Saving Swatches to Use throughout Creative Suite

Color is such an important element in design and when printing you need to be pretty specific to match previously run pieces. We have certain color pallets for quarterly reports that are very specific and need to match from quarter to quarter. We have struggled with consistency but then I found the way to save swatches from you document and you can use them across creative suite.

First thing you want to do is make sure all unused/unwanted color swatches are deleted from your pallet. In Indesign you will pull down the menu on the swatch pallet and you want to save swatches (hi-lighted in yellow) then it allows you to add to a swatch folder or what I do is I put with this clients resources so it is all in the same place. This will save as an ASE file to use in a new indesign file go ahead and use the pull down menu again and this time you want to load swatchs.While working in illustrator you go to the same pull down menu but this time you will select save swatch library to ASE and to load you will open Swatch Libarary and add your swatches that way.


These ASE files work accross all of creative suite and helps keep colors consistent.

I am using this swatch saving method to create coated and uncoated swatch pallets for all of my clients there for it is super easy when you go to so a job for them you can just open up a file set up specs, grab your color pallet and then get designing and you will know that these are the right swatches right off the bat.

To Spec or Not To Spec that is the Question or the Debate

The big talk in design town-Is spec work evil? Personally I think that it is a matter of opinion and boy do people have opinions. Here are some the questions being asked and what I think about them.
Does spec work devalue design professionals and community?
-if you answer yes then you probably wouldn't want the clients that you would be getting with spec'd work.
-you probably have your own business or work at an agency and really don't have to deal with this in your work environment.
Does spec work damage the relationship between designer and client?
-the way I look at it is a lot of people work for design agencies because they don't want to deal with the client and I don't think that this is any different.
Do you think spec work takes advantage of inexperienced designers?
-again it is the way you look at it, this may be the way for young designers to get their foot in the door and start building a portfolio and is this really any different then an agency paying an amateur $10/hr and charging the client $75/hr for their work.
-plus spec work teaches a lot of other hard learned lessons that I think are important to a young designers growth.

These are the most popular questions people ask/debated about spec work. Now I have to say that design agencies have a right not to spec and quite frankly I don't think they should since they probably have already gone to the table to pitch their ideas and have come with case studies related to that potential client. I think spec work mostly web based contests are great for freelancers trying to build a customer base, corporate designers who want to break free from the monotony in their day to day design life, people wanting to make some extra cash, and of course you newbie designers who have no idea what it is like to work with real clients.

However, I think that you have to pick the projects that you spec carefully and make sure that whomever has the posting is actually giving feedback on submitted designs. Following the other designers who have been submitting and read the comments regarding these designs are important because there is a plethora of information to be had from these discussions, both good and bad.

I would love to hear you comments regarding this issue whether you agree or disagree or have a completely different point of view.

DAM-Digital Asset Management 2 of many

Earlier this week I went over the basics of setting up DAM and some of the things to consider when doing so. Now I am going to switch gears a bit and go over why it is important to have a system in place. Whether you are a big firm or a one man shop this can be beneficial to you, especially in this time of economic crisis. If you have some down time getting the ball rolling is very easy and will benefit you in the future when you are busy, so get it done.

Another good reason to get this implemented is it is easy to access from wherever you are. Lets say you are at a photo shoot in another city, state or even country but your designer needs to get these shots you just took into a layout and to the client. Well, you just upload them instead of burning a disk and printing out a proof sheet and finally overnighting them, which is time consuming and costs bucks. This also allows you to have freelancers or people work from their home and you have the confidence and peace of mind that you are using the right image.

Right now clients want way more bang for their buck then a year ago and what better way then to build a digital asset system that your client can use too. This also keeps your clients close as they will begin to depend on you for managing there photos. There are a number of ways that you can provide this service to you clients whether it is a simple FTP site or a fully functioning online database. You can set the parameters as to what each user can do, ie. junior designer can use an image but can't approve, client can download low res images but not hi res, etc. You can easily move an image from photoshoot to approval to retouching to final output rather quickly and seamlessly.

I am sure that you are curious if this is going to cost a lot of money in hardware and software and the answer is no. I currently have all of my digital assets on it's own server without any specific software but this isn't necessary you can simply have a folder on your current server. I have a folder for each one of my clients and then I just put the image in that folder, some of the folders have many images and some have just a few but either way if I can't remember what job or what meta data I tagged it with it is easy to scroll through in preview mode. You can however buy software that allows you a bit more customization especially if you are going to set it up for your client to have access, they may require you to style it to their look and feel and this can be done easily enough.

Having a database of your images allows you to use a "new" image without the cost (ie left over shot from previous shoot not already used), work collaboratively, please your clients, work more efficiently and organized.

DAM, I mean Digital Asset Management-1 of many

In this economy those of us who still have a job are trying to work a bit smarter not necessarily harder. With that being said I have had the opportunity to attend a few DAM webinars hosted by extensis, which have been very good. This is a subject that is hard to find info about, mostly you just see ratings for various software programs but these webinar sessions have really encompassed the whole thing. If you don't have the need for a hardcore DAM program there are some easy ways to set up your own system using metadata. Here are somethings to consider when starting your own digital asset management system.

-Define your work flow and find out what your weakness-for instance we often take old files and update them but do we know if the image in it is the final or updated image?
-What is it that you want to accomplish?-for us it was making sure that everyone is using the most current image or logo
-Since metadata is the drive for digital asset management you need to figure out the framework or structure so a list of fields that you think are crucial, the one you that would like to have and the ones that you don't necessarily need but may come in handy.
-The next step is figuring out if you want the data to be controlled vocabulary, rigid, consistent and may be hard to add but easier to search or if you want a loser structure where it is more collaborative classification, flexible, inconsistent and easier to add but difficult to search. You may want to do something in between.

After you figure this out, start small and note that the metadata should be applied as soon as possible. I apply my metadata through my adobe CS3 products which is great because you can run your searches through bridge. Some of the fields that I find most useful are
-keywords-for obvious reasons.
-copyright-usually images that we get from our photography vendors already have this field populated which is very helpful in future uses.
-copyright info url-this is a great field that is also auto-populated by stock houses so you know where they came from, they also usually add a description which isn't all that useful I don't think
-camera data-very interesting for photographers, your camera will usually populate this meta data section which is helpful when trying to find out what camera you used for that particular shot, there is a bunch more info in there that will pull from your camera and other fields you may find come in handy.
These are just a few hi-lights but you can make your own metadata fields that may cater to your specific needs. Next DAM article will touch base on how this can be beneficial to your clients.