the quality of their graduate recruits was 56% whereas the same rate of satisfaction from their experienced designers was 76%.

These statistics are not here to scare you or put you off applying for jobs. The information is here to highlight the importance of getting your application right. You’re competing against your peers and potentially already employed designers so you need to stand out from the crowd.

Getting it right

Designing a personal CV and website is one of the hardest tasks for any designer. It is the first impression to potential employers. Remember that your potential employer will have received many CVs and yours will be directly comparable with your rivals’. There are a lot of balancing acts to get right. Your CV needs to be well written and nicely designed; it needs to get some personality across but not be showy and self-important; and most importantly, it needs to impress.

Writing your CV

There is absolutely no point in having a beautifully designed CV and it not saying anything that your potential employer wants to hear. Equally it could be very well written but be presented badly. A CV should be a perfect balance of content and design.

A good CV should take up no more than a single side of A4. A lot of people make the mistake of having too much content.  Your CV should be divided into clear sections: contact details; education; qualifications/awards; work placements and a bit about yourself. It should be clear and to the point.

What to include

List where you have been educated. Put your university/college first and work backwards from there. List your qualifications starting with the course you’ve just graduated from. List any art foundation courses and A levels/college qualifications but don’t list every GCSE (see ‘What to leave out’ below). Include any work placements you have undertaken, as employers like to see that you’ve had some experience of a design studio environment.

Always spell-check your CV. Show that you pay attention to the details. It is off-putting to potential employers if your CV is full of errors. A designer friend of mine once received an application CV that had the name of his company incorrectly spelled – not a good sign. If you are not confident in writing, have a couple of people read it for you before sending it out.

What to leave out

Although you might feel that your GCSEs are super important, once you’ve got your degree/HND employers are not particularly going to care that you got a B in Geography or a C in Spanish. Group your GCSEs together with the grades that you got. For example, “GCSE grades A-C” would suffice. Equally employers are not bothered about any jobs you’ve had that are not relevant to the design job that you’re applying for. It is better to have no employment history than to include bar staff, shop assistant or any other non-related job.

Designing your CV (the tricky bit)

There are no hard and fast rules to designing your CV. I would say that it’s more important to be a great looking page with easy-to-read information than to be über trendy or over-the-top and illegible. You want to come across as professional and creative. A good way to present yourself is though well written text laid out beautifully, with a really good typeface and attention to the details.

Your CV is not the place to get creative with unusual paper sizes. Received CVs will be filled together and often photocopied, so non-standard formats are not going to impress. You should have loads of great work examples in your portfolio so save the really creative pieces for there.

It is a good idea to send a few work examples with your CV. Do not email large file size PDFs to prospective employers. Keep the page to a maximum of about 2mb. It is important to have a good portfolio website too, include the URL in your contact details. WordPress has several portfolio website templates which are relatively simple to use and free. Read more about WordPress at Smashing Magazine.

Providing your CV

Never design or provide your CV in Word – ever. If you get the job, you are expecting to be treated as a professional. Would you design a brochure in Word? Also make sure that in your cover letter/email you address the person who will receive it personally. If you don’t have their name, find it out. Do not write ‘sir/madam’ or ‘to whom it may concern’ no one receiving it will be concerned. Check the company’s website for staff listings or phone the company and ask who to address your application to.

If you are emailing your CV, send it – and any work examples – as a PDF. However, if you want to stand out from the crowd then one of the best things you can do is to print and post it. Design companies rarely get posted student CVs. Choose a really nice paper stock and make sure it’s printed properly – no inkjet lines or smudges. If you want to provide work examples, send them on some nice heavyweight paper. Demonstrate that you care about the whole design process including the finish and it’s sure to impress.

Remember that it’s a competitive world out there and if you can make a great first impression you are likely to go far. Good luck.

Spot colours can enhance litho printing

Have you ever received quotes for digital and litho printing and not known which to go for? Price is often the deciding factor but there’s much more to consider than just the cost. Here I have put together some pros and cons of digital and litho printing but before we get to them, let’s look at how the different print processes work.

Offset Lithography printing (usually referred to as Litho)

This is still the most common form of commercial printing. Usually the print run will be four-colour. This means that the design is separated onto four different printing plates. Each plate then prints a single colour: cyan, magenta, yellow and black  (CMYK). These colours combine together to make a full-colour print. Additional plates can be added with this method to print spot colours. These can be special inks such as fluorescent or metallic or they can be a Pantone ink that matches a corporate colour. Alternatively there can be fewer colours used such as two-colour printing where only two specified colours will be printed, because only two plates are being made, this is cheaper than four-colour litho.

