Graphic Design Standards
When producing graphic design for EVOKE, the following design standards need to be adhered to.
Print Workflow
Quick Drafts
A Quick Draft is the term EVOKE uses to describe a draft that was quickly conceived to convey a potential design idea. Early in the design process, it is best to submit 3+ completely different Quick Designs. At this phase, we are just brainstorming different layouts and how effect the message is communicated. The more diversity the better. Please submit your Quick Designs as 100 DPI jpgs. This process is repeated and refined as many times as necessary until 1 design is selected as the Working Draft.
Working Drafts
When a design is considered to the the Working Draft, we are done brainstorming and ready to make minor adjustments to the layout. At this phase, a PSD of the design will be requested. (When submitting a PSD, all layers should be named and in an organized folder structure.) EVOKE will make desired tweaks to the PSD and return it to the designer for finalizing. (This process is much faster than given written feedback on changes to a jpg.)
Print Basics
Graphic Assets Download: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0q3jrwtr9lg2rd/AAB41X6DpdzfmOjjlGErUHVSa?dl=0
EVOKE exclusively uses 4Over for all print jobs. BEFORE STARTING YOUR DESIGN WORK…please carefully read the resources below.
Trade4Over FAQs: https://trade.4over.com/faq.php
4Over FAQs: https://4over.com/#faqs
Start with a 4Over Canvas Template
Start your design using a template from 4Over. This should always be the background of your PSD File.
https://trade.4over.com/templates.php
Spot UV Print Jobs
When creating a Spot UV job, you must include a Spot UV template file along with the regular print file. The Spot UV template file is used to show where the UV coating needs to be applied. Use solid 100% K to indicate where you would like the UV. Do not use shadows, glows or grayscale images. White will indicate no UV.
Getting Rich Black for Print Jobs
4Over suggests using C 60 M 40 Y 40 K 100 to get rich blacks.
Print Ready PDF Files
(See the Print Ready PDF Samples in the example file downloads.) For print jobs, PDF Files will be required. When saving as PDF, images should not be compressed and all text should remand as vector. For more information, check out the FAQs on 4Over’s websites. This is a critical step and must be done correctly.
File Naming Conventions
A finished spot UV print job will be comprised of 6 files. 2 files will be PSDs and 4 files will be PDFs. Please use the following naming convention to keep everything organized. In this example, “Pricelist” is the name of the job and “Mask” refers to the Spot UV file.
PSD Files
– 001 – Pricelist – Front.psd
– 001 – Pricelist – Back.psd
PDF Files
– 001 – Pricelist – Front.pdf
– 001 – Pricelist – Front Mask.pdf
– 001 – Pricelist – Back.pdf
– 001 – Pricelist – Back Mask.pdf
Print Check List
Here is a quick checklist help you.
- Canvas Sized according to 4Over Template (See: https://trade.4over.com/templates.php)
- Rich Black Used (See: https://trade.4over.com/faq.php)
- Spot UV Set up Correctly (See: https://trade.4over.com/faq.php)
- Colors Converted to CMYK (See: https://trade.4over.com/faq.php)
- Spelling is Correct
- PDFs are at “Press Quality” with no compression to Line or Text (See: https://trade.4over.com/faq.php)
- PDF files are named correctly