Woman holding a business card
According to a survey by the design collaboration site, 99designs.com, the 54% of small businesses owners handle their normal design chores either themselves or have an internal staff member who does the work.
The problem is that while 80% of them agree that design is “moderately important” to “very important” to their success, not all have the skills, software or even the time to dedicate to their branding. Not only that, but brand design may just be out of most owners wheelhouse. You may know what you like, but that doesn’t give you the experience to put together the design and layout of your business cards, work forms or even your logo itself.
Where I can help you is breaking the language barrier between the design world and your world. It can be frustrating when you talk to designers, printers and marketers and they use words like “bleed” or “offset” or “press ready artwork”.
The goal of PrintReady is to help arm you with the knowledge and some tools to get your ideas ready for prime time. Some of you get frustrated when the newspaper tells you it needs a “pdf file” for your ad, or maybe you know what you want, but just don’t know the tools to start with (not everyone can afford $1000’s in software!).
I have been in the design/print business for almost 20 years, starting with a small software retailer designing ad’s in a program called “First Publisher” and growing over time to where I am daily answering questions about files, fixing up artwork and helping clients figure out how to email their logo. I also get to design once in a while too!
If you have any questions, please let me know at jason@printready.ca. I will respond when I can, and over time, add your questions to the site so they can help people in your situation.