August 8, 2022
The number one way to keep your graphic design costs down.
Well, we thought we would share the NUMBER ONE way that you can reduce your graphic design costs!
We have designed many things for our clients, from packaging to flyers to product catalogues, information booklets to large proposal documents.
The thing we see more often than we don’t, is the cost blowing out because of ONE thing – not having all the information ready and completed when we receive it. The bigger the document, the more the cost tends to blow out.
For example, if you have a large document that requires design, have the document 100% completed, spell-checked (multiple times by a few people!) and approved so that all that’s left for us to do is format the copy and design the collateral.
If the information is not completed or checked and we design it, but further changes are required, this is where we find the costs start going up because we end up having multiple content changes.
Adding a new piece of information may mean that the document from that point forward needs to be re-jigged including headings, text boxes and images moved to different pages, the contents page updated and if the document is a booklet destined for print, we may need to change the layout so that a page designed for the left or right hand side of the booklet still works on the opposite side it was originally formatted for. Bear in mind that printed books with stapled covers can only be assembled in multiples of 4 pages for example 24, 28, 32 pages (unless it’s being perfect bound) so this could lead to additional time in moving pages around to add an extra image page where it will work best.
The last thing we wish to do is charge our clients more, we would prefer they get great value for money and have the budget to do additional projects, which is why we’ve written this article!
We totally understand that things may change after you have sent us the copy which are outside your control, but by having your copy complete, finished and checked means that the likelihood of multiple changes to the copy is greatly reduced.
And less changes mean that the cost will stay down.
Also, graphic designers generally expect that the document you provide has been thoroughly checked and edited so it’s important not to rely on them to read your document from start to finish and pick up any spelling or grammatical errors. Of course, if we see something along the way that’s an error, we’ll fix it, but we won’t be going through the document with a fine-tooth comb. Not because we don’t like to be thorough, but because we are trying to keep costs at a minimum and proofing/reading your supplied information takes time which is then on-charged to the client.
