friggin' designers

[prepress_goddess]

i like LoganBlade's suggestion on the Courier typeface.

good one -

this brochure is a loaded gun as well - the last item we printed for him, he complained about fuzzy type - he's just too stubborn and thinks that his 1 year experience as a designer outweighs my 15 years in prepress

[seetomtype]

A couple of months ago I worked a 72 page booklet. I had it easier than the
designer did I'll bet. Every page saved as a seperate Photoshop pdf.

I have a freind that designs work for his dad's company. Literally every
document he does is set up in Photoshop. Letterhead, Business cards,
brochures and even company memo's from his dad :roll: He asked if
we could do a small job for him. I told him I didn't like to mix good friends
and business.

[jimking]

Originally Posted by pmkprog

If designers are better than prepress, they make more per hour and charge more for the design work.
If prepress fixes all of the problems and re-designs files for print, than why do we get paid less? Especially since we can't get away with knowing one app, working on one machine, and have to know how to magically make raster images become vector and how to get spot colors to work with transparency.

Our jobs are as thankless as garbage men!

A good prepress person could make a damn good graphic designer! Period---

[prepress_brillance_43]

Originally Posted by jimking

A good prepress person could make a damn good graphic designer! Period---

I am trying to crossbreed, but somehow an owner of a printshop/bindery thinks that it is unethical to do graphic design because said prepress person is SUPPOSED to say oh sure we at, Blank Company, would love to charge you $100/hr and pay our prepress operator $20/hr to do the work... :roll: :x going round and round... who in their right fucking mind as a business owner thinks it is his right to tell his employees what they can and cant do OFF THE CLOCK!! :idea:

..and so it leads to.. the printing goes elsewhere and Blank company loses the print revenue...

print revenue for said freelance VS NO revenue for said freelance?? you would think the owner would want the print revenue, and they do but they also want your soul. :twisted: GREEDY BITCHES!! :x

[prepress_goddess]

[who in their right fucking mind as a business owner thinks it is his right to tell his employees what they can and cant do OFF THE CLOCK!!]

i say, if they don't want the business, keep your mouth shut and do it on the side. one of the nice things about doing work on the side is that YOU can pick and choose your customers. Most of us have dealt with enough customers that we can spot a trouble maker right off the bat, that's not to say you won't get blindsided once in a while.

make some contacts with other printers as well, i have friends here in phoenix throughout the industry including flexo, large format, specialty items and promotional items, and not all the projects i work on fit in the niche of the shop that i work full time.

[/quote]

[prepress_goddess]

still haven't quite figured out the "quote" function for replying to posts

[prepress_brillance_43]

its cool I got what you were saying... fyi here's what I do.. hit the quote button twice... you will get the "open and the close" quote codes, then type in between them..

I think your advice on keeping mouth shut and doing it elsewhere is unfortunatly the answer. I have begun logging contacts and getting quotes for design elsewhere, I kinda like doing the prepress on my own files though, better control :wink: and I'll be damned if that designer doesnt create great files... :wink:

cheers _goddess

[prepress_goddess]

PB_43 -

that's the best thing about knowing our end of the trail - if you get design work in, you are already working in industry standard programs. I've found that most (98%) of the shops i deal with will gladly accept a press ready pdf - using their distiller settings of course - some just want native files, but that is where the communication comes into play. Once your client has approved everything, talk with who is going to print it and find out what they prefer.

I've had gracious emails from other prepress departments in other print shops that i deal with on how "perfect" my files are when submitted. Much better than a nasty-gram!

YOU CAN DO IT!

:wink:

[pmkprog]

Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
I've had customers approach me to do things that the company doesn't offer. The customer knew it when they asked me. If I'm not directly soliciting myself on company time or against the company, then I say it's fair game.
We've all seen enough crap that even if you're not the best designer, you still know what looks good.

[prepress_goddess]

the clients that i have are obtained from past relationships with coworkers, friends, family and current clients. I don't conduct my side business on company time. One of the first things that I discuss with a new client is that my time available to work on projects is after "normal" business hours, and during weekends. I will use my breaks and lunch to conduct my side business, but I am also "off the clock" on my full time job. Everyone in my shop has some sort of moonlighting going on.