Long Hours of Design

• The Basics of Production — #1

All designers need to work with a contract. Without one, you’re a high-wire act without a net.

In earthquake country.

On a windy day.

But perhaps even more fundamental than that are the basic agreement that make up your project.

Today, let’s talk about specifications.

Specifications

“Specification” is defined as “the act of describing or identifying something precisely or of stating a precise requirement.”

It almost goes without saying that if you don’t precisely identify what you’ll be designing, it’ll be mighty hard to design it.

Now, as stupid as it sounds, the lesson to learn here is that specifications are about specifics.

Learning from My Stupidity

Now, this doesn’t mean that requirements can’t change, or that a project may evolve into something else — but before you start a project, you’ve got to nail down exactly what you’re building.

A direct-mail house recently requested a postcard from me. They didn’t know the exact size, but they knew their client would want something big—6x9, they thought.

So, I went ahead and started with a 6x9.

I didn’t nail down the exact size; I didn’t double check to see if he was certain; and I sure didn’t require that he get me a final size before I start any work on the project. I had worked with his printer before—I didn’t even look over the old card I had done to check the size.

We worked the card, I submitted proofs, and everything had traveled up the line to the semi-approval phase (that’s a technical term.)

Only then did I actually check with the client.

Turns out, it wasn’t a 6 x 9, it was a 5 x 8.

We All Make Stupid Mistakes

Now, a change of one inch less may not seem like a big deal, but trust me—after you’ve designed a piece all the way through, changing the size to any degree is a pain.

Like a falling-out-of-a-plane-without-a-parachute type pain.

Of course, this was an rank-amateur mistake.

But it pointed up some valuable things about specifications.

‘Da Specifications of ‘da Specifications

Now, the list of things which you could specify is as long and varied as the number of print projects you could ever possibly put your hands on.

But there are some basic items that you’ll always need to know:

1. Size

• How big is the piece?
  
• What are it’s bleed dimensions, if any?
  
• What’s a safe area for trim?
  

2. Colors

• Full Color?
  
• Black and White?
  
• Duo- Tri- or Quadra-Tone
  
• Any PMS or Trumatch colors?
  

3. Copy/Content

• Just what the heck is supposed to BE in this piece, anyway?

The Lesson

The lesson here, though perhaps it seems like an obvious one, is: know before you go. Get the specs!

I got this posted on InDesign Secrets.com.

Original Post is here

Daniel T. wrote us to report a creative use for InDesign:

My current contract had used Quark for a long time; they recently purchased CS3 with the intent to switch over to InDesign, but because no one really knew InDesign, they were slow to get started.

I was stuck revising a pretty long text document in Quark—about 32 pages worth of exhibitor listings. I started out by assigning keyboard shortcuts to my Quark Style Sheets, and manually applying these to each paragraph. This was going to take FOREVER! I wanted to quit! I longed for InDesign’s “Apply xx Style then Next Style” command.

But alas.

Then, I had a bright idea.

I imported the unformatted text into InDesign and quickly set up paragraph styles. Then, using ID’s Apply Style then Next feature, I styled the whole 32 pages in one mouse click. (Woo-hoo!)

Then I exported the text as RTF, and then imported it into QuarkXPress, selecting the option to “Keep Style Sheets.” The text flowed in with all the style sheets intact! I needed to redefine the colors, as RTF doesn’t really keep them well, and tweak a few other things in the Quark version of the style sheets: but hours and hours and hours of endless clicking and arrow-downing evaporated into about 45 minutes.

Thank you, InDesign!

Daniel wins this weeks official InDesignSecrets chutzpah award for a great use of InDesign in the face of adversity! Plus, bonus points if you can write an AppleScript to merge the QX and ID workflow automatically.

To that I add: Excellent.

Almost all design departments I’ve been in like uniform folder structures, so things are easier to find.

The is an excellent idea, and anyone who doesn’t already do this should.

There are many different systems for doing this.

Some companies simply have their employees create new folders and rename them, or copy a “template” folder from somewhere on their server.

Here’s a quick way to so this using Apple Script.

