Like carving the most delicate art, designing a letterpress requires meticulous attention to detail. You need to tailor the design to match the distinctive inking and graphic themes letterpresses are meant for. Letterpress is an ancient art form that has roots dating back to the 16th century. Though initially limited to metal and wood engravings, … Read more
Printing Basics
Recent Printing Basics articles
Choosing the Best Paper Type for Printing
If your work involves printing in any way, it’s in your best interest to know the right paper type. Even if you’ve come up with a great design, but you don’t know what a great print job entails, there’s a big possibility that your hard work might go down the drain. This sounds harsh, but … Read more
10 Common Mistakes of Print Marketing Designers and How to Address Them
Since the marketing world has moved online, a lot of people have become convinced that print marketing is no longer a viable way to attract customers. This may seem true on the surface, but by digging a little deeper, you’ll find out that print marketing is slowly making a resurgence. One of the major reasons … Read more
PANTONE® color bridge™ CMYK PC – Process Color Reference Chart Free Download
What is this thing and how do I use it? For those of you young and/or lazy designers who never made it around to buying an official Pantone color fanbook, this might just be the next best thing. I am not sure how it originated and it is certainly nowhere to be found on Pantone’s … Read more
How to Design Gold Foil Business Cards: The Ultimate Guide
It’s no secret that the vast majority of business cards get thrown away almost immediately. You can probably vouch for this fact firsthand, as you’ve more than likely thrown away a fair share yourself. What if you want to ensure that the connections you make hold on to your card, though? How can you stand … Read more
Embossing vs Debossing: An In-depth Guide
Image Source: https://www.behance.net/gallery/83389183/The-Gatherers Have you ever been to an art gallery or museum and felt a need to touch a textured artwork? We know the feeling, and hope you didn’t touch the valuable fine art. Fortunately for you, using texture isn’t limited to just fine art. You can use texture in your projects for people to … Read more
A Blast from the Far, Far Past: Understanding the History of Paper
Understanding the History of Paper Have you ever wondered where paper comes from and who invited it? Make sure you keep reading below to learn the complete history of paper. Have you ever wondered how much paper we actually use? We checked the records at the Environmental Protection Agency. Apparently, today over 68 million trees each … Read more
The Most Easily Readable Fonts for Web and Print
The best 12 fonts that are easier to read A more in-depth look at some of the best fonts available on the market. Looking for the right font might seem like a simple task and one that does not require a lot of thoughtfulness. However, the best designers out there spend a considerable amount of … Read more
Analogous & Complementary Colors – What’s the difference and how do I use them in my Graphic Designs?
Color is the most basic element in a design. Choosing the right color is key no matter whether the design is meant for marketing, promotion, branding, or simply filling a gap. Understanding of colors depends on many things, and colors have different interpretations in every country because people of different cultures associate colors with different … Read more
Serif vs. Sans-serif fonts, What’s the difference and why should I care?
(img src: https://www.canva.com/learn/serif-vs-sans-serif-fonts/) Graphic designers have numerous typefaces to choose from. But the first step is to choose between steps that have serifs and fonts which don’t. Keep reading to explore how this choice can impact your designing style. What are serifs? The small lines attached to alphabets are known as serifs. They probably originated … Read more
Color: RGB vs. Hex vs. CMYK vs. PMS (Pantone) – what’s the difference?
(Img Src: https://rcpmarketing.com/color-matching-system-pms-cmyk–rgb-hex/) Keeping the color precise and consistent in design is not easy. There are millions of designers working on content creation and printing worldwide. On top of that, there are endless varieties of browsers, mobile devices, TVs, and printing methods that make various designs come to life. No one can control the inherent … Read more
What is the rule of thirds, and how can you apply it in your graphic designs?
Photographers often use the rule of thirds for capturing perfect clicks. But graphic designers can also use it for turning a design into a thing of beauty. Rule of thirds is fairly easy to grasp, but this simple concept can make you a really good designer. What is the Rule of Thirds? This rule states … Read more
Make it Pop! How to Create Contrast in your Graphic Designs
When two visual elements in a design are dramatically different, then it is considered to be a contrast. The more the difference, the better will be the contrast. Making sure that the difference is obvious is key to working with contrast. Your design can have a contrast in value, type, size, color, and other elements. … Read more
What is white space (negative space) and why should you be using it in your graphic designs?
In a time where information is everything, we are tempted to pack our content with everything we know. We often tend to forget how the end-user will perceive our content, and will it be easy to understand. This is where white space comes in. Today we will discuss white space and how it affects your … Read more
What is the Golden Ratio, and how can you use it in your graphic designs?
What do the Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and the pyramids of Giza have in common? They were all designed by utilizing the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio is a mathematical number that is found in nature, and it can be a great tool for designs. It can foster natural-looking and organic compositions which will be … Read more
How Thick is a Business Card: Explained
Business card paper GSM and thickness explained No matter what profession we choose, business cards are the first impression of the brand and what it is trying to achieve. The card stock is measured in points for business cards; with a variating thickness corresponding to different thicknesses. A business card is the most important aspect … Read more