PRODUCTION ART

Prepress and Quality Control

As a Senior Production Designer at Mind + Matter, I worked in the Studio department. My job was primarily making “mechanicals,” a term for a document that has moved on from the creation phase and into the final edits and cleanup to prepare for print. We had an extensive checklist to be sure we looked at every detail from ensuring consistent font usage and appropriate image resolution to every line thickness and color on every chart.

Here are examples of things we checked on every piece, and then had our adjustments peer-reviewed by another department member to make sure nothing was missed.

  • Diagram of a basic document with trim, bleed, safe area, and extra objects off to the sides

    Check specs

    Compare what it should be to what it actually is – document size, bleed, safe area, remove invisible clutter (objects off the art board, hidden layers, empty frames, etc.), adhering to file naming conventions, any dielines needed

  • Diagram of primary color sets for light and print

    Color

    The primary colors for print and web are not the same (CMYK vs RGB) and are not interchangeable

    I can talk at length about the science-based reason for this (which also largely answers the philosophical question, “what if we see different colors but call them the same thing?”) and that’s why I’m so much fun at parties

  • Diagram of a page layout emphasizing distances between elements

    Layout

    Set parent pages, margins, set content within those margins, consistent spacing between all elements (headings and text, content blocks, images/graphics, paragraphs, individual lines)

  • Diagram of page layout emphasizing different type elements

    Typography

    Consistency is the key here – headings, subheadings, text, photo captions, and repeating graphic elements are all consistent in size, color, style, weight, line spacing, tracking, and space before and after

  • Graphic of a simple landscape

    Images

    Ensure images have the appropriate color space, sufficient resolution, images have been purchased and do not contain visible watermarks, photos are not reversed or distorted, and they are flat rather than complex editable documents, anything not finalized is marked FPO (for placement only)

  • Diagram of a line graph indicating alignment and distances between elements

    Charts and graphs

    Checking alignment and spacing for all parts of call to action insets, infographics, and/or charts and graphs – axis marks are evenly spaced, consistent in weight/length/color, and properly aligned; labels are evenly spaced and aligned; repeating elements are consistent for size/shape/spacing; and details like rounded corners are applied consistently

I understand that the design phase is chaotic and fast and there often isn’t a lot of time to set up (print) document structure. That said, I’ve seen talented artists make more work for themselves and others because they don’t know how to use InDesign to automate repetitive tasks and either don’t notice or don’t consider the fine details. The end result is a beautiful piece riddled with small inconsistencies that decrease the overall quality and may take an unnecessarily long time to revise.

In 2017 I completed an expert-level certification course for Adobe InDesign and started making presentations to share tips and tricks with other designers.

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