What Is Print Design and How Does It Affect Your Layout?

Print design is the process of creating printed assets such as business cards, brochures and flyers. These materials can help you stand out at networking events and ensure people remember your name.

Print design should always look clean and polished, which can be achieved by following these seven tips.

Printing Processes

Print design has many processes that can shape your layout. These range from the ancient to the contemporary.

Offset Printing – Offset printing is one of the most common types of printing and involves using multiple plates to produce full-color images. Each plate is prepared for a specific color and layered over another to form an overall image.

Digital Printing – This modern method enables you to print directly from your computer, making it ideal for producing labels, packaging prototypes and corrugated boxes.

Flexography – A modern alternative to letterpress printing, flexography is suitable for printing on plastic, metal, cellophane and paper. It has become particularly popular in large-scale production runs.

This process begins with a relief of a printing plate made from rubber, which is then inked and transferred onto the printing surface.

Materials

When printing your company’s brochure or creating custom branded promotional items for clients, selecting the correct materials is essential. Opting for the wrong one could make your project less successful than expected.

Print materials are an ideal way to promote your brand, as they can be printed on a range of substrates in various sizes. But selecting the right material doesn’t just depend on aesthetics – it also depends on what message you want to convey.

The ideal print materials should reflect your company’s branding, with consistent design style, fonts, colors and types of images. This allows your logo and name to stand out and be easily recognized by consumers. For instance, businesses looking to promote themselves as environmentally conscious should utilize eco-friendly and recyclable paper; this is especially crucial for brochures sent out via mail to potential customers or clients.

Bleed

Bleed is an integral component of print design that guarantees your final piece is accurately printed with no cuts off at the edges. Without bleed, there’s a risk that paper shifting during printing could create uneven edges, jagged lines or even missing artwork pieces.

A bleed area can also help eliminate white strips on the edge of your printed piece that may be caused by printing process movement and, in the case of leaflets, flyers and brochures, may reduce its visual impact.

Commercial printing typically uses a bleed of 0.125 inches (1/8th inch) on all four sides, which allows your colors or graphics to extend beyond the edge of the paper and helps minimize any trimming errors that may arise.

Layout

Layout is a vital element of any print design project. It ensures the information is presented clearly and easily readable.

Layout design should adhere to several principles, such as visual hierarchy, contrast, alignment and balance. These ideas will make your layout stand out from others and make it simpler for people to comprehend what you’re trying to convey.

1. Alignment: There are various methods for aligning elements in a design, but two of the most common options are edge alignment and center alignment. With one, text will be aligned along either left or right margins while with the other, smaller text sections will be placed centrally within your layout.

2. Shapes: Employing shapes in a design can create an atmosphere of depth and unity. They also serve to delineate space between other visual elements, add graphic effects, or emphasize text.

Size is another crucial aspect of design. Whether you’re creating a poster, billboard, business card or mobile phone screen design, size can be the difference in legibility for your message.