Creating a design for you

I charge $60/hr for the design consult time for print clients, but you’re welcome to create your own design if you are familiar with Illustrator or InDesign (please see tips below for how to make a letterpress-friendly design). To have me create a design for you, please describe the style you have in mind, so I can give you an estimate for the design fee.

If you’re in the Portland area, you have the option of coming to my office to be there with me to give input along the way.*  If you’re not local or don’t have time to meet, I can just send you a digital file of the design and edit it until it fits your vision or we can schedule remote design meeting where I share my screen with you and we design it together.

PREPPING FOR THE DESIGN MEETING

Before the design meeting, I recommend you pin pictures of other invites/cards you like on a Pinterest board (or email me pictures of ones you see online), so I can get a better sense of what you want to aim for.  Doing a Google search for letterpress cards or taking a look at the photo gallery on my website will be good places to find examples you can share with me to give me a sense of the style you want.

TIPS ON MAKING A LETTERPRESS-FRIENDLY DESIGN

- It’s best to design your files in Adobe Illustrator or InDesign, embed & vectorize all images, and convert all fonts to outlines (see directions below), and send to me as a PDF. If you don’t have Illustrator, you can design it in Photoshop and send it to me and I can try converting it, but just know that it may look a little bit different, depending on how complex your design is.

- To outline your fonts in Illustrator or InDesign, select all of your text with the Selection Tool (black arrow), go to the “Type” drop-down menu and select “Create Outlines”.

- Your graphic should be made of lines, or fills that will print solidly, not something that resembles pencil shading.

- The minimum line weight to prevent broken lines in printing is 0.35pt.

- Note that areas with large fills won't be super opaque - I can show you samples of this if you ask for them.

- Please scale all designs to 100% of the print size (in inches)

- All colors at 100% opacity, with no tints

* Letterpress inks are not super opaque, so printing light colors on dark paper is not advisable unless you’re looking for silver/gold ink on black paper.

- Make sure to have at least 2 (preferably 3 people) proofread. I’ve had people spell their own names wrong and miss it. Once the client has approved the design, they are responsible for any errors, so please review carefully.

Any questions about what any of this means, feel free to email me.