Magazines often employ unique visual characteristics that are determined by more than just type and aesthetic elements.

We spend considerable time and energy with deep examination of how our clients want to express the overall theme – graphically and textually – through the layout of their magazine's spreads. Our designers work closely with the editors and writers to achieve the right balance of visual and linguistic cues for successful layout designs.

What makes you pick up a particular magazine or newspaper? And what keeps you interested in turning its' pages? In general, your answers probably involve some combination of content (text) and design (images, typography, and other graphic elements).

As publication designers, we at Flatiron Industries ask those same questions for every issue of every publication we work with.

Create Magazine: "Designing for Print on a Budget"

(This article appeared in the Summer 2006 Edition of Create Magazine, a quarterly magazine publishing an insider's perspective on the people, news, trends and events that influence the local advertising and creative production industries.)

Designing for Print on a Budget
by Thomas McKenna

Creative Contrarian
Whether you are a first-year design student or a 30-year veteran, every designer must constantly fight the never-ending limited-print-budget battle.

Contrary to what most designers think, however, restrictions on project budgets can offer the designer an opportunity to really stand out. Limited budgets are often seen as restricting options and choices in all corners of business and commerce, but a designer’s most worthy skill is his or her ability to solve problems.

Some of the most striking graphic design today uses little in the way of detailed imagery or color at all. The sparse use of decorative elements and excessive ornamentation draws us right to the message, with nothing getting in the way of the message. By removing extraneous ornamentation and detail from a design, today’s graphic designer uses this technique not just as a style but as a mission to achieve brilliant design. This Less is More approach entails simplifying all forms and objects to flat, stylized elements that enlist the role of geometry, pattern, and limited color.

For those working within a tight budget, there are many ways to work with your printer to save money:

Taking Stock in your Designs
It is sound print production practice to select the paper stock you will be using before starting on the design of a project, since the color, weight, coating and texture of paper may influence the context of the overall design.

A wide range of inexpensive yet attractive papers can contribute to reducing the project’s bottom line. Printers will always provide you with paper samples that they have in stock.

• Stock Coating: the degree of smoothness is created during the paper-making process

• Stock Finish: refers to its texture

• Stock Weight: describes the thickness and “heft” that a particular paper stock holds. (Weight is defined as how much 500 sheets of the particular paper would weigh at the standard size)

• Stock Strength: the durability of the paper. Envelopes and paper bags need to be made of strong stock

• Stock Brightness: refers to more light that will reflect off of the paper.

This Design is Considered A Knockout
A “knockout” in any developing applicable design needs to be considered as a blank “see-through” space within the overall design being applied that shows through to the viewer. If the stock being used is colored, that color will replace the perceived white in your desktop design.

This knockout principle can be used to great advantage, and the above stock considerations play into its effectiveness.

Limited Color with Limitless Possibilities
The main specification of any print job is determining the amount of colors that will appear within the project. You need to know this job “spec” to determine how to approach the design and layout of almost every element within your project to successfully complete the job.

Although efficient and inexpensive 4-color printing is becoming more and more commonplace, it is still often cheaper to reduce the costs of print jobs by using less than 4 plates for a print run.

One way to reduce costs is to utilize a one- or two-plate (spot color) design. Yet its simplicity is deceiving — it takes real artistry and skill to effectively leverage the power of contrast.

Applying Spot Colors
Spot colors are predefined colors that you can use in a print project to achieve more accurate color than a color created using the CMYK process.

Spot colors are excellent for reproducing bold graphics, such as logos or other vector art. The colors are distinct and appear more uniform than process colors. The nature of flat, limited color has a great impact as well. This flat color focuses attention on the power of the image, without any extraneous noise.

Using Spot Tints
Once you choose a spot color, you can set the tint of it to display a percentage that will lighten the color. You are not lightening the actual color, though. What you are really doing is screening the spot color to give it the appearance of a lighter tint.

This is a great technique that will facilitate spot color depth in your designs, since these percentages will offer you softer tints of the spot colors you are using.

One and Two Color Printing
One color printing means using only one plate with one ink. It is the cheapest type of printing you can have done. Keep in mind that if you use one color, it does NOT have to be black and, as we referred to earlier, the paper does NOT have to be white. Variations with both printing inks and paper color will give you different options when pricing out a job, and often open up different creative opportunities to boot.

Two color printing use any combination of two colors, be it black with 1 spot color or 2 spot colors. Two color printing is a fairly common practice for any number of print jobs, because it achieves a balance between budget and quality of output. 2-color designs may be low budget, but they can still be highly refined and visually compelling.

Two Spot Color Overprinting
You can also consider how 2 spot colors might work together when overprinted, creating a third color.

Before you decide to mix spot colors, it is a good idea to check with your printer about how the colors will appear when combined. Their experience of what tints of your chosen colors mix well together is a valuable resource, and printers will be happy to recommend suitable mixtures based on their knowledge of how different spot colors mix on press.

Top Five Ways to Spend that hard-earned Money Saved:

1. Apply a Spot Varnish
One of my favorite techniques - restricted budget or not - is to use a spot varnish. A spot varnish is run just like a spot color, but a glossy varnish is laid down instead of an ink. You can incorporate subtle design elements into a project or gloss over just the title of a printed piece for added effect. You can also reverse a spot varnish, which has the opposite, but just as compelling, effect.

2. Apply a Metallic Spot Color
Metallic ink can be applied just like spot colors to create special effects within your designs. They are slightly more expensive to implement on press, but can really enhance certain projects with a metallic finish.

3. Apply a Fluorescent Spot Color
Also a bit more expensive, these bright inks can often spice up the right design. Also, many magazines mix fluorescent inks into their 4-color process mixes on their covers to give the magazine added attention at an overcrowded newsstand.

4. Apply Foil Blocking
Foil Blocking (or stamping) is the application of foil to paper where a heated die is stamped onto the foil, making it adhere to the surface leaving the design of the die on the paper.

5. Enhance the Design with Die cutting
Using sharp steel rules to cut special shapes from your discounted printed sheets can really help “shape” your final design. This process demands that you supply a mock-up of the project, so the printer understands your “cutting edge” directions.

Summary
These techniques are just some examples of how you can make the most out of creative cost cutting. The circumstances that dictate limited-budget solutions are increasingly common, but they provide more opportunities to find innovative ways of stretching your design dollar.

Finally keep in mind that projects which might want to exemplify modesty or restraint can gain from the perception that the designed material that is produced to market or inform was created on a modest budget.

Certain organizations, especially not-for-profits, will find that lower-priced designs not only fit well with their mission statements, but can bolster their standing in their respective fields.