Copy and paste this script into a new Script Editor document or open in Script Editor

tell application "Finder"
make new folder in Finder window 1 with properties {name:"OLD"}
make new folder in Finder window 1 with properties {name:"ART"}
make new folder in Finder window 1 with properties {name:"COPY"}
make new folder in Finder window 1 with properties {name:"PDF"}
make new folder in Finder window 1 with properties {name:"PRINT"}
make new folder in folder "PRINT" of Finder window 1 with properties {name:"OLD PRINT"}
end tell

(The last line of this script creates a sub-folder within “PRINT”)

Change the names of each folder, and delete or copy lines as necessary to fit your folder structure.

Then, “Save As…” an application and drag this script into the toolbar of your Finder.

Anytime you need a new folder, click on the script, and violá! A new folder set.

Every design department needs a job tracking system.

Ideally, each and every job that goes through a shop—big or small—should have a unique number attached to it.

This number should carry through the whole life of a project, from start to press—it should be contained in a database for storage, retrieval and look-up; it should be printed on your proofs and finals; and it should be included as part of the document file-name or meta-data.

There are many methods one could use to accomplish this.

Here’s a simple method I devised.

Building a Tracking System

There are a few things necessary in a job-tracking system:

1. Each project number needs to be unique
2. You must be able to store and retrieve these numbers
3. The master list must be access-restricted: you want average Joe employee to be able to submit a job number request—but not edit the master list.

That said, here’s a quick-and-dirty job tracking system using Google Docs.

Quick-and-Dirty Method

Here’s a Google-Docs Spreadsheet I’ve set up as an example. ^{[ 1 ]}

Google Job Tracking Examples

Google Job Tracking Examples

Google Job Tracking Examples 2

Google Job Tracking Examples 2

This spreadsheet uses Google Docs “Submit Form” feature (which is amazing for a lot of applications and I imagine will only get more useful as time goes on).

This is made up of 4 different parts:

1. The form itself.
2. The form’s raw input sheet (sheet 1)
3. A sheet for behind-the-scenes calculations (sheet 2)
4. And a sheet with the final job number (sheet 3)

How this Works

Let’s run through how this works.

First, we create a new Google Spreadsheet.

1. Click the “Form” tab at the top left, then create a new form, including all the data you wish to collect for tracking

Google then links the form you just created to a spreadsheet. This auto-populates whenever someone fills out your form.

We leave this sheet as it is and name it “Raw Data.” ^{[ 2 ]}

2. Next, set up a “behind the scenes” sheet, which calculates the tracking number. It pulls data from the “Raw Data” form and processes it.

Here’s how this is set up:

A. The “Date Value” column pulls from the far left “Time Stamp” column; however, this column uses the “=datevalue(xx)” formula, which turns the date into a unique string. In my example, I’ve set up an “if” statement to keep the column clean. ^{[ 3 ]}

B. The “Unique Daily Iteration” column checks to see if the date string is unique; if more than one form was submitted on that day, the date strings are going to be identical. If they are, this column adds an extension. ^{[ 4 ]}
C. The tracking number then pulls the letter code, the date value and the iteration if needed. ^{[ 5 ]}

3. Lastly, the third sheet is the “public sheet”—where assigned tracking numbers can be looked up or searched for. This sheet simply pulls the data from the last sheet and presents it in an easy-to-use format. It’s also where your access control comes in, which we’ll see in a minute.

Real Life

This is very handy in real life.

• Your employees bookmark the “forms” page, like this one here (or you can embed it)
  
• When they need a new tracking number, simply access this page, enter the data, and hit “submit.”
• After that, they access the third sheet—the public sheet. This lists their new tracking number.

It’s as simple as that.

Criteria

Okay, this takes care of our first two minimum criteria.

Let’s look at our third: Access restriction.

This is incredibly easy with Google Docs.

1. Have a manager (or someone who will administer the tracking system) create these spreadsheets. (You can also use the business version of Google Apps, a tool I highly recommend)

2. Under the “Publish” tab, select “Sheet 3 Only” and “Republish.” Google will provide you with a link. As long as you don’t supply a name and password to anyone else, this “Public Page” is viewable by anyone, and you can easily find the tracking number you’re looking for. You can also “Share” this file with selected others.

Violá! A job tracking system.

I’ve only just touched my little-toe in the deep waters that are WordPress—but so far, I’m impressed. (Which I guess is a typical sentiment—well, shit—I’ve said something trite.)

I look forward to importing and re-writing old content, as I never really got going, and to designing my blog from scratch—I’ve got the layout, I just need to recode things and wrap up the CSS.

Overall, this is fairly exciting!