Digital printing

Digital printing has no plates, the design file is transferred from a computer directly to the printing press. Again the four-colour process is used so there is no cost advantage to having fewer colours as with litho. The printers used are usually large format and/or high volume laser or inkjet printers.

Litho printing pros:

• The main cost in litho printing is setting up the plates, once these are set up, the cost per copy is cheaper than digital. This makes litho the best choice for a large print-run. For example, printing 2000 brochures.
• Printing is not limited to four colours, special or spot inks can be included to add impact to the design and print of the item.
• Litho printing is better for large areas of solid single colour. The colour comes out smoother and no pixels can be seen.

Litho printing cons:

• Not suitable for short-run printing as it is not cost-effective.
• The turnaround time is longer with litho, usually taking about 5 working days. This is because time has to be allowed for the ink to completely dry before packaging.

Digital printing pros:

• Excellent for short-run printing as there are virtually no set-up costs. For example if you wanted to print 50 invitations, digital would be the best choice.
• Digital printing is faster, usually taking about half the time of a litho print run. This is because there are no plates to make and less drying time.
• Digital printed items can be personalised. For example a direct mail campaign could have the name of the recipient incorporated into the design.
• Printed material is not limited to paper. Designs can be printed onto metal, wood, plastics, glass and canvas.

Digital printing cons:

• Because there is a cost per item, digital printing can be more expensive than litho for large print-runs.
• Areas of solid single colour can sometimes look pixelated with digital printing. Making the quality appear less than litho.
• Only colours made from CMYK can be printed, there is no way to include spot or special colours.
• Each type of printing can be more or less suitable for you depending on your criteria and what you want to achieve. The general rule is litho for long print-runs and digital for short-print runs but do take into account special extras such as spot colours and personalisation.

What is photo retouching?

Photo retouching is usually when an image is improved in terms of brightness, sharpness, improved skin tone and cropping but the overall image is recognizable from the original.

Below is a demonstration for you to show you what we do to retouch a photo so it looks great in print.

Before

sunfox/CC by 2.0

The before image is exactly as it was supplied. The composition of the shot is great and we really like that all the cows are looking to camera. However there are a few areas to improve to make the photo suitable to print.

1. The image is too dark, especially for use in print work. All of the details of the grass by the cows’ feet would print as a murky horrible mess.
2. The sky is typical of British overcast weather. It looks bleak and will bleed into any white space on the final design.
3. The cows have spots of black on their faces and green mud on their sides. The mud on their knees is ok as it indicates they’ve been lying down but the spots and smudges look messy.
4. There is a streak of purple/blue lens fringing on the side of the tree.

After

This is where our retouching skills come in really handy. In the after photo we lightened the dark areas to bring out details in the image. This has also made the grass much more vibrant. We added in some new blue sky to make the image feel bright and summery. We retouched the cows to remove the spots and smudges. We removed the lens fringing and finally brightened and added contrast to the whole image. The retouched image will now look nice and bright when printed. Simple.

Below are some of our favourites.

What is image manipulation?

Image manipulation is where different images are put together and tonally matched up to create a completely new image. Modern image manipulation is generally done in Photoshop, although there are also other software packages.

Compositing photos did not start with Photoshop. Examples of historical photo manipulation can be found going as far back as the 1900s. Hany Farid from Dartmouth College has put together a comprehensive history of image manipulation raising interesting ethical questions as well as showing some great examples.

See some fantastic examples of photo retouching and manipulation by renowned photographer and retoucher Erik Johansson.

Left: 300dpi High-resolution Right: 72dpi Low-resolution images

For many clients working with graphic designers, the issue of image resolution has been brought up. As designers we’re always requesting high-resolution images from clients for print projects. Many clients, however, might not know what these are or why they are so important to us. So we’ve put together a guide to help explain.

So what is resolution?

The Dictionary definition of resolution is: the degree of detail visible in a photographic or television image.

In basic terms, the resolution quality of an image depends on how many dpi (dots per inch) or pixels make up the image. Images are usually measured in pixel width and height. These measurements determine whether images are high or low-resolution. Web images are always set to 72dpi whereas print images need to be set to 300dpi to be sharp when printed. For this reason, images taken from the Internet will never look sharp in print. They will always appear fuzzy or blocky so we strongly recommend not using web images in print.

