Most of the twenty million Australians will have to purchase at least one custom printed item in their life time; for a special birthday or a wedding invitation, a birth or perhaps a funeral notice. Some will use a local printer, others will speak to a graphic designer to produce something unique, whilst others do it themselves.

The business requirements for printed material are of course much broader than the needs of individuals. Initially, at start up, you may just require a stationery set (business cards, letterheads, with compliments slips etc.), but as the business grows it is likely you will need more marketing in the form of print, such as brochures, catalogues, posters, banners, posters, etc.

In all cases businesses need an identity to differentiate their company from its competitors. They also need to consider updating their identity to remain relevant to their target market as their business changes and evolves.

When you embark on the project you will have a lot of work to do and many decisions to make.

You should be comforted in the knowledge that printing and graphic arts industry in Australia is amongst the best in the world and there is no shortage of highly skilled professionals to help you achieve your objective.

A good starting point is to identify your market, list your definite dislikes and look at your competitors to see who you need to really differentiate yourself from, and collect some samples of their printed items for reference. Then you will need to consider which items you will need to produce, how much you are likely to use and of course set a budget.

It is good to know in advance how much you are looking at spending, so the design can remain practical, but at the same time leave some in reserve, as that extra money could mean the difference between a good job and a great one. Your printed items could be seen by any number clients and prospective clients, especially in the case of stationery, which will likely be seen by every person you ever deal with, often as a first impression. It’s important you do it right.

Next you will need to select a graphic designer, which is a key decision for the success of your project. Some designers will only offer a graphic design service; others can, if you wish, offer a full service from market research, photography to copywriting, print management and more.

By the time you get to the production (printing) phase, it may seem like all the hard work is done. The design looks great, you’ve worked out any problems, any writing that needed to be done has been finalised, now it just needs to happen. Unfortunately this isn’t a time to relax and hope for luck, there is much more to be done. A great print job is nothing without good design and a great design can be ruined by poor printing.

You may have a printer you are already happy with and often the designer will offer recommendations on who would be best to print your given job. Whatever you choose, get the printer involved as soon as the concept is approved.

Virtually anything a designer creates can be reproduced, however no designer can be expected to know everything about the capability of every printing company and process they work with. Minor changes at this point in the design process can save major hassles when the time comes to produce the finished product, hassles that could be both time consuming and costly.

There is not a printer in Australia capable of producing every product or process internally. Printers are only as good as their suppliers. However, the one thing every printer you deal with must do, is accept responsibility for the final outcome, regardless of whether a process was performed in-house, or by an outside supplier.

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This is the first article of the Production Process section of our website and was created to serve as a basic introduction for all print users. Eventually this section will contain brief articles written by us with information pertaining to every aspect of the printing industry, design, copywriting, prepress, finishing etc.

In addition, each expert article we feature will be linked in the related section in here, to provide a complete view of as many aspects of the industry as possible, both from our perspective as printers and from their perspectives as experts in their field.