Digital Backgrounds

[Justin]

You're absolutely right Russ and I would always want to ensure that the photo of their nearest and dearest is the focal point of any print, the frame needs to enhance this and not detract but I find nothing worse than a passport sized photograph appearing on the front and back of a mug. A simple drop shadow can make all the difference but sometimes I think you need more.

[JMugs]

Ahhhh thats the point isn't it " but sometimes I think you need more".

25 years of working for myself and I now work on the basis that I know nothing! The client says, I do, client happy, I'm paid. Less hassle, and I like less hassle.

Now if I was working with an Arty Farty client base with pots of cash that would be different. Some of the examples in the links you posted would deserve big money, and good skills. Out of my league, but a good one to get in if you can!

I hasten to add my 25 years self employed have not been in this line of work and therefore I could well be talking a load of Westcountry Bollocks!.

Janners

[Justin]

Yeah, you're talking Bollocks Janners but if I put a tongue in cheek smiley here I can get away with saying that.

[Justin]

There ya go!

[phoenixalpha]

I totally agree.... I've been a Graphic Designer now for 2 decades or so. The customer is always right even when they are dead wrong.

It's they who pay your wages and even if they want a pile of crap then thats what they want. I've learned over the years that you can come up with the best design ever known to mankind, but if the customer wants a stock logo of their company in reflex blue and Times New Roman, then thats what they want and they wont change their minds. Everyone has an opinion on design, even if its out their backside and completely wrong but they are the ones paying the money for your work. If its crap they want, I'd suggest a couple of alternatives instead, but if they dont want to take my advice - its their money that they are spending so who am I to say otherwise.

If a customer comes to me with a picture taken on their phone which is postage stamp sized and they want that "kids writing style of writing" (ie comic sans) - I would say that perhaps the image wont reproduce well as its such a small size and I would recommend another typeface, unless of course they do want it to look that bad, but if the customer wants that... well then I'd do my best to ensure my customer walks away at the end of the day happy with one of my products.

[Justin]

So your customer walks away with a poorly printed products, poor quality logo etc. What happens with word of mouth? Who printed that for you, it's crap...who designed that for you, it's amateur....I won't be using them then. I know printers who flatly refuse to send anything out sub standard, I also know printers who will produce anything as long as they get paid.

It's an interesting debate.

[Russ]

Sometimes they will need steering in the right direction - that's when you may have to throw some 'image resolution ' 'reproduction issues' comments in ( so long as you know what you're talking about )

[Justin]

OK, example of what I'm talking about. I have this image ...
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1209[/ATTACH]

Produced on a white background and has been cropped square as you can see. Printed front and back on a mug, printed in the middle of a jigsaw puzzle and so on. Without a background to extend the image would get lost on the white unprinted area.

What would you suggest here?

[phoenixalpha]

So your customer walks away with a poorly printed products, poor quality logo etc. What happens with word of mouth? Who printed that for you, it's crap...who designed that for you, it's amateur....I won't be using them then. I know printers who flatly refuse to send anything out sub standard, I also know printers who will produce anything as long as they get paid.

It's an interesting debate.

Anything I send out is of the highest and best quality I can make it, but if the customer wants crap, supplies crap, then the only thing coming out the other side is crap too. So if a customer comes in with a small photo of her daughter, its the only one she has, would you turn her away? Do you turn away work that you personally dislike? I deal with a lot of customers who have the worst kind of design work done (its done in Word, Publisher, 4 colour black text, images in RGB or at 72dpi, or ripped off a website with the copyright still watermarked on them - the list goes on and on and I'm not talking small backstreet companies. Even big multinational companies that I've worked with in the past have been guilty of these).

You as a designer/printer/whatever do the best of your own abilities to make it look good and a quality product but its what you get in and the customers attitude/finances/limitations that dictate what is achievable.

[Justin]

Sometimes they will need steering in the right direction - that's when you may have to throw some 'image resolution ' 'reproduction issues' comments in ( so long as you know what you're talking about )

Isn't this the same as I? lol.

Resolution isn't the issue here but I appreciate that can be a problem. The problem is getting the image to look decent on different blanks.