graphic design

My job is relatively uncreative. I get to fix and troubleshoot other people’s mistakes and deal with the crap that occurs when I fail to properly read their minds. I have come to loathe most “graphic designers” as hacks who know nothing about printing but think that because they have the latest version of Adobe Creative Suite they are qualified to call themselves designers. This is unfair to the few I work with whose work both looks good and requires no mindreading by anyone in order to print it.

I stay sane by doing some freelance design in my spare time. I try and use what I know about the printing process to fuel my design and I will create things that I wish would come across my desk. One such thing I wish I saw more of at work are jobs that mix spot colors. You can get nicer images and a much wider color palette by mixing two spot colors in addition to using them individually. Unfortunately, it’s hard to proof how multi-ink will turn out and most designers now don’t know enough about the printing process to trust that the design will print as expected.

I have no such worries. My job requires me to know how a file will print before it goes on press and I need to be able to work with color separations without caring what the composite looks like. The Hidden Villa Full-Moon Hike Postcard, Trail Guide, and Annual Report are great examples of this. These pieces use only two inks and I designed them with the color separations in mind rather than starting with some composite color. As a result, for what is really a two-color job, I’ve gotten much more than two colors.

The postcard and the trail guide also use only two process colors. This means that they can be printed almost anywhere using almost any process. Thus, I can shop around and get the best price possible. This approach works well for non-profits, and especially well for environmental ones since fewer inks means less setup and less waste.

In some ways, I can see myself wanting to just do design for non-profits. It’s fulfilling to know that I’m doing more than just working to make things look nice. I’m saving them money and probably giving them bettter design than they thought they could afford. Cheap doesn’t have to mean “loving hands.”

I also design for myself and my friends. It can for be important things like my wedding invitation or silly things like Hovav’s graduation present. Either way, I’ve found that I need to keep my juices flowing otherwise I’d just be a bitter pre-press guy. My entire graphic design portfolio makes up a different part of vossbrink.net.