PUSH printing

Today I went to a printing seminar with 'Push printing,' a printers based in London. It was an extremely useful talk and made me realise more how much I do love printed design, being able to touch the work for me makes it so much better. It is so true that the choice of paper stock can really change the whole feel and look of the work and if chose correctly, make it look much better.

Marisa talked us through the whole process of taking a piece of design to print including how a print specification should be written. She had brought along a massive selection of work they had printed and there was some really great stuff. Just by the way a piece of work is printed it makes you want to pick it up and look at it. She discussed the terminology used by printers and although some of it did sound a bit confusing a lot of it is just how it sounds for example: 'centre sewn' simply means the document is sewn down the centre...really not that confusing! Other common phrases printers use are:

• Perfect Binding - where the spine is glued
• exposed binding - there is no cover - the spine is exposed and allows the document to lay flat when opened, there is no restriction when you open the book.
• saddle stitch - stapled down the centre fold (I don't know why they don't just say stapled!)
• side sewn - sewn at the side
• centre sewn - sewn down the centre
• self cover - the document has no finishing - there is no outer cover - this works well with a light paper stock where the same stock is used throughout the whole document.
• duplexing - glueing two boards together - provides a rigid finish and is used a lot for invitaions

How to write a printing spec. correctly:

• give the work a title
• pages - eg: 4 page cover + 32 page text
• size (say in mm)
• how you want it printed - eg: 4 colour print throughout
• paper stock - for the cover and inside pages
• any extras - eg: folied, laminated, perferated etc.
• finishing - eg: perfect bound, saddle stitch etc.
• delivery
• quantity
• list any alternatives - for example how the price would alter if you wanted more foiled lettering etc.

A few examples of their work...

It was great to hear about the otherside of the design process, which is just as important as designing the piece itself. We were given a good insight into the whole printing process which I am sure is something I will have to deal with when working in industry. Overall a very useful seminar!