The example above shows the difference between high and low-resolution images. The image on the left is high-resolution set at 300dpi. The image is sharp and looks good. The image on the right is low-resolution set at 72dpi. Although the two images are the same size, the right-hand image is blurred and unsuitable for print.

How can I tell if I am supplying high-resolution images?

If you are a PC user, right-click on the actual photo file. A list of options will pop up with “Properties” at the bottom. Left-click on “Properties.” A window will open with two tabs at the top, “General” and “Summary.” Left-click the “Summary” tab. Midway down that tab you’ll see “Advanced.” Left-click on “Advanced.” You can now see the Width and Height of your photo in pixels, as well as the dpi resolution.

If you are a mac user, select the image in the Finder and right-click. “Get info” will appear in the list. Click this to open the info window. Click the arrow next to “More Info” for the image dimensions in pixels. The Finder does not display the dpi resolution.

The file size of the image can also be a good indicator of quality. Images under 1mb (megabyte) will generally be unsuitable for printing.

Below is a chart to help you determine what size your 300dpi high-resolution supplied images should be:

We hope that this has explained the importance of high-resolution images and we have made it easier for you to check the images you send us to ensure the best quality print results. Download our Guide to Image Resolution to keep and print for reference.

Mono Design will be closing on Thursday 23rd December and will reopen on Tuesday 4th January 2011.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business over the last year and we look forward to working with you in the New Year.

From everyone here at Mono. Lynne, Mark, Rowena, Helen and Holly.

To many, graphic design is an overlooked and misunderstood profession. As designers we’ve all had comments of “oh so you do colouring in” or “you just make things look pretty”.

The industry of graphic design

According to NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the creative industries are critical to this country’s cultural and economic success, contributing more than £50 billion to the economy every year. The crux of the problem is that graphic design is not seen by the masses as a specialist skill – most students undertake three or four years of training before graduating. According to the Higher Education Standards Agency, there are currently 55,310 undergraduates on design studies courses in the UK. With almost four in ten design consultancies expecting their new recruits to have completed an undergraduate degree, this is not an industry that people accidentally fall into. It is a highly competitive industry in which many graduates struggle get employment.

In many cases, people are not prepared to approach graphic designers for work that they feel they can achieve themselves. Graphic design is much more than words and pictures on printed materials or websites. Graphic design is about communication, ideas, marketing and style. Just because MS Word allows images to be imported doesn’t mean that people should use it over employing specialists. I always compare hiring graphic designers to hiring a bricklayer to build a garden wall. Yes, you could have a go yourself but in all likelihood the wall would end up wonky, wobbly and probably something that you wouldn’t want outside your front door.

So what is it about graphic design that people don’t get? In reality graphic design is everywhere. Every consumable in our homes has been designed – from our favourite brand of tinned beans in our cupboards to the magazines on our coffee table. Graphic design can influence you over what bottle of wine you buy or what mobile phone company you think would be the best service provider.

Designing out of the downturn

According to the Design Council, graphic design is even helping businesses through the recession. Their research shows that more than half of the UK’s businesses are looking to design their way out of the downturn: Over half (54%) of the firms thought design would contribute to a large or great extent in helping maintain their competitive edge in the current economic climate; 53% thought that design had become more important in helping to achieve business objectives over the last three years; the same number agreed or strongly agreed that design is integral to the country’s future economic performance. “There are many ways design can help your business perform more strongly, from improving your image (internally and externally), innovating your products or services, through to enhancing your overall efficiency and saving you money.”

We admit that we can be a bit obsessive over typefaces, image composition and colours. But it’s all for the good of the particular project. Here at Mono we believe that we’re only as good as our last project and we strive for perfection in everything we do. So if we get a bit overprotective of our designs, it’s because we think they’re the best solution for the client and we are, after all, specialists in what we do.

If you want to read case studies about designing out of the recession.

Take a look at the incredibly informative Industry Insights 2010. A Design Week supplement showcasing the results of a Design Council survey of the design industry.

Read the Layperson’s Guide to Graphic Design article by well-known and respected Graphic Designer, Adrian Shaughnessy.

Welcome to the new blog section of our new-look website.

We’ve spent the last few months developing our website which includes new features such as this lovely blog section. We’ve also included more great work examples than ever before and some fantastic quotes from our happy clients.

Be sure to sign up to our new email newsletter to keep updated with what we’re up to. Our newsletters will go out quarterly so we promise not to take up too much of your inbox.